FOR MANY PEOPLE in Japanese Studies, Jim Huffman is probably best known as a scholar of Meiji journalism, and deservedly so. The Meiji press and its journalists serve as a thread connecting many of his books, from his 1980 monograph on Fukuchi Gen’ichirō to his most recent book, Down and Out in Late Meiji Japan, which uses media sources to examine the history of urban poverty in Tokyo.

I developed a special appreciation for Jim's work on the Meiji press while grappling with Meiji-era sumo coverage for my dissertation. His groundbreaking 1997 study, Creating a Public proved invaluable in several respects. The thoroughness and clarity of the work were inspiring, all the more so when I realized that the fine-grained research pre-dated the digitization that was making sources so much more accessible for me. As richly detailed as the study was, it was much more than just a survey with encyclopedic coverage. The arguments were straightforward, yet nuanced, and they provided new understandings of the press, the journalists, and perhaps most importantly, the people of Meiji Japan.

This focus on the people represents another thread in Jim's work that has enriched the field. His studies often seek to uncover the stories of the outsiders or the overlooked. A good number of his journalists in Creating a Public are muckrakers of the best sort, stirring up (much deserved) trouble for those in power. Journalist and educator Edward House, the focus of A Yankee in Meiji Japan is an outsider of a different sort. Down and Out in Late Meiji Japan, Jim's newest book is the culmination of this element of his scholarship. By bringing attention to the lived experiences of the urban poor in Japan, Jim is not only rewriting our understandings of late Meiji society and protest, but also providing a much needed reminder that poverty – past and present – does not make people any less human. These people and their stories matter.

As a professor teaching at a liberal arts college, I am particularly pleased to see that this collection includes multiple examples of a third thread in Jim's scholarship: his pedagogically-oriented works.