Dr. Kaoru Iokibe presents Distance, Time, Crossroad, and Expansion: Basic Elements of the Modern Japanese History. Dr. Kaoru Iokibe is Professor at University of Tokyo Graduate Schools for Law and Politics. His research focuses on the political and diplomatic history of modern Japan. At this event, he presents a provocative and insightful analysis of the history of Modern Japan. Dr. Kaoru Iokibe is author of two books, one about the formation of the opposition party in Japan ( 2003) and the second about Meiji Japan’s restoration of sovereignty through the revision of “unequal treatises” (2010). His third book, Renegotiating Japan's Unequal Treaties: A Window on Late Nineteenth-Century Diplomacy is forthcoming in 2019. Currently, Dr. Kaoru Iokibe’s is studying the history of political lies and challenges to them in the form of rhetoric and literature. This event is sponsored with Consular Office of Japan, Anchorage and the UAA Department of History.