My former colleague and senpai Arthur Stockwin, who has died aged 90, was a pioneering scholar of modern Japanese politics and a tireless builder of intellectual and personal bridges between Japan and the UK. He helped shape Japanese studies in Britain for more than half a century, mentoring generations of students who have gone on to careers in academia, diplomacy and public life.
In 1982 Arthur was appointed the founding professor and director of the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies at St Antony’s College, Oxford. Over the following two decades he transformed the institute into a world-leading centre for the study of contemporary Japan. He embedded Japan firmly into undergraduate and graduate teaching, developed one of the largest doctoral programmes in the field, founded a weekly seminar series, and established the Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies publication series, which published more than 100 volumes under his stewardship. These initiatives did more than advance scholarship: they created enduring networks linking British and Japanese scholars, institutions and ideas.
