Japanese Scholar Akira Iriye Dies at 91; History Professor, Authority on Japan-U.S., International Relations

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:43 JST, January 30, 2026

Akira Iriye, a world-renowned authority on the history of international relations and professor emeritus at Harvard University, died in the United States on Tuesday, according to sources close to him. He was 91.

Based in the United States, Iriye pioneered the promotion of Japan-U.S. exchange.

Iriye was born in Tokyo and moved to the United States shortly after graduating from high school in 1953. He is a graduate of Haverford College and later earned his doctorate at Harvard University. After holding positions at the University of Chicago and elsewhere, he was appointed a professor at Harvard in 1989.

He was an advocate of “international history” research that incorporated a multilateral perspective of interactions between nations, transcending the study of an individual country’s diplomatic history. He was also credited as one of those who changed the approach to research on American diplomatic history.

Iriye was the first person of Japanese origin to serve as president of both the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and the American Historical Association.