Kenneth B. Pyle (born April 20, 1936 in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania) is a Japan historian and professor emeritus of History and International Studies at the University of Washington Seattle campus.[1][2] He earned his BA from Harvard College in 1958. Since earning his PhD in Japanese History from Johns Hopkins University in 1965,[1][3] he has become a major figure in the area of Japan studies, publishing several books on Japan and its international relations, serving as the first editor of the Journal of Japanese Studies from 1974 to 1986 and director of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington from 1978 to 1988, and appointed by President George H. W. Bush to chair the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission from 1992 to 1995.[1][4] In 1998, the Japanese government awarded Pyle with the Order of the Rising Sun,[5] and in 2008 he received the Japan Foundation Award for Japanese Studies.[3]
Pyle is Founding President of The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank, and serves on the organization's Board of Directors. In 2006, NBR created The Kenneth B. and Anne H.H. Pyle Center For Northeast Asian Studies, a research center focused on Northeast Asian political and security issues.[6]