In the Meiji at 150 Podcast, host Professor Tristan Grunow (UBC, Department of History) interviews specialists of Japanese history, literature, art, and culture located on campus or who come to UBC for public events. Topics covered will range from the position of the Meiji Restoration and Meiji Period in each scholar's research, to how they view the significance of the Restoration in Japanese and global history, and finally to how they teach the Meiji Period in their classrooms.
In the third episode, Dr. Ken Ruoff (Portland State University) explains the impact of the Meiji Restoration in global history and the role of the emperor system in Japanese modernization. We discuss the longevity of the emperor system in relation to its flexibility, as well as its centrality in both the prewar and postwar Japanese political and cultural environments.
