Jessamyn R. Abel

I am a historian of modern Japan with interests in democratization, technology, infrastructure, sports, and international relations. My current research focuses on postwar Japan to examine the ways in which institutions of daily life (such as the national railway, the public broadcaster, the police, and Parent-Teacher Associations) work to instill democratic practices and attitudes in a population. My latest book, Dream Super-Express (winner of the 2024 Modern Japan History Association Book Prize), views 1960s Japan through the window of the bullet train, showing how infrastructure operates beyond its intended use to perform cultural and sociological functions. My first book, The International Minimum, examines the transwar development of Japanese internationalism. I have also published on the information society, the Olympics, cultural diplomacy, textbooks, and the history of whaling. These topics inform my teaching, which is aimed at helping students develop a sense of the common experiences shared by diverse groups of people around the world, thus sparking intellectual curiosity about other societies, in addition to prompting them to rethink their own place in the global community.