CJS Director and Law Professor Mark Levin welcomed the Consul General of Japan, Dr. Yoshinori Kodama, to the William S. Richardson School of Law for a long awaited visit on Friday, April 12, 2024.  After the Consul-General toured the school including the Law Library, he and Consul Keiko Okawa enjoyed a bento lunch with several of the Law School’s specialists in international law, including Professors Tae-Ung Baik, Richard Chen, David Forman, Carole Petersen, and Melissa Stewart.

On Tuesday, April 16, 2024, CJS held its second to last seminar of the Spring 2024 semester. Dr. Chris McMorran, Associate Professor of Japanese Studies at National University of Singapore, gave a talk “Ryokan: Mobilizing Hospitality in Rural Japan,” based on his book of the same name, available for sale now on the University of Hawaiʻi Press website. To an audience both in-person and online via Zoom, Dr. McMorran shared rich insights of his time spent in 2006 completing ethnographic field work, learning the ins-and-outs of living and working in a traditional ryokan in the famed Kurokawa Onsen in Kyushu, Japan.