Rate My Professor Tomoko Akami

Tomoko Akami is an Associate Professor (Reader) in the School of Culture, History & Language at the Australian National University. Holding degrees including a BA and MA from Hiroshima University, an MA from the University of Melbourne, and a PhD from ANU, she joined ANU in 1997 after serving as a lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney in 1996. In her current roles, Akami is Deputy Director of the ANU Japan Institute. She previously acted as Deputy Director of the ANU Centre for European Studies from 2012 to 2013, served as one of three editors of History Australia from 2013 to 2015, and has been a board member of the Historical Association of Western Japan since 2005. Akami maintains research affiliations as a Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Internationalism, Birkbeck University since 2020, and at the Research Institute of the Asia-Pacific, Waseda University since 2017. She is also a member of the editorial board for Bloomsbury Academic’s series on histories of internationalism and the Board of the Asian Association of World Historians.

Akami's research centers on the history of international relations in Asia and the Pacific during the inter-war period, employing Japanese case studies to challenge Anglo-American-centric narratives. Her interests encompass governmental and non-governmental international organizations, the League of Nations in Asia and the Pacific, inter-imperialism and liberal internationalism, global governing norms through public health expert networks, and Japan's news agencies in foreign policy from 1870 to 1945. Major publications include Internationalizing the Pacific: The United States, Japan and the Institute of Pacific Relations, 1919-1945 (2002), Japan’s News Propaganda and Reuters’ News Empire in Northeast Asia, 1870-1934 (2012), and Soft Power of Japan’s Total War State: The Board of Information and Domei News Agency in Foreign Policy, 1934-45 (2014). Recent contributions appear in the Journal of Global History (2017), International History Review, Journal of the History of International Law, Australian Journal of International Affairs (2025), and edited volumes such as New Directions in East Asian History (2023). Akami has held prestigious fellowships including the Japan Foundation Fellowship (2016-2017), Ritsumeikan University (2019-2020), Gakushuin University (2017, 2012), Heidelberg University (2009), and Rockefeller Grants (2019, 2014, 1994). She is currently engaged in an Australian Research Council-funded project titled ‘Towards a globalized history of international relations,’ fostering international collaborations across Germany, Denmark, Britain, Switzerland, and Japan.