Beyond Japan with Oliver Moxham

2025 marks the 80th year since the end of the Second World War. On the 50th anniversary in 1995, Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama announced “the Peace, Friendship and Exchange Initiative, consisting of two parts, promoting: support for historical research into relations in the modern era between Japan and neighbouring countries of Asia and elsewhere [and] to further strengthen the relations of tru...

For Beyond Japan 's final episode, Oliver is joined by Aike Rots, Associate Professor of Japan Studies at the University of Oslo , to discuss the agency of animals in influencing human society and cultures. Aike’s collaborative project, Whales of Power , explores how whales have affected ritual practices in coastal communities of East Asia and how those practices have adapted and changed in the 21...

Oliver is joined by Daniel Milne, Senior Lecturer at Kyoto University’s Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences (ILAS) , to discuss what happens when we memorialise past conflicts through the Kyoto Buddhist temple Ryōzen Kannon. Daniel and I explore how the meaning of monuments to war dead change over time, and compare Ryōzen Kannon’s approach with that of the national war memorial site of Yasukun...

Oliver is joined by Susan Furukawa , Associate Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures at Beloit College, to discuss history in fiction through works on the iconic and problematic life of 16th century shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Susan and I look at how Hideyoshi sought to establish his own literary legacy, how he has been made a hero in different ways through the 20th century, and why darker...

Oliver is joined by Chie Kutsuwada , UK-based manga artist, to discuss Japanese comics as art and the global spread of the genre’s art style and readership. Chie and Oliver look at what separates manga from other comic styles, the appeal to recurring themes found in the genre and the escapism it provides. IMAGE AND AUDIO CREDITS Intro-outro music: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com All images prov...

Welcome to the third series of Beyond Japan ! In this episode, Oliver is joined by Randy Sasaki , researcher at the Kyushu National Museum, to discuss his specialism of underwater archaeology, otherwise known as maritime or nautical archaeology. Randy and I explore the window shipwrecks provide into international trade spanning hundreds and even thousands of years, as well as the benefits and chal...

Oliver is joined by Sophie Richard, art historian, museum specialist and acclaimed writer, as we explore art museums in Japan of every variety. From her training at École du Louvre, Sophie has visited museums across the archipelago, broadening her understanding of what a museum can be and inspiring her to write a book on capturing this for the non-Japanese speaking art lover. Read Sophie's book, T...

Oliver is joined by Adam Hunt , PhD candidate at the University of Sheffield, to compare crime between Japan and the UK and how factors such as attitudes towards former convicts affects “desistance”; that is, attempts to reduce the rate of reoffending. Read the Japanese Ministry of Defence's 2020 white paper on crime . Download the full transcript here (PDF) Watch with subtitles on YouTube IMAGE A...

Oliver is joined by Susan Whitfield , Professor in Silk Road Studies at the Sainsbury Institute , to gain a new perspective on the mass of historic maritime and land-based routes known as the Silk Roads . Susan gives us a taste of the material and cultural impact of the enormous trade network stretching to the ends of Europe, Africa and Asia from the 2nd Century BCE, as well as highlighting the ro...

Oliver is joined by Dr Sonia Favi , researcher at the University of Turin, to discuss the history of imagined travel. Sonia’s digital exhibition, ‘ Travels in Tokugawa Japan (1603-1868): A Virtual Journey ’, explores how late-Edo period maps indulged the imagination of those unable to journey across the country, something all too familiar in the wake of COVID-19 travel restrictions. Download the f...

Oliver is joined by Maud Rowell , blind freelance journalist and author of Blind Spot: Exploring and Educating on Blindness , to discuss Infrastructure for the Blind. Maud’s upcoming James Holman prize-winning project, ‘Where Birds Won’t Go’ , will see her independently travel to the most remote regions of Japan and write a book on her experiences, all the while demonstrating that accessible publi...

Oliver is joined by Brittany Rapone , PhD candidate at the School of Social Sciences at Oxford Brookes University, to discuss attitudes towards pets and animal cafés in Japan. Brittany walks us through the cultural commonality of human-animal relationships and the “rent-a-pet” model of animal cafés in Japan, providing the iyashi , or “comfort”, of animal interaction at an hourly rate. Download the...

