Program History

1971 First Japanese languages are taught in the Experimental College (Spring, Basics of Japanese language/ Fall, Japanese Conversation)
1973 Beginning Japanese taught in the Experimental College (Spring/Fall)
1976 Japanese Language, taught in the Experimental College (Fall only)
1981 Japanese language instruction is institutionalized in the Department of German, Russian, and Asian Languages
1981 Teruko Craig is hired as Full-time Lecturer, serves as Coordinator of the Japanese Language Program
1991 Charles Inouye is hired as assistant professor to teach classical and modern Japanese literature, Japan Foundation start-up grant
1993,94 Murakami Haruki, Distinguished Writer in Residence
1995 Teruko Craig retires
1995 Charles Inouye becomes Director of the Japanese Program
1995 Atom Transportation (Tsuruga Hiroyuki, President) donates $20,000 per year for 5 years
1995 Kiyoko Morita is hired as Part-time Lecturer
1995 Japan-in-Boston Program established (to help local public schools start Japanese instruction)
1995,96 Momokawa Takahito (Meiji University), Visiting Professor
1996 Kiyomi Kagawa is hired as Full-time Lecturer, serves as Coordinator of Japanese Language instruction
1996 Charles Inouye wins UNITE award for teaching excellence
1996 Hosea Hirata is hired as assistant professor to teach modern and contemporary Japanese literature
1997 Charles Inouye is tenured, promoted to Associate Professor
1998 Japanese Major is established
1998 Tufts-in-Japan Program established in Kanazawa
1998 Freeman Foundation Grant to support the Japan-in-Boston Program
1998 Masters in Education, Japanese
1998 Tufts hosts the New England Association for Asian Studies Conference
1998 Japanese language residential quarter, Japan House, is established on campus.
2000 Kiyoko Morita promoted to Full-time Lecturer
2000 Tufts Japan Alumni Club established
2000 Charles Inouye becomes Dean of the Colleges
2000 Hosea Hirata becomes Director of the Japanese Program
2000 Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano is hired as a visiting assistant professor of Japanese cinema
2000 Hosea Hirata is promoted to Associate Professor
2000 First Japanese Majors graduate
2001 Atom Transportation (Tsuruga Hiroyuki) renews contract to donate $20,000 per year for another five years
2001 Hosea Hirata is tenured
2001 Hosea Hirata wins UNITE award for teaching excellence
2001 Tufts hosts the Association for Japanese Literature Conference, "Japan from Somewhere Else" (Japan Foundation, major funder)
2001 Kiyoko Morita is awarded "Professor of the Year" by the TCU Senate
2002 Wada-Marciano departs
2002 William Burton is hired as a lecturer
2003 Charles Inouye is promoted to Full Professor
2003 Charles Inouye is awarded the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the translation of Japanese Gothic Tales vol. II by Izumi Kyoka (University of Hawaii Press, forthcoming)
2003 Hosea Hirata becomes Associate Chair of the Department of German, Russian, Asian
2004 William Burton departs; Melissa Wender is hired as Visiting Assistant Professor
2005 The Japanese Program hosts an international conference and film festival "Hiroshima/Nagasaki 2005: Memories and Visions"
2005 Haruki Murakami gives a reading in the packed Cohen Auditorium in November.
2005 The Japanese Culture Club hosts its first MATSURI.
2006 Susan Napier joins our program
2006 Hosea Hirata is promoted to Full Professor
2006 Hosea Hirata becomes Chair of the Department of German, Russian, Asian
2011 The Japanese Program hosts the 20th Association of Japanese Literary Studies Conference "The Poetics of Aging" and its keynote speaker Kenzaburō Ōe, a Nobel laureate

Major Publications by Japanese Faculty (monographs only)

• Hosea Hirata, The Poetry and Poetics of Nishiwaki Junzaburo (Princeton University Press, 1993)
• Hosea Hirata, Discourses of Seduction (Harvard University Press, 2005)
• Charles Inouye, Japanese Gothic Tales by Izumi Kyoka (University of Hawaii Press, 1996
• Charles Inouye, The Similitude of Blossoms: Izumi Kyoka (1893-1938), Playwright and Novelist (Harvard University Press, 1998).
• Charles Inouye, Evanescence and Form, An Introduction to Japanese Culture, (New York: Palgrave, 2008)
• Kiyoko Morita, The Book of Incense (Kodansha International, 1992)
• Susan Napier, From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Western Imagination. New York: Palgrave, 2007)
• Susan Napier, Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Japanese Animation (New York: St. Martins Press, 2001)
• Susan Napier, The Subversion of Modernity: the Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature (London: Routledge, 1996)
• Susan Napier, Escape from the Wasteland: Romanticism and Realism in the Works of Mishima Yukio and Oe Kenzaburo (Cambridge: Harvard University East Asia Series, 1991)

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