Podcasts

Welcome to Yoyo Podcast Central, created by Yoshiko Okuyama, Ph.D., professor, author, and cultural storyteller. Drawing from her expertise in Japanese mythology, manga, and disability representation, Yoshiko explores the fascinating intersections of culture, history, and lived experiences. Each episode brings engaging conversations, untold stories, and thought-provoking insights from Japan’s rich traditions and contemporary media.

March 23, 2025

Interview of Dr. Anne-Lise Mithout

Anne-Lise Mithout is Associate Professor of Japanese Studies at Université Paris Cité and a member of the Research Center on East Asian Languages and Civilizations (CRCAO). Her research deals with the social treatment of disabled people in Japanese society. After a PhD dissertation focusing on education for children with visual impairment, she has investigated the issues of employment and social movements related to disability. She is the author of “Le coeur et le droit : le handicap dans la société japonaise” (éditions Hermann, 2025 [in French]) and of several papers in English on disability in Japan. She is currently working on a new project on the Japanese child welfare system.

Andrew Campana, an Assistant Professor of Asian Studies at Cornell University, is a scholar of modern and contemporary Japanese literature and media. His research centers on exploring moments of media transition, focusing in particular on poetry, digital media, and disability. His first book, Expanding Verse: Japanese Poetry at the Edge of Media, available in open access, was published by the University of California Press in 2024. In it, he engages with expanded poetic practice from the 1920s to the present as a site where poets in Japan grappled with new media technologies like film, tape recording, television, the internet, and augmented reality. He received his B.A in East Asian Studies from the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University.

Videos.

Who Is This Japanese Yōkai That Is Obsessed With Your Butt?

By PBS Digital Studios

February 8, 2024

What looks like a reptile-amphibian hybrid, has a dish shaped skull, smells like fish, is child-like and out to steal your crops and drown your livestock? The Japanese water yokai, Kappa.