Rei Okamoto Inouye

Rei Okamoto Inouye was born in Tokyo and raised in Saitama, Japan. After graduating from Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo (BA in English and American Literature), Dr. Inouye worked as a book editor in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, religion, and social work. She came to the United States to pursue graduate studies and received a master’s degree in journalism and a PhD in mass media and communication from Temple University. While in graduate school, she began teaching Japanese language and popular culture courses at Temple and Rutgers. As a PhD candidate, she also taught full-time at Oberlin College for one year.

After completing her PhD, Dr. Inouye came to Northeastern in 1998 and has taught Japanese language courses at all levels, including “Introduction to Japanese Pop Culture” and “Japanese Film.” Her research interest is in Japanese mass media and popular culture, particularly wartime manga (Japanese comic books) and anime (Japanese TV and film animation). Her dissertation focuses on pictorial propaganda in Japanese comic art during World War II, and she has published book chapters and journal articles on wartime manga. Her essay, “Theorizing Manga: Nationalism and Discourse on the Role of Wartime Manga,” was published in Mechademia 4: War/Time in Fall 2009.