Established by Kodansha Publishers in 1995 and named in honor of Edwin O. Reischauer, the Noma-Reischauer Prizes in Japanese Studies are given annually to the best essays on Japan-related topics written by a Harvard undergraduate and graduate student. In early December 2023, the Reischauer Institute will award the following two individuals at the annual ceremony and reception held at the Japanese Language Program on 5 Bryant Street.

This year’s graduate student prize was awarded to John Kanbayashi (né Hayashi) for his paper, “Down from the Mountains: Water, Rice, Dispossession, and Disease, 1920 -1936.” After graduating in May 2023 with a Ph.D from the Department of History, he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania as an Assistant Professor of History and Sociology of Science.

The undergraduate student prize was awarded to Maya Simkowitz for her paper, “Pika Don: Memorializing The Body Through The Lens of Postwar Japanese Photography.” After graduating in May 2023 with an A.B. in the History of Art & Architecture, she joined Blackstone in NYC as a real estate analyst.

Congratulations to our 2023 Noma-Reischauer Prize recipients!