ABOUT BOOK

The 2017-2018 academic year saw the 150th anniversary of Japan’s 1868 Meiji Restoration, an epochal political revolution that sparked Japan’s remarkable modernization, dramatic cultural transformation, and rapid emergence onto the global stage. To mark this historic date, colleagues across the University of British Columbia in the Centre for Japanese Research, the Department of History, the Department of Asian Studies, the Asian Library, and the Museum of Anthropology partnered to present the UBC Meiji at 150 Project. Over the course of the year, the Meiji at 150 project convened over 60 scholars of Japanese studies from around North America, Japan, and Europe to situate Japan in global history and to interrogate the place of the Meiji Restoration in Japanese history, historical pedagogy, and cultural studies. All told, the Meiji at 150 Project reached thousands of individuals around the globe through its various events and initiatives, centering the study of Japanese history in the UBC university community and solidifying UBC’s position as the premier institution for Japanese studies outside of Japan.