CJS Thursday Lecture Series | Naomi Fukuda, Backseat Player for Japanese Studies

Please register for this Zoom seminar at http://myumi.ch/Nm35W

When the U-M Center for Japanese Studies was established, Naomi Fukuda, a pre-war student at University of Michigan, was not able to become the first Japanese studies librarian in an ironic twist of fate. In 1970, however, she finally got the position thanks to her extensive experience and rich expertise. This talk will go over parts of her life and career trajectory in both Japan and the United States.

Izumi Koide obtained a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1980. In that same year, she started working for the International House of Japan as the librarian and in 2001 became Program Director. In 2003, she moved to the Shibusawa Eiichi Memorial Foundation and worked as Director of the Resource Center for the History of Entrepreneurship until her retirement in 2015. She earned her M.A. in 2008, her Ph.D. in 2020 from the University of Tokyo, and published her dissertation, Nichibei Koryu-shi no Naka no Fukuda Naomi: “Gaikoku Kenkyu” to Raiburarian ( Naomi Fukuda and the History of Japan-U.S. Exchange: “Foreign Area Studies” and the Librarian), via Bensei Shuppan in 2022. Her major interest is in information accessibility and availability of resources in international studies.

This lecture is made possible with the generous support of the U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.