May 10 2022

The Japan Foundation (JF) is pleased to announce the release of the documentary film series "Giants of Japanese Studies: The Lives of Donald Keene & Ezra Vogel" on our official YouTube channel on May 10th.
These documentary films look back on the achievements of Dr. Ezra Vogel, professor emeritus at Harvard University and the author of "Japan as Number One," which recorded a total of 700,000 copies sold, and who left quintessential contributions to the progress and spread of Japanese Studies in the world, and Dr. Donald Keene, professor emeritus at Columbia University, who spent his life conveying the values of Japan's cultural heritage to the world as a scholar of Japanese literature.

Donald Keene passed away in 2019, followed by Ezra Vogel’s passing shortly afterward in 2020. Faced with the loss of these pioneers of Japanese Studies, we have reaffirmed as our mission the importance of passing along their enthusiasm to future generations by sharing their stories, as both figures contributed significantly to deepening the understanding of Japan overseas through their scholarship. We are excited to showcase the path and message of their life stories to people in Japan and to students who want to follow the same path as Ezra Vogel and Donald Keene.
The documentary series explores their lives through archived video footage and interviews with people who knew them closely. We are releasing the documentary film on Ezra F. Vogel on May 10th, and the documentary film on Donald Keene on May 27th.

Related Materials

• ［Announcement］Tracing the Paths of Giants in Japanese Studies:
  Documentary Films Released on Donald Keene & Ezra Vogel (PDF: 489KB)

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