EIKO MARUKO SINIAWER
Office of the Provost
880 Main Street
Williamstown, MA 01267

413-597-4352 (w)617-388-0492 (m)emaruko@williams.edu

EDUCATIONHARVARD UNIVERSITY
Ph.D. in History, June 2003
Dissertation: “Violence in the Politics of Modern Japan”
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
A.M. in Regional Studies East Asia, June 1999
Thesis: “Remaking History: The Pacific War in Japanese Historical Memory”
WILLIAMS COLLEGE
B.A. in History with Honors, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, June 1997
Thesis: “University Entrance Examination Hell: The Sociopolitical Causes of 1980s Reform Failure inJapan”
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
WILLIAMS COLLEGE
Provost, 2022-PresentCharles R. Keller Professor of History, 2024-Present
Class of 1955 Memorial Professor of History, 2020-2024
Professor of History, 2015-2020
Associate Professor of History, 2009-2015
Assistant Professor of History, 2003-2009
PUBLICATIONSBOOKSTokyo. Cambridge University Press, forthcoming in Fall 2024.
Waste: Consuming Postwar Japan. Cornell University Press, 2018. Paperback Edition, forthcoming inFall 2024.
Ruffians, Yakuza, Nationalists: The Violent Politics of Modern Japan, 1860-1960. Cornell UniversityPress, 2008. Paperback Edition, 2015.
Japanese Translation. 『悪党・ヤクザ・ナショナリスト: 近代日本の暴力政治』朝日新聞社,
2020. Second Printing, 2020.
Traditional Chinese Translation, 2021.
Simplified Chinese Translation, 2023.
ARTICLES, CHAPTERS, AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS“The Transformative Politics of the Meiji Revolutions.” In The New Cambridge History of Japan,
Volume III, ed. Laura Hein. Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Siniawer, 2“Uncertain Futures, Destabilized Dreams.” In Reconsidering Postwar Japanese History: A Handbook,ed. Simon Avenell. MHM Limited and Amsterdam University Press, 2023.
「『悪党・ヤクザ・ナショナリスト』を執筆するまで」『大原社会問題研究所雑誌』 no.
755-756 (September-October 2021).
“‘Toilet Paper Panic’: Uncertainty and Insecurity in Early 1970s Japan.” American Historical Review
126, no. 2 (June 2021).
“Discarding Cultures: Food Waste in an Affluent Japan.” In Devouring Japan: Global Perspectives on
Japanese Culinary Identity, ed. Nancy Stalker. Oxford University Press, 2018.
“A War against Garbage: An Introduction to and Excerpt from Waste.” The Asia-Pacific Journal:
Japan Focus 16, no. 22 (November 2018).
“‘Affluence of the Heart’: Wastefulness and the Search for Meaning in Millennial Japan.” Journal ofAsian Studies 73, no. 1 (February 2014).
“Befitting Bedfellows: Yakuza and the State in Modern Japan.” Journal of Social History 45, no. 3(Spring 2012). Reprinted in The Hidden History of Crime, Corruption and States, ed. RenateBridenthal. Berghahn Books, 2013.
Environmental History: A Course Reader. The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 2012.
“Liberalism Undone: Discourses on Political Violence in Interwar Japan.” Modern Asian Studies 45,no. 4 (July 2011).
“Organized Crime in Japan.” In Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World, ed. Peter N. Stearns.
Oxford University Press, 2008.
“Mediated Democracy: Yakuza and Japanese Political Leadership.” In Organized Crime and theChallenge to Democracy, ed. Felia Allum and Renate Siebert. Routledge, 2003.
BOOK REVIEWSDavid Leheny, Empire of Hope: The Sentimental Politics of Japanese Decline.
Journal of Japanese Studies 46, no. 2 (Summer 2020).
Nick Kapur, Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo.
American Historical Review 125, no. 3 (June 2020).
Chad R. Diehl, Resurrecting Nagasaki: Reconstruction and the Formation of Atomic Narratives.
Pacific Historical Review 88, no. 2 (May 2019).
Adrienne Carey Hurley, Revolutionary Suicide and Other Desperate Measures: Narratives of Youthand Violence from Japan and the United States.
Journal of Japanese Studies 39, no. 1 (Winter 2013).
Walter A. Skya, Japan’s Holy War: The Ideology of Radical Shintō Ultranationalism.
Perspectives on Politics 10, no. 1 (March 2012).

