Marie Anchordoguy

Professor Emerita, Japan Studies and International Studies, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies,
University of Washington

Marie Anchordoguy is Professor Emerita of Japan Studies and International Studies in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington (UW). She specializes in Japan’s political economy and business system and in the economic and technological development of Asian catch-up economies. She is author of Reprogramming Japan: The High-Tech Crisis under Communitarian Capitalism, which was published by Cornell University Press and translated into Japanese and published by Bunshindo as Nihon Keizai no Saisekkei, Kyoudoutai Shihonshugi to Haiteku Sangyou no Mirai. She also authored a book titled Computers, Inc.: Japan's Challenge to IBM, published by Harvard University Press. She has written dozens of peer-reviewed articles about Japan’s capitalist system in journals such as Business History Review, Research Policy, Political Science Quarterly, and International Organization. She is interested in how Japan’s system of capitalism is evolving, and especially in innovation and Japan’s efforts to develop a strong ecosystem for start-up companies, as well as their recent policies promoting the semiconductor industry. She was co-editor of the Journal of Japanese Studies from 2004-2015.

She was Faculty Research Fellow at Harvard Business School before coming to the University of Washington, and has held fellowships from the National Science Foundation, Harvard University’s Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, the Japan Foundation, the Fulbright Commission, and Japan’s Center for Global Partnership. She was a visiting professor at Hitotsubashi and Rikkyo Universities and a Research Fellow at Japan’s National Institute of Science and Technology Policy in its Science and Technology Agency. She has served on various boards, such as the Social Science Research Council for Abe Fellowships, the Blakemore Foundation, Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies, the Journal of Japanese Studies, the Japan Policy Research Institute, and the National Bureau of Asian Research US-Japan Discussion Forum.

She chaired UW’s Japan Studies Program for 15 years during the period 2000-2024 and still teaches about East Asian economic and technological development during spring quarter. She has given over a hundred research talks globally, most recently at Foreign Trade University in Hanoi, Rikkyo University in Tokyo, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in DC, George Washington Sigur Center for Asian Studies in DC, the Association of Japanese Business Studies in Copenhagen, the British Association for Japanese Studies in the UK, the Society for Advancement of Socioeconomics in Kyoto, and Hokkaido University, among others. In 2024 she received a Commendation from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in 2025 received the Order of the Rising Sun award from the Emperor of Japan. She received a BA in Japanese Studies, a BA in Music, an MBA, and a Ph.D. in Business Administration, all from the University of California, Berkeley.