Modern Japan History Association Book Prize
The 3rd annual Modern Japan History Association Book Prize winner will be awarded in early 2026 to an outstanding English-language book on modern Japan or Japanese history published in 2024.
Prize
The winner will receive a monetary prize of $1,000 USD.
Guidelines for Submission
- Full consideration will be given to books substantially illuminating the history of modern and contemporary Japan (1868-present), as well as books exploring the historical roots of modern Japanese society and culture. Provided this condition is met, books from any academic discipline and books covering earlier eras of history are eligible.
- To be eligible, books must be a first edition with a copyright year of 2024.
- Books must be originally published in English. Translations of books originally published in other languages will not be considered.
- Reference works, exhibition catalogs, multi-authored collections of essays, textbooks, original poetry or fiction, memoirs, or autobiographies are not eligible.
- Authors need not be members of the MJHA.
- Only publishers and MJHA members may nominate a book for consideration.
- Upon receipt of a completed nomination form, nominators will be provided with addresses for prize committee members. One copy of the book must be sent to each member of the committee to insure full consideration.
- To receive full consideration books shipped to committee members must be postmarked by July 1, 2025.
Deadline
Nominations must be sent by July 1, 2025 to be eligible for the 2026 award.
Nomination Form
The same nomination form is used for both the MJHA Book Prize and the F. Hilary Conroy First Book Prize. Each book needs to be submitted only once for both prizes. All books submitted once will automatically be considered for both prizes, if eligible.
To submit a nomination, please use the form found HERE.
2026 Prize Committee
MIRIAM KINGSBERG KADIA (Chair)
University of Colorado
PAUL BARCLAY
Lafayette College
NICK KAPUR
Rutgers University
2025 MJHA Book Prize Finalists
Matthew Augustine, From Japanese Empire to American Hegemony: Koreans and Okinawans in the Resettlement of Northeast Asia (University of Hawai'i Press, 2023)
Ryo Morimoto, Nuclear Ghost: Atomic Livelihoods in Fukushima's Gray Zone (University of California Press, 2023)
Jun Uchida, Provincializing Empire: Ōmi Merchants in the Japanese Transpacific Diaspora (University of California Press, 2023)
2025 Modern Japan History Association Prize Winner
Ryo Morimoto
Author of Nuclear Ghost: Atomic Livelihoods in Fukushima's Gray Zone (University of California Press, 2023)
Based on nearly a decade of painstaking participant-observation fieldwork in the irradiated coastal fallout zone of Japan's Fukushima prefecture, Ryo Morimoto's Nuclear Ghost applies the insights of indigenous studies to deconstruct concepts of "victimhood," "harm," and "compensation." As he shows, even well-meaning scientists, scholars, artists, technocrats, and social workers have wrought manifold forms of damage upon individuals, families, communities, and environments. Rejecting the analytical construct of "atomic victimhood" in favor of "atomic livelihoods," Morimoto foregrounds the lived experience and recovers the agency of people seeking to rebuild their lives and networks in the wake of the "triple disasters" of March 11, 2011. Meanwhile, he remains attentive to the coercive power of the state and the longer history of northeast Japan as a marginalized internal “colony." Morimoto's incisive analytical lens spares no one, not even himself. The result is not just a powerful critique of how disaster management is both practiced and understood, but also an original and unforgettably empathetic contribution to anthropology and Japanese Studies.
Previous Modern Japan History Association Book Prize Winners
2024 - Jessamyn Abel, Dream Super-Express: A Cultural History of the World’s First Bullet Train