My research is mainly about about Japanese memories of World War II in Asia and the Pacific and their representations within Japanese-language media and popular culture. My first book, Japan's Contested War Memories: the 'memory rifts' in historical consciousness of World War II, was published by Routledge in 2007, and my article 'Reporting the 2001 textbook and Yasukuni controversies' won the 2006 Daiwa Japan Forum Prize from the British Association for Japanese Studies.

More recently my research has focused on Hokkaido history and society. I am working on a project called 'War and memory in Hokkaido', and for the Shrinking Regions Project (coordinated by Dr Peter Matanle at Sheffield University and Dr Tony Rausch at Hirosaki University) I have researched the financial collapse of the city of Yubari in Hokkaido.

In the summer of 2007 I became an associate of the online journal The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. I have contributed a number of articles (a list is here) and was editor for their coverage of the 2008 G8 Summit held at Lake Toya in Hokkaido.

Since early 2009 I have coordinated the Japan branch of the British Association for Japanese Studies. We meet twice a year for informal seminars. Interested colleagues, please get in touch.

Alongside research I consider translation to be an important part of my academic work. My translation of Kurahashi Ayako's Kempei datta chichi no nokoshita mono (English title: My Father’s Dying Wish: Legacies of War Guilt in a Japanese Family) is published by Paulownia Press.