Oliver is joined by Viviana Andreescu , Associate Professor of Justice Administration at the University of Louisville, to discuss public opinion on capital punishment in Japan. Viviana’s 2020 article, ‘Public opinion and the death penalty in Japan’, took a look at over 2,500 responses of the Japanese General Social Survey to gauge who supports the death penalty and who would recommend it as a memb...

Oliver is joined by Wuon-Gean Ho , printmaker and research associate at the University of West England’s Centre for Print Research, to discuss the place of mokuhanga , or woodblock printmaking, in the global spread of traditional crafts. Wuon-Gean Ho walks us through her path to mokuhanga ,  her experience learning from a master printmaker in Japan and how  learning these traditional met...

Oliver is joined by Dr Andreas Musolff , professor at the School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies at the University of East Anglia, to discuss the body politic and how metaphors for nations vary across the world. Andreas shares the insights from his recent book, National Conceptualisations of the Body Politic: Cultural Experience and Political Imagination , covering an 8...

Oliver is joined by Dr Koto Sadamura, Robert & Lisa Sainsbury Research Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute , to discuss the place of humour in art through the works of the eccentric 19th century painter Kawanabe Kyōsai . Kyōsai’s specialty of kyōga , or “comic pictures”, have historically been overlooked when compared with his more traditional works, despite being of equal skill and cultural sig...

Oliver is joined by Kaitlyn Ugoretz , anthropologist of religion and a PhD candidate in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies at UC Santa Barbara, to discuss the global appeal of Shinto in the digital era. Kaitlyn introduces us to online Shinto communities as old as the internet itself, as well as the many international faces of Shinto, from official shrines in the USA to loc...

Oliver is joined by Dr Aya Homei from the University of Manchester to discuss family planning, looking at how Japan’s history of medical science has influenced policy and its impact on the current aging population. Aya unpacks historical attitudes in Japan towards child-bearing held by individuals and the nation and explains that through scientific thought of the time, such as eugenics, much can b...

Oliver is joined by Dr Jonathan Wroot , Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Greenwich, to discuss Samurai in Cinema. Together, Jonathan and Oliver take a look at the many faces of samurai in Japanese cinema and their global influence on film producers. Jonathan also focusses on Zatoichi , the lone blind swordsman that has graced film and TV in Japan and elsewhere for over 50 years...

Oliver is joined by art historian, curator and writer David Elliott to discuss art as a means of cultural exchange. David shares with us his experience of challenging the Euro-American concept of Modern Art by exhibiting contemporary Asian, African and Latin American artists, as well as his new approach of looking at art history through trousers. Read David's new book, Art & Trousers: Traditio...

Oliver is joined by Dr Eiko Honda , Research and Teaching Associate in History at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies and former Robert & Lisa Sainsbury Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute, to discuss Knowledge Production During Crisis. As an historian of intellectual history, Eiko will explain the need to move beyond universal narratives from Euro-American institutions and embrace a transn...

Oliver is joined by Dr Christopher Harding , Senior Lecturer in Asian History at the University of Edinburgh, to discuss “Japanese as Other”. Drawing on his career as a cultural historian and his experience presenting a number of BBC productions on Japan, I ask Chris about how Japanese people have been “othered”, presented as something wholly different from other societies, and how he reconciles w...

Oliver is joined by Dr Forum Mithani , British Academy Post-doctoral Fellow at the School of Modern Languages at Cardiff University, to discuss her research on the role of nostalgia in shaping expectations of motherhood. I ask Forum about the seductive discourse of nostalgia, its popular manifestations in Japan today and how this has led to romantic yet unfeasible notions of how mothers should be...

Oliver is joined by Chris Schimkowsky , PhD candidate at the University of Sheffield, where we will be discussing his research into the "manner posters" on the Tokyo rail network. Manner posters are public service adverts that can be found on trains and at stations across Japan which warn against “low-level deviance” such as wearing your backpack in an inconsiderate position or shaking your wet um...

Oliver is joined by Dr Paula R Curtis , Postdoctoral Fellow with the Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies at UCLA , to discuss Historians and Online Harassment. Paula will share with me her experiences of being harassed by netto-uyoku ( ネット右翼), online far-right nationalists who seek to hassle and discredit historians for their critical approach to Japan’s war history, as well as offer advice...