The new Japan Center brings home connections for research inquiry, cultural engagement, and meaningful student experiences across disciplines.
Japan Center Events for Fall Semester
- Professor David Matthews, UT School of Interior Architecture: “Lessons from the Japanese Tea House: Reflections on Design, Ritual, and Experience,” 12:30–1:30 p.m. September 16, Student Union 360
- JET Program information session for students and alumni interested in living and teaching in Japan, September 23, Student Union 360.
- Foodways theme talk: Patrick Chimenti, University of Minnesota, speaks on Itami Jūzō’s food advertising work and its ties to films The Funeral and Tampopo; 5:30 p.m. October 15, Student Union 362B.
UT’s new Japan Center officially opened on August 1, establishing a transdisciplinary hub with a mission to strengthen Tennessee’s deep and expanding ties with Japan, the state’s largest foreign investor. The center also links UT’s already strong Japan-related expertise across disciplines, with a priority to expand ties among faculty, students, alumni, industry, government, and universities across the US and Japan.
“If I had to put our mission into one word, it would be: connectivity,” said Associate Professor Noriko Horiguchi, director of the new center. “UT, Tennessee, and Japan; humanities, sciences, and policy; and people who have not otherwise worked together before.”
The center links work across arts, architecture, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, agriculture, engineering, public policy, business, communications, and education.
“Ultimately, we want the Japan Center to become a leading hub for Japan-related research, education, and engagement in the Southeast,” said Horiguchi.
The center’s team also looks to make UT’s Japan-related strengths easier to find. A student can discover courses, study abroad, participate in internships, and discover career pathways in one place; a faculty member can find collaborators across colleges; and a company or community partner can see UT as a meaningful partner in Japan-related work.
“Japan Studies isn’t only about Japan,” said Horiguchi. “It’s about how Japan helps us understand the world, and how US–Japan relations can help us address shared challenges in food, aging, technology, business, and community life.”
Japan Studies has been taught in the college since the 1970s, totaling nearly 50 years of continuous scholarship.
“Tennessee has deep connections to Japan and the Japanese people,” said Beauvais Lyons, divisional dean for arts and humanities. “These connections are not only economic, but cultural. This matters because the center rests on a long-standing, wide-reaching commitment: It draws together work already reaching across the university and anchors Japan Studies within the college’s scholarly mission.”
Research Opportunities That Span Disciplines
The Japan Center will help build interdisciplinary collaborations in research, establish seed funding, and create opportunities for visiting scholars, public lectures, and partnerships with universities in Japan.
“Our priority research themes for the first three years are foodways, aging and care, and sports and society,” said Horiguchi. “We chose these themes because they are areas where Japan, Tennessee, and the US face shared questions, and they invite collaboration across disciplines.”
The foodways theme brings together research and creative activity in agriculture, history, literature, health, business, and policy.
“My own research on the cultural history and biopolitics of milk—both bovine and human—in Japan contributes here,” said Horiguchi. “This is alongside UT Institute of Agriculture Professor Shigetoshi Eda’s research on a significant dairy industry pathogen, and connections with scholars from Pomona College, Kobe University, and Keio University.”
Topics of aging and care connect humanities studies with architecture, health, and policymaking.
“Japan is one of the world’s most rapidly aging societies, and the US faces similar questions about caregiving and community,” said Horiguchi. “Miyoung Hong, assistant professor in the School of Interior Architecture, works on nursing-home design Biomedical engineer Xiapeng Zhao, formerly at UT’s Tickle College of Engineering and currently professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Mississippi, leads a team and collaborators from UT across disciplines—including AI, robotics, computer science, communication, and speech pathology—working on ‘AI and Robotics to Empower Persons with Dementia.’”
Sports and society research offers an accessible entry point into many fields of study. Baseball has long connected Japan and the US, offering opportunities to explore data science, business, kinesiology, culture, history, nationalism, and sports diplomacy.
A workshop on Japanese baseball is planned with experts including Takahiro Sato and Takuya Hayakawa, both UT doctoral graduates and scholars in kinesiology and sports psychology; Tomoya Shimura, a sports journalist and author of two books on Shohei Ohtani (LA Dodgers); and Daisuke Haba, currently a recruiter of foreign players for the Orix Buffaloes, a Japanese professional baseball team, who has close professional relationships with Major League players Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Dodgers) and Masataka Yoshida (Red Sox), both of whom used to play for Orix.
“We’re also fortunate that UT President Randy Boyd, owner of the Tennessee Smokies, several Appalachian League teams, and the Memphis Redbirds, brings a firsthand perspective on baseball’s cultural and business dimensions,” said Horiguchi.
Japan Center Focus on Student Experience
The Japan Center will help UT students who are majoring or minoring in Japanese, and also students in the World Language and Business Japanese concentration, the Asian Studies program, pursuing a Japanese language certificate program, and through exchange programs with Chuo, Waseda, Kansai Gaidai, and Kobe Universities
“Students are at the heart of our mission,” said Horiguchi. “We want Japan-related opportunities to be easy to find and pursue, through lectures, research, study abroad, internships, and connections with companies like DENSO, NTT DATA, Bridgestone, Kewpie, and Toyota Tsūshō.”
Faculty-led programs include architecture, language, communication, pop culture, engineering, the Baker School Ambassador Program, the Global Immersion in Japan program, and more.
“I especially want students to know Japan-related work isn’t limited to language or the humanities,” said Horiguchi. “If you are studying agriculture, engineering, design, business, or policy, Japan can be part of your future.”
by Randall Brown