We are pleased to announce that the Government of Japan honored UC Press author Merry White today with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon decoration. The award recognizes Professor White’s significant contribution to the development of Japanese studies and the introduction of Japanese culture in the United States.
Merry White, better known to friends and colleagues as Corky White, is a Professor of Anthropology at Boston University, where she teaches broadly on contemporary society and culture in Japan and on food and culture. She is the author of many books, including three UC Press titles, The Material Child: Coming of Age in Japan and America, Perfectly Japanese: Making Families in an Era of Upheaval, and Coffee Life in Japan, and a frequent contributor to Gastronomica.
Her most recent book, Coffee Life in Japan, traces Japan’s vibrant café society over 130 years, from the early coffee craze from the turn of the twentieth century, when Japan helped to launch the Brazilian coffee industry, to the present day. A recent interview with Professor White on coffee culture in Japan can be heard on Public Radio International’s program The World. Congratulations Corky White!
