Ryoko Nishijima

Terasaki Center For Japanese Studies

Established in 1991, the UCLA Terasaki Center has been a platform for research on Japan. Our distinguished faculty, students, postdoctoral fellows, visiting scholars, and the board of advisors have been contributing to the field of Japanese studies for over 20 years.

Faculty Board of Advisors Chair in US-Japan Relations Postdoctoral Fellows Alumni

Students Visitors Staff Supporters Dr. Paul I. Terasaki

The Terasaki Center sponsors a vast array of events throughout the year. With its colloquium series, the Center brings academics from diverse fields to UCLA each year. Special workshops and annual conferences bring leading scholars to discuss topics relating to Japan.

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The Center is proud to support our faculty, current and prospective students, and the local community through a variety of grants and fellowships.

Internal Funding
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External Funding
Funding sources in this section are not administered by the Center.

Center programs were established with strong support from the local community to promote research and instruction in Japanese studies, with a recent focus on the profound transformations unfolding in contemporary Japanese society.

UCLA Japanese Studies
Programs by Faculty and Students

Global Japan Initiative
Understanding Japan/Japanese culture within a global context.

The Terasaki Center is actively expanding support for faculty and graduate students, building relationships with other universities as well as Japan and Japanese Studies related organizations, and enhancing its role in the community.

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Global Hub
The Center is dedicated to connecting Japanese communities around the world with those engaged in the study of Japan and the Japanese.

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global japan initiative Understanding Japan/Japanese
culture within a global context

Ryoko Nishijima

Anthropology

Ryoko Nishijima is a doctoral candidate in Sociocultural Anthropology with topical interests in travel and imagination. Although her main field site is Japan, she is most interested in its transnational encounters with what are broadly referred to as “Asia” and the “West.” Her research concerns the ways in which imagined Japan is constructed through online media, especially focusing on tourists as the particular agents who participate in the circulation of these images. Her current project looks at online travel blogs and photo albums as the main platforms where tourists upload bits and pieces of Japan in the form of text and images, thus allowing certain memories of Japan to be archived and discovered. These are significant loci to observe practices that contribute to perpetuating “imagined Japan” within the cyberspace.