Yoshio Sugimoto

He grew up in Kyoto and graduated from Kyoto University in 1964 with a BA in law and politics. He worked for three years as a staff writer for The Mainichi Shimbun, a Japanese national daily newspaper, but changed career direction enrolling in postgraduate studies in the United States where he obtained a PhD in sociology at the University of Pittsburgh in 1973.[1][2]

Sugimoto moved to Melbourne, Australia in 1973, where he began work as a lecturer/researcher at La Trobe University's sociology department. During his more than 30-year tenure at La Trobe, Sugimoto held the positions of Professor of Sociology and Dean of Social Sciences. He became a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1988.[2] In 1981, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Japanese Studies Centre, an inter-university institution based at Monash University, where he served as Foundation Director in 1981-82 and President from 1985.[3] Sugimoto's work has sought to challenge the prevailing monocultural models of Japanese society which claim it to be uniquely uniform and homogeneous. Together with Ross Mouer, he developed a multicultural model which focuses on cultural diversity and social stratification, contributing to a paradigm shift in this area.[4] Sugimoto's book An Introduction to Japanese Society, first published by Cambridge University Press in 1997 and now in its fifth edition, "conclusively challenged the traditional notion that Japan comprised a uniform culture and showed how Japan, like most countries, had subcultural diversity and class competition."[5] Sugimoto established a publishing house, Trans Pacific Press, in 2000 that specialises in producing English versions of the works of Japanese social scientists.

• 2022 Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon
• 2017 Lifetime membership, Japanese Studies Association of Australia
• 2017 The Japanese Foreign Minister's Commendation Award[6]
• 2001 Centenary Medal, Commonwealth of Australia (for service to Australian society and the humanities in the study of sociology and Asian studies)[7]
• 1988 Fellow, Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA)
• 1987 Nihon honyaku bunka-shō (Japanese translation award)

• An Introduction to Japanese Society, fifth edition. Cambridge University Press, 2021.
• Rethinking Japanese Studies: Eurocentrism and the Asia-Pacific Region, co-edited with Kaori Okano. Routledge, 2017.
• The Cambridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture, editor. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Japanese Encounters with Postmodernity, co-edited with Johann Arnason. Columbia University Press, 1995.
• The MFP Debate: A Background Reader, co-edited with Ross Mouer. La Trobe University Press, 1990.
• Constructs for Understanding Japan, co-edited with Ross Mouer. Kegan Paul International, 1989.
• The Japanese Trajectory: Modernization and Beyond, co-edited with Gavan McCormack. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
• Images of Japanese Society: A Study in the Social Construction of Reality, co-authored with Ross Mouer. Kegan Paul International, 1986.
• Democracy in Contemporary Japan, co-edited with Gavan McCormack. M.E. Sharpe, 1986.
• Popular Disturbance in Postwar Japan. Asian Research Service, 1981.