Ra Mason

After completing his double-degree PhD (University of Sheffield/Tohoku University), and a teaching fellowship in Japanese Studies at the University of Leeds, Ra secured a full-time post as Lecturer and Course Leader of Asia Pacific Studies at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). Whilst at UCLan, he was then awarded a JSPS Fellowship to research nationalism in Okinawa at the University of the Ryukyus, before being appointed as Associate Professor of Public Policy at Tohoku University. Ra has authored or co-authored a number of books and articles on Japan’s foreign policy and regional security, with a specific disciplinary focus on the role of risk in international relations, as well as having written regularly for the ASAN Forum, Asahi Shimbun’s Asia Japan Watch (AJW) and The Conversation.