F2650 Michigan's Enduing Ties with Japan
Class | Registration opens Monday, September 14, 2026 10:00 AM EDT
From Tsugawa Ryozo’s arrival to study at Hope College in 1869 through Crown Prince Akihito’s visit to the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Michigan in 1953 to the signing of Maeda Kenta by the Detroit Tigers in 2023, Michigan and Japan have long maintained close ties. The formal establishment of a sister-state relationship between Michigan and Shiga Prefecture in 1968, followed by the signing of 25 sister-city alliances, only deepened those. This one-class session will traverse the history of these connections with a focus on economic partnerships and investments, educational opportunities, cultural sharing, and goodwill missions.
Zoom - Recorded
Elizabeth Lublin
A historian of modern Japan, Elizabeth Lublin offered courses on East Asia at Wayne State for over 20 years before retiring in 2024. She returned to the classroom in the Spring of 2026 to teach study abroad students at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities near Kyoto. Her early publications examined the activism of Christian women in late 19th and early 20th-centuries Japan. Lublin’s current research explores Japan’s tobacco and match industries.