# David Howell Robert K. and Dale J. Weary Professor of Japanese History Acting Director, Program on US-Japan Relations, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs ![David Howell](/sites/g/files/omnuum4421/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/history/files/howell.jpg?itok=s8yEPl4H) smartphone [617-495-8367](tel:617-495-8367) email laptop\_windows [Personal Website](http://scholar.harvard.edu/dhowell/home) laptop\_windows [East Asian Languages and Civilizations Website](http://ealc.fas.harvard.edu/people/david-howell) *On Leave Academic Year 2025-2026* David L. Howell is Professor of Japanese History at Harvard University and Editor of the [Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies](http://www.hjas.org/). He received his B.A. from the University of Hawai’i at Hilo and Ph.D. in History from Princeton University. He taught at the University of Texas at Austin and Princeton before joining the Harvard faculty in 2010. Howell is the author of *Capitalism from Within: Economy, Society, and the State in a Japanese Fishery* (1995) and *Geographies of Identity in Nineteenth-Century Japan* (2005) as well as numerous articles. Howell's research focuses on the social history of Japan in the Tokugawa (1603–1868) and Meiji (1868–1912) periods. He is particularly interested in the ways changing political and economic institutions affected the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people over the course of the nineteenth century. His current projects include a short survey of the Meiji Restoration period and a history of human waste and garbage in the cities of Tokugawa and Meiji Japan. He is also a co-editor of a new edition of the *Cambridge History of Japan*, which is scheduled for publication in three volumes in 2020. - ## Faculty [Core Faculty](/faculty/core-faculty) - ## Last Initial (Faculty) [H](/first-letter-last-name/h) - ## Geographic Region [Japan](/region-study/japan) - ## Theme and Methodology [Social History](/theme/social-history) - ## Time Period [17th & 18th Centuries](/time-period/17th-18th-centuries) [19th Century](/time-period/19th-century)