Tsuneo Akaha

Professor

Director of our Center for East Asian Studies, Professor Akaha specializes in Japanese foreign and security policy, international relations of the Asia Pacific, international political economy, and international marine affairs. He came to the U.S. as an American Field Service (AFS) student during high school. He was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Tokyo and Seikei University (Tokyo), and a Japan Foundation Research Fellow at Hokkaido University's Slavic Research Center (Sapporo). He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Shimane. He has served as President of Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast (ASPAC) and of the Comparative Interdisciplinary Studies Section of the International Studies Association.

Professor Akaha is the author of Japan in Global Ocean Politics (1985) and the editor/co-editor of Crossing National Borders: Human Migration Issues in Northeast Asia (2005); The Future of North Korea (2002); Politics and Economics in Northeast Asia:  Nationalism and Regionalism in Contention (1999); Politics and Economics in the Russian Far East:  Changing Ties with Asia-Pacific (1997); International Political Economy (1991); and Japan in the Posthegemonic World (1990). He is also a member of the editorial board of International Relations of the Asia-Pacific.

He has contributed numerous articles to such journals as the American Political Science Review, Journal of Asian Studies, Asian Survey, Pacific Review, Pacific Affairs, Ecological Law Quarterly, Millennium, Peace Forum, Peace and Change, and Brown Journal of World Affairs.  His most recent publications include:  Crossing National Borders: Human Migration Issues in Northeast Asia, Tokyo: United Nations University, 2005; "Japan and the Recurrent Nuclear Crisis," in Hagstrom and Soderberg, eds., North Korea Policy; Japan and the Great Powers, London: Routledge, 2006; "Japanese Policy toward the North Korean Problem: Balancing Bilateralism and Multilateralism," Journal of Asian and African Studies, 2006; and "Non-traditional Security Cooperation for Regionalism in Northeast Asia," in Mori and Hirano, eds., A New East Asia: Toward a Regional Community, Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2007.  His current research focuses on labor migration, human trafficking, the HIV/AIDS epidemic and other human security issues in East Asia, regionalism in East Asia, Russian-Japanese relations, and the US-Japan security alliance.

Professor Akaha's objective is to help students develop skills required for critical analysis of international policy and area studies, particularly in the Asia-Pacific context.