Japan in Focus

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, Japan Foundation Fellow 1991-92, and the author of
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home and As Though Life Mattered:
Leo Kennedy’s Story.

This collection of articles, from the Fifth Annual Conference of the
Japan Studies Association of Canada (JSAC), held at Carleton University
in October 1992, is aimed at those with an interest in Canada’s
Pacific trading partner and competitor. Topics range from “A Japanese
View on Canadian Federalism—Some Lessons for Japan” to “A Survey
of Canadian Missionary Writings on Japanese Religion and Literature.”
Michiko Ayukawa, one of only two women contributors, writes of Japanese
women who came to Canada between 1910 and 1930 for arranged marriages.
Most of these “picture brides” were spirited, ambitious women who
wanted adventure and found hardship, but most survived. Ayukawa notes
that Japanese women in Canada have been virtually ignored by researchers
until very recently.

Editor Jacob Kovalio, an associate professor of history at Carleton
University, contribute an article on A.J. Toynbee’s warm relationship
with Japan, and a short introduction. The JSAC is a relatively new
academic association and reflects the growing interest of many Canadian
researchers in the subject of Japan.