"Eat Sushi or Die": How the East Asian Studies Association became the Japanese Cultural Association

The East Asian Studies Association “was a group of students who enjoyed learning about Oriental culture,” according to their yearbook feature from the 1987 Colonial Echo.

In 1987, the organization threw an “Oriental-Exotica Party” among other events. 

The organization focused on East Asia, specifically Japan, as they held a reception for foreign students with the Office of International Studies, a Japanese Film week, and a photography exhibit at the Zollinger Museum entitled “The United States’ Occupation of Japan.”

In 1987, the club officers were: Hilary Arnold, President; Nick Aynsley, Vice President; and Jennifer Han, Secretary. 

The club’s faculty advisor was Professor Craig Canning of the History Department and Professor Stephen Field of the Modern Languages Department.

The East Asian Studies Association was also mislabeled in the 1987 Colonial Echo as the “East Asian Students.”

The East Asian Studies Association photos. Courtesy of the 1987 Colonial Echo.

The Japanese Cultural Association (JCA) was organized in 1996 with the first constitution written on February 27, 1997.

The organization was founded by Japanese international students Toshi Amano, Azusa Ishizaka, Midori “Mimi” Kano.

The Japanese Cultural Association (JCA) was formed from the East Asian Studies Association (EASA), which was an academic club for students interested in East Asian studies. JCA founder, Azusa Ishizaka was originally a member of the EASA and led the club’s rebranding. 

EASA decided to become the Japanese Cultural Association (JCA) for multiple reasons.

According to Mimi Kano, the East Asian Studies Association was already very Japan-focused. 

Since the East Asian Studies Association club’s activities weren’t very academic and because the club would receive more funding if it was categorized as a multicultural organization (rather than an academic organization), the switch to become a cultural club was a natural choice.

Mimi Kano states, “East Asians Students Association, which is technically an academic organization, kind of joined in [the Asian Student Union’s “Taste of Asia” event] because there were Japanese students in [the East Asian Studies Association]. So they just kind of did it to represent the Japan part of things because Japan wasn't represented in some ways.

“But Azusa went to like a budget meeting for organizations and found out that as an academic organization, you don't get much. But with the cultural organization, you got a bigger budget…we weren't able to do anything really with an academic organization. 

“So [Azusa] did a lot of the legwork. He worked with the school to kind of terminate East Asian Studies Association and to build the Japanese Cultural Association”[3]

However, the population of Japanese students at W&M was too small to have an identity-based multicultural organization, in which the organization’s members all belong to a common ethnicity. Instead, JCA’s members are mostly non-Japanese students who are interested in learning about Japanese pop culture, traditions, and language. 

Mimi explains, “We knew that there weren't tons of Japanese students and there won't be. Just, population-wise, there isn't a huge Japanese population at William & Mary. So we wanted to keep it cultural so that even non-Japanese people can feel like they can join. Whereas the other organizations [the Chinese Student Organization or the Indian Cultural Association]… they have enough students from those [communities] to build an organization…So we made it cultural so that anyone interested in Japan can join.”

As Mimi noted, “there are more people who are interested in Japan rather than in Japanese students.”

The founders of JCA ultimately understood that their club would be more popular among W&M students if they served a more broad sector of non-heritage people who like Japanese culture. 

Mimi noted that simply having cultural awareness in a more casual, less-academic setting was their purpose when creating JCA. 

“[We] wanted to bring in as many people who were interested and wanted to learn about Japan...And, that's what we did. I mean, a sushi party is fun in itself, but it's also like, my friend who never had sushi before, which is not really the case anymore...but at the time, some people still have not had sushi, and it was…bringing awareness to people who've never had any interaction with Japan. I do understand that, you know, for many people, Japan is still a very foreign country.”

Mimi recounts an interaction from her freshman move-in day that shocked her as an international student from Japan.

“My roommate was from Florida, but an interesting conversation, this is what the early ‘90s. And, they asked me on the move-in day, I laugh about it now, but my roommate had brought a boombox…so it's basically like a gigantic music player.

“And a lot of those are made by Sony or Panasonic, clearly very Japanese companies. But I remember her parents are like, ‘do they have these in Japan?’ And I just didn't know how to respond to it. Like, I didn't want to make fun of them. I was like, ‘Do you know that we have cars there too?’ It was like a shocking question to get.”

For Mimi, JCA worked to humanize Japanese people and create a space for Japanese cultural awareness that was lacking at W&M. While it would be ideal to center Japanese students, there simply were not enough Japanese-identifying students to create a heritage or identity-based organization for Japanese students. However, there always will be people interested in Japan.

Early events included sushi parties called “Eat Sushi or Die,” which occurred frequently in the late 1990s according to posters found in Swem Special Collections from JCA.

"Eat Sushi or Die" posters from JCA's sushi party events in the late 1990s.

JCA created a scrapbook featuring members and activities from 2006-2008.