The 12 Best Japanese History Podcasts (2026)

Isaac Meyer started this podcast as a PhD student in History at the University of Washington, and over a decade later it stands as one of the most comprehensive English-language resources on Japanese history available anywhere. With more than 620 episodes and counting, the show tackles everything from the mythological origins of the Japanese islands to postwar politics and contemporary pop culture. Each week Meyer picks a new topic and digs into it for around 35 minutes, striking a balance between scholarly rigor and genuine accessibility. He has covered the Heian court, the rise and fall of the samurai class, the Meiji Restoration, wartime Japan, and the country's economic miracle with equal care. Multi-part series on figures like Tokugawa Ieyasu or events like the Russo-Japanese War give listeners room to really understand the context rather than just skimming the surface. Meyer is careful about citing sources and presenting multiple historical interpretations, which gives the show a university-lecture quality without the stuffiness. The episodes on Japanese literature and poetry offer a nice change of pace from the political and military history. Rated 4.7 stars with nearly 700 reviews on Apple Podcasts, this is the show most people recommend first when someone asks where to start learning about Japan's past. Weekly releases have been consistent since 2013, making the back catalog alone worth months of listening.

Justin Hebert takes a chronological approach to Japanese history, starting from the prehistoric Jomon period and methodically working through each era. Across 15 seasons and nearly 280 episodes, the show has reached the turbulent 1930s, covering the rise of militarism, the Manchurian Incident, and the political assassinations that rocked interwar Japan. What sets this podcast apart is the pacing. Rather than rushing through centuries in a handful of episodes, Hebert lets each story breathe, often spending several months on a single historical arc. The result is something that feels more like a long-form narrative than a typical history lecture. He openly discusses the biases present in historical sources and points out where scholars disagree, which gives listeners a more nuanced picture than the standard textbook account. Episodes run about 25 minutes on a biweekly schedule, making them easy to fit into a commute or lunch break. Hebert also includes content warnings when episodes deal with violence, torture, or other heavy subjects, which is a thoughtful touch. The show's companion website offers additional reading suggestions and episode notes. Rated 4.7 stars on Apple Podcasts, the podcast has built a dedicated following among people who want to understand Japanese history in depth rather than in soundbites. The chronological structure means you can start from episode one and follow the entire story of Japan as it unfolds.

The Samurai Archives podcast grew out of one of the longest-running English-language online communities dedicated to Japanese history. Over 173 episodes recorded between 2011 and 2022, the show features roundtable discussions among knowledgeable hosts who clearly live and breathe this material. The format leans toward detailed analysis rather than storytelling, with episodes frequently running over an hour as the hosts dissect a particular battle, political maneuver, or cultural development. Interviews with academic historians and published authors add scholarly weight, covering topics from the structure of Sengoku-era castle towns to the translation challenges of Edo-period historical databases. One of the show's real strengths is how it connects historical events to modern Japanese society, explaining why a 16th-century power struggle still matters today. The back catalog covers the samurai class from its origins through the Meiji abolition, along with detours into art, literature, and material culture. Rated 4.6 stars with 260 reviews, the podcast earned a loyal audience that still hopes for new episodes after the 2022 hiatus. The discussion format means you get multiple perspectives on each topic rather than a single narrator's take. If you already have some background in Japanese history and want something that goes deeper than the introductory level, the Samurai Archives is where you should spend your time.

Joshua, who goes by the handle Sengoku Daimyo, has built something special with this chronological history of Japan that spans from prehistory through the Meiji period. With over 100 episodes and a near-perfect 4.9-star rating on Apple Podcasts, the show has earned praise for its clarity and depth. Joshua has a genuine teaching voice that makes dense material approachable without dumbing it down. He covers the transmission of Buddhism from the Asian continent, the political machinations of the Soga and Fujiwara clans, the cap rank system, and the legendary figure of Shotoku Taishi with equal enthusiasm. Episodes explore how Korean and Chinese influences shaped early Japanese culture, how royal succession disputes drove centuries of conflict, and how religious developments intertwined with political power. The monthly release schedule means each episode arrives well-researched and polished, typically running long enough to really develop a topic rather than just skimming it. What listeners particularly appreciate is how Joshua makes connections between periods, showing how decisions made in the 6th century still echoed in the 12th. The show reached its 100th episode milestone recently and shows no signs of slowing down. For anyone who wants a carefully paced walk through Japanese history with a host who genuinely enjoys the subject, this is an excellent pick.

