Lynne Y Nakano is professor and Chair of the Department of Japanese Studies. She is also the Co-Director of the Gender Research Centre at the Hong Kong Institute of Asia Pacific Studies. She received a Ph.D. in anthropology from Yale University, an MPhil. from Yale University, and a BA from Carleton College. Lynne is councillor-elect for the Society for East Asian Anthropology (2025-2027), an officially recognized section within the American Anthropological Association, and is currently serving as Guest Professor at Osaka University. Lynne’s research explores changes in Japanese society including the growth of volunteerism, later marriage, increased singlehood, women as primary earners, special education and changing views and experiences of disability. She is interested in comparing Japan with other East Asian societies. Lynne is author of Community Volunteers in Japan: Everyday Stories of Social Change (Routledge, 2004) and Making Our Own Destiny: Single Women, Family, and Opportunity in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Tokyo (University of Hawaii Press, 2022).  

Lynne received the Faculty of Arts Outstanding Teaching Award in 2022, was nominated by the Faculty of Arts for the Vice Chancellor’s Exemplary Teaching Award in the same year, and received the Exemplary Teaching Award in General Education 2007-2008. Lynne is founder of the Women’s Empowerment through Financial Literacy (WEFL) Ambassador Programme that provides financial literacy education to single women and marginalized groups. Lynne developed the Programme after her research uncovered widespread demand for financial knowledge and concern about financial security among single women. The Programme is funded by the Faculty of Arts and the Department of Japanese Studies, CUHK.

Educational Background

Ph.D. Anthropology, Yale University (1998)

Contact

Email : lynnenakano@cuhk.edu.hk

Research Interests

Contemporary Japanese society, gender, family, marriage, disability, special education, comparative ethnography

Selected Publications

2022. Making Our Own Destiny: Single Women, Opportunity and Family in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

2021 [translated by Misaki Nagaoka] 糸賀一雄の思想とマーサ　ヌスバウムの能力アプローチの比較 (Comparison of the Philosophy of Kazuo Itoga and Martha C. Nussbaum’s Capability Approach)　糸賀一雄研究の新展開人と生まれて人間となる。Kazuo Watanabe, Shingo Kunimoto and Akari Unai (eds). Otsu, Shiga, Japan: Sangaku Publishing.

2016 “Single Women and the Transition to Marriage in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo.” Asian Journal of Social Science. 44:363-390.

2014 “Single Women in Marriage and Employment Markets.” In Satsuki Kawano, Glenda Roberts and Susan Long (eds) Capturing Contemporary Japan. University of Hawaii Press. Pp. 163-182.

2005 Community Volunteers in Japan: Everyday Stories of Social Change. New York and London: RoutledgeCurzon.