With over 30 Japanese citizens among the University’s academic staff, Japan ranks among the top 20 largest sources of academic talent at Oxford.
Professor Takehiko Kariya
Professor Kariya is Professor of the Sociology of Japanese Society, and a Fellow of St Antony’s College. He is also currently the Director of Graduate Studies for the master's programmes in Modern Japanese Studies. He came to Oxford in 2008 from the Graduate School of Education at the University of Tokyo, where he had been a professor of sociology of education until 2009. Professor Kariya‘s main research interests revolve around social stratification and social mobility, the social changes of Postwar Japan, and social and educational policies.
Professor Kariya studied for his BA and MA at the University of Tokyo, and moved to the United States for his PhD in Sociology at Northwestern University.
Professor Mari Sako
Professor Sako is Professor of Management Studies at the Saïd Business School, member of the Novak Druce Centre for Professional Service Firms, and a Professorial Fellow of New College, Oxford. Her research focuses on global strategy, Japanese business, and outsourcing. Professor Sako is currently investigating the way in which cost pressures are contributing to the outsourcing and offshoring of legal services, and how this impacts the way law firms operate.
Professor Sako's academic career began at Oxford where she read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE). She then studied for an MSc in Economics at the London School of Economics and an MA in Economics at Johns Hopkins University, before completing her PhD at London University in 1990.
Today there are over 85 Japanese citizens enrolled
as students at Oxford University, and the majority of them are full-time
graduate students. Almost half of these students are studying courses
in the social sciences. For Japanese undergraduates at Oxford, the most
popular courses are Physics and Philosophy, Politics and Economics. At
the graduate level, Mathematics, Mathematical Finance and Economics are
the subjects most frequently chosen by Japanese students. 
Approximately 800 Oxford alumni live in Japan today. Many are active in the joint Oxford & Cambridge Society of Tokyo, and in the newly established Oxford University Japan Society. Both societies hold a number of informal social events each year. 
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