May. All lectures will be followed by a brief reception and are free and open to the public. Smits is a professor of history at Pennsylvania State University specializing in Ryukyuan studies and premodern Japanese intellectual history. He was awarded the 1990 Asiatic Society of Japan Prize. Thursday, May 31 . Japan Week , a four-day celebration of Japanese language, film, food and other aspects of Japanese culture, runs from Monday, May 7 through Thursday, May 10.
All events are free and open to the public.
An opening address led by President Karen W. Morse will kick off the week s festivities at 3 p.m. in Arntzen Hall 100. Speech and skit contests performed in both English and Japanese by WWU students will follow. Tuesday, May 8 . A presentation of the movie Rikyu will follow at 8 p.m. in Wilson Library Presentation Room. Wednesday, May 9 .