Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies

Waseda University

HOFMANN, Reto Thomas

HOFMANN, Reto Thomas
Posted
Tue, 31 Mar 2026
  • Position: Professor
  • Degree: BA, Hons (UWA), MA, Mphil, PhD (Columbia)
  • Background:
    Professor, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University (2026- )
    • Associate Professor, Curtin University (2023-25)
    • Dean Global Japan, Curtin University (2022-25)
    • Senior Lecturer, Curtin University (2022-3)
    • Senior Lecturer, University of Western Australia (2019-22)
    • Visiting Professor, University of St Gallen (2020)
    • Associate Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies, Waseda University (2018-9)
    • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellow, Waseda University (2016-2018)
    • Lecturer in History, Monash University (2012-2016)
    • INTERACT Postdoctoral Fellow, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University (2010-2012)

Field of Specialization

History of Japan, Global History, History of Authoritarianism and Fascism

Research Theme

Origins of Japanese conservatism; empire and post-imperial politics; informal spaces of sovereignty

Major Works / Publications / Awards

Major Works / Publications

• The Empire Within: The Making of Japanese Conservatism, 1920s-1970s (manuscript under review).
• The Fascist Effect: Japan and Italy, 1915-1952 (Cornell University Press, 2015). Paperback edition, 2020.
• Transwar Asia: Ideology, Practices, and Institutions, 1920-1960 (Bloomsbury, 2021), co-edited with Max Ward
• “Dreams and Nightmares: Imagining the Aftermath of War,” co-written with Mark Edele, Joy Damousi, Philip Dwyer, Frances Clarke, and Hans-Lukas Kieser, English Historical Review (forthcoming, vol. 141, 2026).
• “Japan and Neoliberal Culturalism” in Quinn Slobodian and Dieter Plehwe, eds. Market Civilizations: Neoliberals East and South (Zone Books-Princeton University Press, 2022).
• “The Conservative Imaginary: Moral Re-Armament and the Transwar Politics of the Japanese Right.” Japan Forum, 33, 1 (2021), 77-102.
• “What’s Left of the Right: Nabeyama Sadachika and Anti-Communism in Transwar Japan, 1930-1960.” Journal of Asian Studies, 79, 2 (May 2020), 403-427.
• “The Fascist New-Old Order.” Journal of Global History, 12, 2 (July 2017), 166-183.
• (With Daniel Hedinger) “Editorial—Axis Empires: Towards a Global History of Fascist Imperialism.” Journal of Global History, 12, 2, 2017.
• “Fascist Empires: The Italian-Ethiopian War and Japanese New Order Thinking, 1935-6”. Journal of Contemporary History, 50, 2 (2015): 215-230.

Awards

  • Waseda University Research Award (High-Impact Publications), December 2018
  • Finalist, Australian Historical Association’s W.K. Hancock Prize for The Fascist Effect: Japan and Italy, 1915-1952 (2016)

Academic Societies / Service to Society

Academic Societies

  • American Historical Association
  • Association for Asian Studies
  • European Association for Japanese Studies

Service to Society

  • Co-editor, Book Series “Asia, Europe, and Global Connections: Culture, History, and Trans-Area Studies,” Routledge

Research Project

  • MA: Japan and Asia in Global History
  • Ph.D.: Asia-Japan Relations in Modern History

Research Theme, Outline of Project Research Seminar, Message to Prospects

My seminars explore the place of Japan and Asia in global history. I am particularly interested in political and intellectual history, empire and imperialism, war, fascism and conservatism, and informal spaces of elite power. Students are encouraged to think about their research topics from global, transnational, and comparative perspectives.

Course List

Course List

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