A prospective doctoral student interested in the anthropology of Japan recently inquired about what schools I'd recommend. I started this way back in 2006 and last updated it in 2007, 2012, 2015:

Ph.D. Granting Institutions with Japan Faculty)

• Canada: University of British Columbia - Prof. Millie Creighton
• USA-CA: Stanford University - Prof. Miyako Inoue

• USA-CA: UC Berkeley - Prof. Karen Nakamura

• USA-CA: UCSD - Prof. Joseph Hankins
• USA-CT: Yale University - Prof. William Kelly
• USA-HI: University of Hawai'i (Manoa) - Prof. Christine Yano
• USA-IA: University of Iowa - Prof. Scott Schnell
• USA-IL: University of Chicago - Prof. Michael Fisch
• USA-MA: Boston University - Prof. Merry White
• USA-MA: Harvard University - Prof. Theodore Bestor
• USA-MO: University of Missouri at St Louis - Prof. Laura Miller
• USA-NC: Duke University - Prof. Anne Allison
• USA-NY: Columbia University - Prof. Marilyn Ivy
• USA-MI: University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) - Prof. Jennifer Robertson
• USA-PA: University of Pittsburgh - Prof. Gabi Lukakcs

Note that you should not feel compelled to only apply to schools that have a scholar with the same regional specialty. Graduate students can and do work with faculty who aren't specialists in their regional area, but instead have stronger ties along theoretical or methodological concerns.


M.A. Programs

• USA: Yale University, MA in East Asian Studies
• Japan: Sophia University, Interdisciplinary MA in Japanese Studies - Prof. David Slater
• Japan: Waseda University - Prof. Glenda Roberts

I'll keep updating this list, if you have any suggestions, additions, corrections, feel free to e-mail me or drop a comment below.

Also, Duke University library has a list of great resources for Japan anthropology: http://www.lib.duke.edu/ias/eac/anthropology.htm

Tags: doctoral programs