October 21, 2025
Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus is an independent source of news, providing English-language analysis for a global audience, and is reliant on our readers’ support.
Right now is an especially opportune time to help us establish a sturdy basis from which to operate in the future. A generous supporter of the journal, Glen S. Fukushima, currently a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University, has offered to match all donations up to $20,000 made through February 2026. This $20,000 matching grant is in addition to a direct gift of $10,000 he is providing to APJJF this year. Glen eloquently explains his reasons for doing so in an interview with APJJF’s David McNeill, soon to appear on the journal’s website. Please help us respond to his challenge. Details regarding how are at the end of this letter.
APJJF began publishing exclusively on-line in 2002, when that was still unusual for peer-reviewed scholarship. Since the journal’s inception, about half the articles have focused directly on Japan and the rest on the Asia-Pacific region more generally. We remain committed to the strategies established by the founding editor, Mark Selden, by publishing both deeply researched social-science and humanities scholarship and providing informed context for fast-breaking news.
What are we doing now? Recent highlights from the journal include a set of “Critical Reflections on the 80th Anniversary of the End of World War II,” and two ongoing series on politics, one on “South Korea’s Political Crisis” and another on the “Online Ecosystem of the Japanese Far Right.” Another multi-authored collection introduces a major research project and resource, “Lessons for Disaster Digital Archives: The Making and Use of the Japan Disaster Digital Archive (JDA).” Upcoming issues will include new contributions on these topics and another series on Art and Politics, exploring the work of Japanese artists around the world. We also look forward to publishing a two-part multidisciplinary collection on The Memory and Legacy of the Asia-Pacific War in the Philippines, and a special issue on gender violence in Japan, as well as new scholarship on Okinawa, one of APJJF’s longstanding areas of expertise. Please take a look for yourself! We welcome suggestions from readers regarding future topics and directions! You can reach us at [email protected]
As previously announced, APJJF began publishing through Cambridge Core, the non-profit publishing unit of Cambridge University Press, in January 2025, while also maintaining the independent APJJF website for “Online Exclusive” content. The APJJF top page is the most convenient portal for both pathways. Every article in the journal – all 3,500+ past, present, and future – will remain completely free and Open Access to all readers via either the Cambridge Core portal or our own website. Editorial policies, including all peer-review practices, will continue to be set by APJJF, the expectation of all journals that publish with Cambridge Core. All articles are covered by Creative Commons licenses, with authorial freedom to republish versions of the work on a non-commercial basis. The individual articles are now archived on CLOCKSS and Portico, which is the closest to “forever” that the internet offers.
What has changed is our reach: joining Cambridge Core means that APJJF is now far more accessible globally; nearly 2 million viewers accessed APJJF content through either our independent APJJF site or the CC site in the first seven months of 2025 alone. This arrangement also provides us with expertise in the ever-increasing hidden tasks of maintaining a glitch-free, secure website. We expect that many of our readers will hear about newly released articles through our monthly newsletter, just as they now do, but they can now also find older publications through university library catalogs, the CC website itself, and the broad range of places that CC engages. CC also offers the metrics of academic achievement that early-career scholars in particular require when they place their work. APJJF has long been much more influential than these metrics purport to document but small independent journals such as ours struggle to meet the reporting requirements. The journal already boasts a Q1 ranking for both Cultural Studies and History and anticipates improved rankings in other disciplinary areas that more accurately reflect its far-reaching impact now that CC has indexed and assigned DOI numbers to the entire backlist of articles as well as doing so on an ongoing basis. In other words, the biggest reason for taking this step is to better support the careers of our existing and potential authors.
One of the main ways we connect with authors is through attendance at academic conferences, such as the annual Association for Asian Studies meetings in North America and Asia and the European Association for Japanese Studies. The just-announced program for AAS in Vancouver in March 2026 includes two panels sponsored by APJJF. Critical Asian Scholarship in a Time of Global Crisis brings together academics, researchers, and activists, including Mark Selden, whose careers have merged scholarship, journalism, and real-world practice to reflect on current global crises and future possibilities for critical scholarly interventions in East Asia. Consent and Sexual Violence in Contemporary Japan unpacks the first large-scale survey on the subject conducted by NHK. Each contribution examines a distinct facet of this chronic, pervasive, and understudied crisis. We hope you will connect with us there, at the next AAS in Asia in Lahore, or by emailing the co-editors, Tristan Grunow and Mary McCarthy, at [email protected].
Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus is published by Asia-Pacific Journal, Inc., a 501 (C) (3) non-profit, tax-exempt organization (tax identification number 46-2332830) under Section 501(c)(3) of the US Internal Revenue Code. For US tax payers, donations are tax-deductible. Donations are accepted through the website (https://apjjf.org/support-us) via a PayPal web page either through your credit card or through your PayPal account. If you would like to use another method, please contact Asato Ikeda (Treasurer) directly at [email protected].
We are excited about the future for Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, for our authors, and for our readers! Please help us make that future more secure.
Laura Hein, for the Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus Board of Directors and Editors