Yoh Kawano

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.

Center News Annual Newsletter

Center Events Community Events Past Events

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
Learn more and apply for Center funding here.

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.

Mission & History
Digital Archive

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

Yoh Kawano

Urban Planning

Yoh Kawano came to Los Angeles and UCLA in 1995 after living across the globe, in 5 different countries. At UCLA he works at the GIS and Visualization Sandbox as a member of the Research Technology Group for the Institute for Digital Research and Education (IDRE), serving as the Campus GIS Coordinator while holding lecturer positions in Urban Planning, Public Policy, Digital Humanities and the Urban Humanities. He has supervised projects in urban planning, emergency preparedness, disaster relief, volunteerism, archaeology, and the digital humanities. Current research and projects involve the geo-spatial web, visualization of temporal and spatial data, and creating systems that leverage social media and web services in conjunction with traditional information systems.

Following the Great Tohoku Earthquake in Japan, Yoh has been busy researching the potential that the social web can have in post-disaster relief. In the inaugural TEDxUCLA event in 2011, he spoke of ways that locational technologies, combined with social media, can provide an immediate and real-time opportunity for big and small crisis management. He is currently involved in the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan, working as a GIS and visualization advisor for a research project based in Niigata University, collaborating with local governments who are actively measuring radiation levels in communities surrounding the Fukushima Nuclear Plants.

Yoh has an MA in Urban Planning from UCLA and a BA in Sociology from the International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo and has co-authored the book “Hypercities: Thick Mapping in the Digital Humanities,” published in 2014 via Harvard Press.