In Honor of Noriko Mizuta

I am delighted to introduce this special Issue of the Review of Japanese Culture and Society dedicated to honoring Mizuta Noriko. I can hardly think of anyone more deserving of this honor than Noriko, whose incredible ongoing career has spanned more than half a century. The variety of her achievements is in itself remarkable: They include years of studying and teaching American, British, and Japanese literature and culture, occupying high-level, extraordinarily demanding administrative positions, writing numerous scholarly books, volumes of poetry and essays, founding much-needed journals, and translating international scholarly work. In all this, Noriko has kept up front an ongoing dedication to promoting women across cultures in the best feminist tradition. Her creativity, her endless energy, and her restless insistence on improving educational opportunities for young people, is exceptional. Noriko is committed to widening the horizons of the young, something that is necessary in an increasingly global world. And all this in addition to being the mother of five lively children, all of whom went on to productive careers!

But let me talk briefly about my happy personal relationship with Noriko, starting from when, sitting one afternoon in 1986 in my office at Rutgers University, I got a surprise phone call. It was Noriko, saying that she had just finished a translation of my edited collection, Women in Film Noir, and asking if I would like to come to Japan to celebrate its publication! I was stunned and of course delighted to accept her invitation. I could not imagine the labor of translating a book about women in film when the languages involved were from such widely diverse linguistic groups. Yet Noriko had done it, and would actually do it again, indeed twice over. She managed all this while writing her scholarly publications, many of them dealing with women's writings, creativity, and gender oppression.

One of Noriko's brilliant endeavors was to imagine, and then bring about, a truly unique new educational institution in Japan, namely Josai International University. On my first visit to Japan in 1987 for the Japanese publication of Women in Film Noir, Noriko mentioned that she hoped Josai University could build on available land near Tokyo Airport. But it was just a dream. Only a few years later, however, Josai International University was up and running, bringing life and energy to the Chiba area. The buildings were beautifully designed and organized, and a delight to be in. Despite already being Vice Chancellor of the long established Josai University Educational Corporation, Noriko became President of Josai International University from 1996 to 2009 (She then became Chancellor of Josai University Educational Corporation from 2004 to 2017). Her masterstroke was to make this new International University unique in combining degrees in Business Studies with an M.A. in Women's Studies. This was a time when there were very few Women's Studies degrees being offered in Japan, so Noriko was charting new ground, perhaps partly inspired by American feminist research. I was honored to be invited to teach the first courses at Josai on Women and Film. At first I thought this was to be just for the one year, 1994; however, to my surprise and delight, Noriko in fact had arranged for me to teach a course or two once a year for four consecutive years.

I will be eternally grateful to Noriko for this wonderful opportunity to teach courses to a group of excited and engaged students. I taught one course on women and film to young women and men at the undergraduate level, with a wonderful translator, and warm human being, Takahashi Ken. Once Noriko had organized the M.A., I taught courses in English at the graduate level, mainly to enthusiastic female students. This was my first visit to Japan, and I was deeply impressed and excited to be there and to experience a culture I knew little about—or at least knew only what I had learned from Japan's extraordinary film directors!

Noriko could not have made my husband, Martin L. Hoffman, and myself more welcome, or hosted us better. She graciously included Dr. Hoffman in every visit, when everything was meticulously planned and carried out, without missing a beat. At this point, in addition to being President of the new university and Vice Chancellor of the Corporation, Noriko was also carrying on many scholarly and networking international commitments in Asia, Europe, and the United States. Her indefatigable energy was, and still is, awesome.

To cap it all, in 2006, Josai International University awarded me an Honorary Degree. This was an occasion I will never forget. Once again, Noriko generously made the occasion into a brilliant, moving, and many-layered event. We were hosted like royalty, and we met many old friends and made new ones. It was an honor I shall forever remember as typifying Noriko's generosity, brilliant organizational skills, her eloquence and grace. I feel privileged (and lucky) to have known Noriko and to have had her as a colleague and friend.