This talk introduces Hannah Shepherd's new book, The Narrowing Sea: Fukuoka, Pusan, and the Rise and Fall of an Imperial Region (University of California Press, 2025). Through a series of vignettes, it traces the imperial region that took shape across the Tsushima Straits between Pusan and Fukuoka over the seven decades from 1876 to 1953. The talk argues for the imperial region as a productive scale of analysis—one that illuminates connections across broader imperial histories—and draws a line from the urbanization of the imperial era to contemporary Japan's urban challenges. It closes with a preview of new work that extends some of the histories and legacies explored in The Narrowing Sea

Reischauer Institute Japan Forum Lecture Series co-sponsored by the Program on US-Japan Relations