Two Japanese professors, Dr. Kumiko Noguchi and Dr. Yuka Mizutani, share insights from their experiences and work with Native American and Indigenous communities, which underscore the significance of Native American Studies in Japan and throughout the world.
Noguchi (野口 久美子) is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of International Studies at Meiji Gakuin University. She received her Ph.D. in Native American Studies from the University of California, Davis under the Fulbright Graduate Studies Scholarship Program. Her research interests include Native American Critical Theory, California Indian history, Tribal Sovereignty, Community Development, and Indigenous Movement.
Mizutani (水谷 裕佳) is a professor at the Center for Global Education and Discovery, and the Graduate Program of International Cooperation Studies, at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan. She holds a Ph.D. in Area Studies from Sophia University. As a doctoral student with the JSPS fellowship, she worked on her research at the Department of Ethnic Studies of the University of California, Berkeley. Mizutani was also a Fulbright visiting scholar at the Department of American Studies of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her current research interests include Indigenous people’s experiences at geographical margins of the U.S. territory, the representation of Indigenous perspectives in museums and public spaces, and the relationship between Indigenous peoples and research institutions.
Recommended Sources:
Publications of Kumiko Noguchi, including Indian and Gaming: American Light and Shadow (Tokyo: Chikuma Publication, 2019); A California Indian History the ‘Invisibles’ to a Federally Recognized Tribes (Tokyo: Sairyusha Publication, 2015); and “Keeping the Indian Tribal Community Together: Nation Building and Cultural Sovereignty in the Indian Casino Era,” The Japanese Journal of American Studies, no. 31 (2020), 133-156.
Esther Avila, “Researching the Tule River Tribe,” The Porterville Recorder, November 10, 2011.
Rick Elkins, “Tule Tribe history in Japanese,” The Porterville Recorder, September 16, 2015.
The Tule River Yokuts Language Project, Language Department website, Tule River Indian Tribe of California
Yuka Mizutani’s award-winning book (selected for the Award for Budding Scholar of the Japan Consortium for Area Studies), Integration of the Pascua Yaqui into the United States: Border Crossing and the Federal Recognition (Hokkaido University Press, 2012). Also see Mizutani, “Promotion of Gastronomic Traditions in the Sonoran Desert and Changes in the Representation of the US-Mexico Borderlands,” The Japanese Journal of American Studies, no. 33 (2022).
Mizutani’s recent interviews in English for ʻŌlelo Community Media in Hawaiʻi: http://olelo.granicus.com/player/clip/85731
https://olelo.granicus.com/player/clip/85723
Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park website
Japanese scholars that Dr. Noguchi highlights:
Shozo Ssaito (斎藤省三), アメリカ先住民 アリゾナ・フェニックス・インディアン学校 (世界人権問題叢書) | Jr.トレナート ロバート.A., Trennert,Robert A.,Jr., 省三, 斎藤 |本 | 通販 | Amazon
Torao Tomita (富田虎男)
アメリカ・インディアンの歴史 | 富田 虎男 |本 | 通販 | Amazon
Usuke Uzuki（鵜月裕典）
不実な父親・抗う子供たち―19世紀アメリカによる強制移住政策とインディアン | 鵜月 裕典 |本 | 通販 | Amazon
Juri Abe (阿部珠理)
nativecirclespodcast.com 