The Japanese government announced that it is awarding the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays and Neck Ribbon to Frank K. Upham, the Wilf Family Professor of Property Law emeritus at NYU School of Law and co-founder of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute. It is one of the highest honors that the government of Japan confers upon foreign nationals.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ announcement said that Professor Upham was being honored for his contributions “to developing Japanese studies in the United States and promoting mutual understanding between Japan and the United States.” The Consulate General of Japan in New York added: “Professor Upham has actively promoted exchange among legal professionals and scholars in the U.S. and Asian countries including Japan, and has contributed to the globalization of the Japanese legal profession and the building of networks among the Japanese, U.S., and Asian legal communities.”

Professor Upham’s scholarship has focused on Japan. His book Law and Social Change in Postwar Japan received the Thomas J. Wilson Prize from Harvard University Press in 1987. The book became a standard reference for discussions of Japanese law and its social and political role in contemporary Japan.

Professor Upham graduated from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and Harvard Law School. He joined the NYU Law faculty in 1994 after teaching at Ohio State, Harvard, and Boston College law schools. He also spent considerable time at various institutions in Asia, including as a Japan Foundation Fellow and visiting scholar at Doshisha University in 1977 and a research fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at Sophia University in 1986.

For many years, Professor Upham taught first-year property law, law and development, and a variety of courses and seminars on comparative law and society. Since retiring in 2022, he has been teaching a fall semester seminar called Law, Film and Culture.