Journalism and Japan Speaker Series

Sponsored by the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University

In the age of C-Span and the Internet, the media are increasingly relied upon to provide fast, accessible, and accurate news and analysis on a wide range of topics. Through a constructive exchange between journalists, writers, students, and academics, the "Journalism and Japan" series hopes to focus on the Japan-U.S. relationship and examine in detail various perspectives regarding gathering, editing, and presenting the stories we read and hear. The series hopes to generate a nuanced appreciation of the political, economic and social implications of news and feature reporting at national and international levels.

All events are free and open to the public.

"The Media and Japan: One Writer's Perspective"
Alex Kerr
4:00 PM, Room 202, Henry R. Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue

The first lecture and discussion in this series will be conducted by Alex Kerr. Mr. Kerr holds a degree in Japanese Studies from Yale University and Chinese Studies from Oxford University. He is the author of Dogs & Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Japan (Hill & Wang, 2001) and Lost Japan (Lonely Planet Publications, 1996). Mr. Kerr has also written and published versions of these books in Japanese. The original edition of Lost Japan, Utsukushiki Nihon no Zanzo (Shincho-sha, 1996) won the 1994 Shincho Gakugei Literature Prize for best work of non-fiction published in Japan. Although not a journalist by profession, Mr. Kerr has considerable experience with the Japanese and U.S media ranging from interviews on NHK to discussions with The Atlantic feature writer James Fallows. He has also been a guest speaker on Public Radio's The Connection (http://archives.theconnection.org/archive/2001/04/0424a.shtml).

Thursday, February 6, 2003

Sheryl WuDunn - The New York Times, foreign correspondent and project director
4:00 PM, Room 202, Henry R. Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue

The Journalism and Japan Series is pleased to present a talk and discussion with Sheryl WuDunn of The New York Times. Ms. WuDunn spent nearly a decade as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times in Japan and China. She has co-authored several books with her husband and fellow New York Times reporter, Nicholas D. Kristof, including Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia, (2000) and China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power (1994). She and Kristof jointly won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for their coverage of China's Tiananmen Square democracy movement. Ms. WuDunn will be discussing her experiences as a journalist and will focus in particular on her years spent as a reporter in Japan.

Ms. WuDunn was born and raised in New York City. She attended Cornell University and earned master’s degrees from Harvard and Princeton. In addition to her positions at the New York Times, Ms. WuDunn sits on the Advisory Council at the Woodrow Wilson School. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Cornell University.

Tuesday, March 4, 2003
PANEL DISCUSSION

Jun Okumura - President, The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO)
&
Calvin Sims - New York Times correspondent and current Murrow Press Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
4:00 PM, Room 202, Henry R. Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue

Jun Okumura
photo courtesy of JETRO

Jun Okumura assumed the post of president of JETRO New York in June 2001. Mr. Okumura entered the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) – now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) – in 1976 after receiving a law degree from Tokyo University. Mr. Okumura has held a variety of key positions at MITI and related governmental organizations, including Chief- or Deputy-Director level posts in the Household Goods Industry Bureau, International Trade Information and Public Relations Office, New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, and International Trade Administration Bureau. Prior to his appointment as JETRO New York president, Mr. Okumura served as Deputy Director-General of Development Assistance (Dept. II) for the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

Mr. Okumura attended Harvard Law School on a government fellowship, earning a Master of Comparative Law degree in 1981. In 1984, he began training with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for diplomatic assignment, gaining a working knowledge of Portuguese and consequently working in the Japanese Embassy in Brazil (1985-88). Mr. Okumura honed his diplomatic skills in several subsequent assignments. He assisted MITI to interface with the foreign press and serving as a negotiator in a number of high-level international trade meetings including the Uruguay Round. This helped prepare him for his tenure at JBIC, where his responsibilities included overseeing negotiations between Japan and Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and China. (Biography courtesy of JETRO)

Calvin Sims
photo courtesy of the New York Times

Calvin Sims was Tokyo Bureau correspondent for the New York Times from 1999 to 2001. He is Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University and is presently an Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Sims earned his B.S. from Yale University, and lives in New York. For his 1997 coverage of the diplomatic hostage siege in Lima, Peru, he received a New York Times Publisher's Award. (Biography courtesy of Japan Embassy of New York)

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

"Freedom of the Press in a World of War"

T. R. Reid - Washington Post and author of "Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us about Living in the West"
4:00 PM, Room 202, Henry R. Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue

T. R. Reid

During the 1990s, T. R. Reid was the Tokyo bureau chief for the Washington Post. He then moved to Europe to head the Post’s London bureau. Currently Mr. Reid is the Washington Post’s Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief. In addition to his work for the Post, Mr. Reid has served as a columnist for the Japanese newsweekly Shukan Shincho. He has written a number of books in English and Japanese and hosted documentary films for National Geographic TV and for the A&E network. He has also been a regular commentator on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition." On top of his long career in the media, Mr. Reid has served as a visiting professor at Colorado College and the University of Michigan.