Gender, Transnational Mobility and Leadership: The Fulbright Program in Japan

The Fulbright Program commenced in Japan in 1952, at the end of the period of Allied Occupation. Since then over 6,300 Japanese have been awarded Fulbright Fellowships to the US, including several prominent women. Female Fulbright awardees have studied in the fields of the arts, journalism, humanities, business management, law, international relations, nursing, public health, science, education, sociology, medical policy and public policy and have gone on to take up leadership positions in their fields. They include Cabinet ministers, parliamentarians of all political persuasions, university professors, university presidents, artists and musicians. In this paper I provide a survey of the careers of selected female Fulbright fellows from Japan, and consider the role of international educational exchange  and transnational networks in fostering women’s leadership in professional fields in Japan.