Yushi Ito is Director, Japanese Programme, School of Asian and European Languages and Cultures, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Recent publications include Nashonarizumu to rekishi ronso - Yamaji Aizan to sono jidai [Nationalism and Debating History - Yamaji Aizan and his Time] (Tokyo, 2005), 'National History vs Japanese History - Yamaji Aizan's View of Japan and the World' (in: Asian Futures, Asian Traditions (2005)), 'Japanese Nationalism and China's Independence - Yamaji Aizan 1865-1917' (in: Japanese Cultural Nationalism - at Home and in the Asia Pacific (2003)). His current areas of research are conflicting views of the world in modernizing Japan and the place of Okinawa in Japanese history.