Siniawer, 3

Hiromi Mizuno, Science for the Empire: Scientific Nationalism in Modern Japan.
Journal of Japanese Studies 36, no. 2 (Summer 2010).
William Johnston, Geisha, Harlot, Strangler, Star: A Woman, Sex, and Morality in Modern Japan.
Journal of the History of Sexuality 19, no. 1 (January 2010).
Kyu Hyun Kim, The Age of Visions and Arguments: Parliamentarianism and the National Public
Sphere in Early Meiji Japan.
Journal of Asian Studies 68, no. 2 (May 2009).
酒井隆史、『暴力の哲学』[Sakai Takashi, Philosophies of Violence.]
Social Science Japan Journal 9, no. 1 (April 2006).
David E. Kaplan and Alec Dubro, Yakuza: Japan’s Criminal Underworld and Peter B. E. Hill, The
Japanese Mafia: Yakuza, Law, and the State.
Global Crime 6, no. 2 (May 2004).
“Sōkaiya and Japanese Corporations: A Review of Kenneth Szymkowiak, Sōkaiya: Extortion,Protection, and the Japanese Corporation.”
Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies (June 2002).
LECTURES, CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS, AND CLASS DISCUSSIONS (SELECTED)
Chair and Discussant: “Cold War Urbanization”
American Historical Association Annual Meeting, New York City (January 2025)
Discussant: Predicting Disasters: Earthquakes, Scientists, and Uncertainty in Modern Japan by Kerry
Smith
Modern Japan History Association, New Books on Japan, Virtual (December 12, 2024)“Tokyo”
Foreign Service Institute, Virtual (February 12, 2024)
Organizer and Moderator: “The State of Our Field”
Modern Japan History Association Roundtable, Virtual (October 17, 2023)
Discussion about Waste: Consuming Postwar Japan
MIT, Course on “Theories and Methods in the Study of History,” Virtual (November 1, 2022)
Discussant: Sarah Teasley, “‘Generosity and Tolerance’: Design and the Information Industries in Late
Twentieth-Century Japan”
Columbia University, Modern Japan Seminar, Virtual (February 23, 2022)“‘Toilet Paper Panic’: Uncertainty and Insecurity in Early 1970s Japan”
Columbia University, Modern Japan Seminar, Virtual (October 20, 2021)「『悪党・ヤクザ・ナショナリスト』の執筆まで」
大原社会問題研究所記念講演会 [Ōhara Institute for Social Research Annual CommemorativeLecture], Virtual (February 17, 2021)

Siniawer, 4Discussion about Waste: Consuming Postwar Japan
University of Oregon, Course on “1950s Japanese Culture,” Virtual (February 5, 2021)“Japan in the 1950s”
Oregon Vietnam Japan Exchange and Collaboration Project, Virtual (December 11, 2020)
Discussion about Waste: Consuming Postwar Japan
Bowdoin College, Course on “East Asian Environmental History,” Virtual (November 12, 2020)“Unsettling Waste in 1970s Japan”
Russia/Japan: Residues, Materialities, Environments: Trans-disciplinary Exchanges, Princeton
University, Virtual (October 16-17, 2020)
Discussion about Ruffians, Yakuza, Nationalists to “Modern Japan: Empires and Aftermaths”
Harvard University, Course on “Modern Japan: Empires and Aftermaths,” Virtual (September 17,2020)"New Trends in the Study of Postwar Japan”
Workshop with William W. Kelly, Yale University (February 14, 2020)“Rethinking Panic: Toilet Paper and the Uncertainties of Early 1970s Japan”
Yale University (February 13, 2020)“Waste as Subjective Idea, Societal Mirror, and Material Reality: A Historical Approach”
文化としてのゴミ, Nagoya University (January 25-26, 2020)“Waste and Well-being in Postwar Japan”
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (April 17, 2019)“Waste and Well-being in Postwar Japan”
Colgate University (March 26, 2019)“The In/Visibility of Waste Consciousness in 1970s Japan”
Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Denver (March 24, 2019)“Waste: Consuming Postwar Japan”
Harvard University, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations (March 12, 2019)
Discussant: “Violence, Trauma and Persecution in the Restoration”
The Meiji Restoration and its Afterlives: Social Change and the Politics of Commemoration, Yale
University (September 15-17, 2017)“Wars against Garbage in 1970s Japan”
Of Soils, Roots, and Streams: A Symposium on Ecology and Japan, University of California Irvine(June 15-16, 2017)
Discussant: “Activism and Its Discontents: New Perspectives on the Freedom and Popular Rights
Movement in Nineteenth-Century Japan”
Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Toronto (March 18, 2017)

