Women in Japanese Studies: Memoirs from a Trailblazing Generation brings together trailblazing women scholars from diverse disciplines in Japanese Studies to reflect on their careers and offer advice to colleagues.

Most books present research and pedagogies. We do something different: We share lives—personal stories of how women scholars earned graduate degrees and began careers bridging Japan and North America between the 1950s and 1980 and balanced professional and personal responsibilities. We challenge the common narrative that Japanese Studies was established by men who worked for the US military after World War II or were from missionary families in Japan. This is only part of the story—the field was also created by women who took advantage of postwar opportunities for studying Japan. Women of this generation were among the first scholars to use Japanese source materials in research published in English and the first foreigners to study at Japanese universities. Their careers benefitted from fellowships, educational developments, activist movements to include the study of women and Asia in university curricula, and measures to prevent gender discrimination. Yet there were instances when, due to their gender, women received smaller salaries, faced hurdles to tenure, and were excluded from, or ignored, at conferences.

Our book pioneers a genre of academic memoirs, capturing emotional and intellectual experiences omitted from institutional histories. We offer lively, engaging, thoughtful, brave, empowering stories that start larger conversations about gender and inclusion in the academy and in Japan-American educational exchange.

ALISA FREEDMAN is a professor of Japanese literature, cultural studies, and gender at the University of Oregon. Her books include Japan on American TV: Screaming Samurai Join Anime Clubs in the Land of the Lost (AAS Asia Shorts book series, 2021); Tokyo in Transit: Japanese Culture on the Rails and Road (2010); an annotated translation of Kawabata Yasunari’s The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa (2005); a coedited volume on Modern Girls on the Go: Gender, Mobility, and Labor in Japan (2013); and an edited textbook on Introducing Japanese Popular Culture (first edition in 2017, second edition in 2023). She served as the editor in chief of the US–Japan Women’s Journal (2016–2022) and has published more than thirty-five articles and chapters for peer-reviewed journals and books, around twenty-five literary translations and co-translations, several guides to academic publishing, and numerous articles for general-interest publications. She is the Faculty Fellow of a university residence hall and has received a national award for her mentorship work. Alisa enjoys presenting at public events like cultural festivals, anime cons, and reading groups.