Dr Tomoko Akami, BA (Hiroshima), MA (Hiroshima), MA (Melbourne), PhD(ANU)

Senior Lecturer, School of Culture, History & Language

Email: Tomoko.Akami@anu.edu.au

Biographical statement

Coming originally from the background of history of British imperial relations, I shifted my research expertise into the field of history of international relations in the Asia-Pacific in the inter-war period. I have been most interested in the ideas and international organizations. Using the case studies of people, organizations, policies of Japan, I have been questioning certain assumptions in international history, which had been (and still are) written predominantly from Anglo-American perspectives.

Research interests

Currently, I am completing two book manuscripts on Japanese news agencies in Japan's foreign policy, 1870–1945, on which I have been working for the past several years. Concurrently, I continue to work on the nexus of the nation-state and empire, and the meaning of 'liberal empire' in the Asia-Pacific in the inter-war period. I am also starting a project on the role of empire in the formation of the norms of global governance, focusing on the Japanese empire and the League of Nations, while closely working with Japanese, German and other scholars in the field.

Key publications

• Internationalizing the Pacific: The United States, Japan and the Institute of Pacific Relations in War and Peace, 1919–45, London: Routledge, 2002
• 'The emergence of international public opinion and the origin of public diplomacy in Japan in the inter-war period', The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, vol. 3 (2008), pp. 1-30.
• 'In the name of people: welfare and societal security in modern Japan and beyond', Asian Perspective, vol. 30, no. 1 (Spring, 2006), pp. 157–190
• 'Nation, state, empire and war: problems of liberalism in modern Japanese history and beyond,' Japanese Studies, vol. 25, no. 2 (September 2005), pp. 119—140.
• 'Between the state and global civil society: Non-official experts and their network in the Asia-Pacific, 1925–45,' Global Network, vol. 2, no.1 (January 2002), pp. 65–81
• 'The nation-state/empire as a unit of an analysis of the history of international relations: A case study in Northeast Asia, 1868–1933', in Isabella Lohr and Roland Wenzlhuemer eds, The Nation State and Beyond, accepted in May 2010.
• 'Japan's news imperialism and the imperial/national news agency in Manzhouguo, 1932–45', in Ines Podhol and Frank Gunter eds., Northeastern China's Interactions with the World in the First Half of the Twentieth Century, accepted in October 2009.
• 'From the centre to a periphery: Honolulu and the Pacific Community', in Jon Davidann ed., The Crossroad in the Pacific (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2008)
• 'The making of an empire of information: Domei tsushin in Japanese information policy in Southeast Asia, 1935–1945,' in Ronald D. Holmes ed., Diplomatic Relations between Japan and Southeast Asia: Progress and Challenges through Half-a-Century (Quezon City: Philippine Social Science Council, 2007), pp. 98–144.
• 'New Liberalism as a missing link: Australia and Japan', in Masayo Tada and Leigh Dale eds, On the Western Edge: Comparisons of Japan and Australia (Perth: API Network, 2007), pp. 35–54.
• 'The nexus of the nation-state and the empire: Reconsidering the League's order and Japan in the inter-war period', in Asahiko Hanzawa ed., Japan and the UN in International Politics: Historical Perspective (Sapporo: Hokkaido University Graduate School, 2007), pp. 33–84.

Career highlights

Research fellowship, the Cluster of Europe and Asia (the University of Heidelberg, 2009), Research Associate, the Research Institute of the Asia-Pacific (Waseda University, 2005–2010), Toshiba Foundation Grant (Collaborative, 2006–7), The ARC Discovery Grant (2002–5).