Siniawer, 5“Living the Good Life? Waste and Wastefulness in Japan of the 1980s”
Stanford University (December 8, 2016)“Reconsidering Affluence: Waste and Waste Consciousness in the 1970s”
Japan History Group, University of Tokyo (June 9, 2016)“‘Stinginess is a Virtue, Wasting Money is Fun’: Waste and Wastefulness in a Remodernizing Japan”
Osaka University (December 19-21, 2014)“A Bright, New Stinginess: Waste Consciousness in the 1970s”
European Association of Japanese Studies, University of Ljubljana (August 29, 2014)“Wars Against Garbage: The Cultural and Social Meanings of Trash in 1970s Japan”
From Garbage to Art: Environmental Consciousness in Japan in the Post-Cold War Era, Leiden
University (May 23, 2014)
Roundtable Participant: “The Future of Japanese Studies in the U.S.: Challenges and Opportunities”
Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Philadelphia (March 28, 2014)“Discarding Cultures: Food Waste in an Affluent Japan”
Devouring Japan, University of Texas at Austin, in absentia (February 21-22, 2014)“What is a Rich Life? Searches for Meaning in Michael Ende’s Momo”
Organizer, Chair, Panelist: Rethinking Affluence in Postwar Japan
Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, San Diego (March 22, 2013)「“心の豊かさ”：21 世紀はじめの日本で見直される “もったいない”」
Waseda University (January 26, 2012)“Wastefulness and Reinvention in Millennial Japan”
University of Hong Kong (January 19, 2012)
FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS (SELECTED)
Williams College Class of 1945 World Fellowship

Spring 2020, 2015-2016, 2011-2012

American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship2015-2016

Williams College Nelson Bushnell ’20 Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Writing

2014-2015

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship2011-2012

Japan Foundation Research Fellowship, Awarded and Declined

2011-2012

American Historical Association Bernadotte E. Schmitt Grant

Summer 2008

Association for Asian Studies Northeast Asia Council/Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Japan
Studies Grant
Summer 2008
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship2006-2007

Siniawer, 6

Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellowship, Awarded and Declined

2006-2007

Japan Foundation Research Fellowship, Awarded and Declined

2006-2007

Social Science Research Council-Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship, Nominatedand Declined
2006-2007
SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Board Member, Modern Japan History Association

December 2022-PresentElected Member, Northeast Asia Council, Association for Asian Studies

Spring 2018-Spring 2021

REVIEWS
Reviewed Article Manuscripts for: Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies, HistoriaScientiarum, Journal of Japanese Studies, Modern Asian Studies, Radical History Review, SocialHistory, Social Science Japan Journal
Reviewed Book Manuscripts or Proposals for: Bloomsbury Publishing, Columbia University Press,Cornell University Press, Routledge, Rowman & Littlefield
Reviewed Cases for Promotion to: Associate Professor with Tenure, Full Professor
Reviewed Department of History, Smith College
SELECTION COMMITTEES
American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, Harvard University Program on U.S.-Japan
Relations, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENTNBCLX, Video Interviews“Trash Cans Are Hard to Find in Tokyo. Here’s Why”
“How Tokyo Became One of the Cleanest Cities in the World”“Japan’s Vending Machine Culture Meets the Reality of Climate Change”
Yomiuri Shinbun, Interview about 『悪党・ヤクザ・ナショナリスト』

July 2021

September 2020

National Geographic, Interview
Erin Blakemore, “What Did People Do Before Toilet Paper?”March 2020

Japan on the Record, Podcast Episode“Panic in the Toilet Paper Aisle”

March 2020

Financial Times Reporter, Informational Interview

February 2019

New Books in East Asian Studies, Podcast Episode

January 2019

Bloomberg Opinion Piece, Interview“What’s In Marie Kondo’s Closet?”

