Prof. Andrew Gordon Decorated by the Japanese Government
Press Release Nov. 7, 2014
On Nov. 3, Culture Day in Japan, the Japanese Government announced its Fall Honors List. Included among the foreign nationals receiving these high decorations was Harvard Prof. Andrew Gordon, who was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon for his significant contributions to the development of Japanese Studies in the United States and the promotion of mutual understanding between Japan and the United States.
Prof. Gordon is the author, editor and translator of books which have been translated into five languages and are held in over 6000 libraries. His 3-volume study, “The Evolution of Labor Relations in Japan: Heavy Industry, 1853–1955,” “Labor and Imperial Democracy in Prewar Japan,” “The Wages of Affluence: Labor and Management in Postwar Japan,” is not just a highly regarded study of the history of Japanese labor. It is also serves to dramatically change our understanding of Japanese management practices and labor-capital relations in Japan. Prof. Gordon is one of the leading scholars of Japan in the English-speaking world.
During his directorship of Harvard’s Reischauer Institute, Prof. Gordon was instrumental in establishing the Digital Archive of Japan’s 2011 Disasters (jdarchive.org), which greatly increases our understanding of the Great East Japan Earthquake and provides information about the recovery process.
In light of these contributions, the Japanese government has deemed it appropriate to bestow this high award on Prof. Gordon.
###