"Increased use of mass transportation in the early twentieth century enabled men and women of different social classes to interact in ways they had not before. Using a cultural studies approach that combines historical research and literary analysis, author Alisa Freedman investigates fictional, journalistic, and popular culture depictions of how mass transportation changed prewar Tokyo's social fabric and artistic movements, giving rise to gender roles that have come to characterize modern Japan.

"Most books present research and pedagogies. We do something different: We share lives—personal stories of how women scholars earned graduate degrees and began careers bridging Japan and North America between the 1950s and 1980 and balanced professional and personal responsibilities. We challenge the common narrative that Japanese Studies was established by men who worked for the US military after World War II or were from missionary families in Japan. This is only part of the story—the field was also created by women who took advantage of postwar opportunities for studying Japan.

“This spirited and engaging multidisciplinary volume pins its focus on the lived experiences and cultural depictions of women’s mobility and labor in Japan. The theme of ‘modern girls’ continues to offer a captivating window into the changes that women’s roles have undergone during the course of the last century.” 

Stanford University Press, 304 pages

"Specifically designed for use on a range of undergraduate and graduate courses, [this book] offers an up-to-date overview of a wide variety of media forms. It uses more than 40 particular case studies as a way into examining the broader themes in Japanese culture and provides a thorough analysis of the historical and contemporary trends that have shaped artistic production, as well as, politics, society, and economics.

"The Life of Paper offers a wholly original and inspiring analysis of how people facing systematic social dismantling have written letters to remake themselves—from bodily integrity to subjectivity and collective and spiritual being.