January 2019Siniawer, 7

The Page 99 Test, Blog Post
BBC World Service Documentary, Interview“The History of Wastefulness: Rubbish through the Ages”

November 2018
October 2018
Aired January 2019

Meiji @ 150, Podcast Episode

October 2018

Writer/Producer for Pachinko Television Series, Informational Interview

August 2018

RESEARCH AFFILIATIONSAssociate in Research, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University, 2003-Present
Visiting Scholar, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Waseda University, 2011-2012
Visiting Scholar, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University, 2006-2007
Visiting Research Scholar, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo, 2001-2002TEACHINGCURRICULUM OFFEREDFirst-Year Seminars and Tutorials“The Two Koreas”“The Japanese Empire”
Introductory Survey Courses“Early Modern Japan”“Modern Japan”“Japanese Culture and History from Courtiers to Samurai and Beyond, 800s-1800s”
Co-Taught with Christopher Bolton, Professor of Comparative and Japanese Literature
Major Seminar“Approaching the Past: Practices of Modern History”
Advanced Electives“Emotions in Modern Japanese History”“The History of Panics”“History of U.S.-Japan Relations”“The 1930s in Comparative Perspective: Germany, Italy, and Japan”“The Comparative History of Organized Crime”

Siniawer, 8Advanced Seminars and Tutorials“The Many Lives of Tokyo”“Historical Memory of the Pacific War”
THESIS STUDENTS
Kar Yern Chin '18“We Are What We Makan: Conceptions of Malaysian Food Practices”

2017-2018

Ben Williams 'F17
“Excess of Love: An Oral History of the Kachin Independence Organization”

S2017-F2017

Courtney Fields '17“Jesus in the Far East: Christian Missions and Japanese Response, 1549-1600”

2016-2017

Miho Sakuma '15“Reviving, Modifying, and Inventing: Liberal Arts Education in Japan’s Lost Decades”

2014-2015

Sharona Bollinger '14
2013-2014“Shadow of the Beast: Complexities and Legacies of Godzilla in Japan and the United States”
Sara Kang '14“Contested Memory: Struggles of the 1990s in Post-Cold War Okinawa”

2013-2014

Leo Obata '14“Blueprint for a New Vision: The Past, Present and Future of War Museums in Japan”

2013-2014

Sungik Yang '13“Rioters, Victims, or Heroes: Transforming Narratives about the Gwangju Uprising”

2012-2013

Lindsey Jones '10“Hidden Hydra: The Development and Demise of American Mafia Power”

2009-2010

Megan Brankley '08
Spring 2008
“When a Patron Falls: Contesting the History of 1965 in Post-Suharto Indonesia,” Co-advised
COLLEGE SERVICELEADERSHIP POSITIONSChair, Committee on Priorities and Resources
Chair, Program in Asian Studies
Chair, Committee on Priorities and Resources
Chair, Ad Hoc Committee on the Evaluation of Teaching
Chair, Department of History
Chair, Faculty Steering Committee

2020-2022
2021-2022
2017-20192016-2017
2012-20152010-2011

COLLEGE COMMITTEES
Vice President for Finance and Operations Search Committee
Williams-Mystic Working GroupAd Hoc Committee on Financial Planning
Committee on Priorities and Resources

Spring 2021
2020-2021
Spring 2020
2016-2017

Siniawer, 9Ad Hoc Real Estate Working Group
Williams in New York Committee
Faculty Steering Committee, Member
Committee on Educational PolicyNeighborhood Review Committee
Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on Budget Priorities
Ad Hoc Committee on International Educational Initiatives
Chair, Subcommittee on Student Services
Committee on Undergraduate Life
Chair, Subcommittee on Neighborhood Governance2017-January 2020
Spring 2009-Spring 2011
Winter-Spring 20102008-February 2010
Spring 2009-Spring 2010
Spring 2009
Fall 2008-Winter 20092004-2006
2005-2006

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
Thesis Committee
2021-2022, Spring 2008, 2003-2004
Coordinator, Department Colloquium
2020-2021
Bolin Fellowship Nomination Committee
Winter 2020
Chair, Curriculum Committee
Fall 2019
Director, Thesis Program
2017-2019
Chair, Search Committee for Native American/Early American History Position
2017-2018
Chair, Search Committee for Russian History Position
2016-2017
Curriculum Committee
2004-2006, 2010-2011
Student Liaison
2008-2010
Search and/or Interview Committee for Positions in: U.S. Gender and Sexuality, Modern EuropeanHistory, Modern Chinese History
DEPARTMENT OF ASIAN STUDIES
Affiliate2003-2021
Task Force on Program in Asian Studies & Subcommittee on Restructuring Asian Studies 2020-2021
Coordinator, Asian Studies
2010-2011
Founder and Organizer, Department Colloquium
2005-2006, 2009-2011