Against Japanism takes a deliberately provocative approach to Japanese history, challenging the familiar narrative of Japan as a harmonious, homogeneous, and uniquely traditional society. Hosted by Kota, the show reframes Japanese history as a history of conflict, class struggle, and resistance, drawing on anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and intersectional perspectives. Episodes run long, often exceeding an hour, and tackle subjects that rarely get airtime in English-language media about Japan. The Buraku liberation movement, wartime labor exploitation, revolutionary feminism in the Taisho era, the Japanese Red Army, and the ongoing struggle of migrant workers all get serious attention here. Kota brings in guest scholars and activists to provide firsthand expertise, like the episode on Kazuo Ishikawa and the Sayama Incident with researcher Miho Kim. The show also digs into cultural analysis, examining how anime, film, and theater reflect and sometimes obscure Japan's history of social conflict. With 29 episodes and a 4.6-star rating from 43 reviews, the podcast has found an audience among listeners who want to understand the parts of Japanese history that tourism boards and cultural ambassadors tend to leave out. It is not a neutral overview and does not pretend to be one. If you are drawn to labor history, social movements, or leftist political theory, this podcast offers a perspective on Japan you simply will not find elsewhere in English.

Cameron Foster launched A Short History of Japan back in 2010, making it one of the earliest English-language podcasts dedicated specifically to Japanese history. Over 34 episodes, he walks through the key moments and figures that shaped Japan, with a storytelling style that emphasizes the human drama behind the dates and treaties. Foster focuses on the people, power plays, and betrayals that drove Japanese history forward, and he is not afraid to highlight the occasional blunders and miscalculations that changed the course of events. The show really hits its stride around episode 18 when it enters the Warring States period, and listeners consistently point to the Sengoku Jidai episodes as some of the best content in the series. The Tokugawa Shogunate, the rise and fall of Christianity in Japan, and the major battles of unification all get vivid treatment. Episodes run about 40 minutes and are rated 4.5 stars with 148 reviews on Apple Podcasts. The last episode dropped in 2016, so this is effectively a completed series rather than an ongoing one. That said, the back catalog holds up remarkably well and offers a concise, engaging entry point for anyone who wants the big picture of Japanese history without committing to hundreds of episodes. Think of it as a well-crafted audiobook that covers the highlights with personality and wit.

Japan Explained comes from a Kyoto-based tour guide who goes by Stray Toki, and that on-the-ground perspective makes all the difference. Rather than working through a chronological timeline, each episode takes a single topic and explores it from multiple angles, weaving history, culture, food, architecture, and mythology together. A three-part deep dive into Saigo Takamori covers the real history behind The Last Samurai, while other episodes tackle the origins of sake, the cultural significance of kitsune and tanuki in folklore, the art of ikebana, and the history of the Tokaido road. Academic guests add scholarly depth, like the episode featuring Glynne Walley discussing the Edo-period epic Hakkenden. Episodes run around 50 minutes on a biweekly schedule, giving each subject enough room to develop without overstaying its welcome. What makes the show particularly valuable is how the host connects historical context to things you can still see and experience in Japan today, drawing on years of guiding travelers through Kyoto's temples, gardens, and back streets. The podcast also maintains a YouTube channel and Instagram for visual accompaniment. With 29 episodes and a 4.4-star rating, Japan Explained occupies a useful niche between pure history podcasts and Japan travel shows, offering the kind of context that makes a visit to Japan far more meaningful.

Joe Gustin and Liam Oritz built this podcast around one of the most dramatic periods in Japanese history: the Sengoku Jidai, or the Age of the Warring States, roughly spanning from the Onin War of 1467 to the final consolidation of Tokugawa power in the early 1600s. Across 20 episodes, the show traces the arc from civil war to unification, covering the major battles, political alliances, and larger-than-life figures that defined the era. Individual profile episodes spotlight warlords and strategists, while multi-part series tackle pivotal events like the Battle of Sekigahara, Hideyoshi's Korean campaigns, and the Sieges of Osaka that ended the Toyotomi clan. The final episode, covering the fall of Osaka Castle, brought the series to a natural conclusion in 2024. Episodes are concise, typically running 10 to 15 minutes, which makes the show easy to binge in a single afternoon. The hosts keep the narrative tight and focused, avoiding tangents while still providing enough context to understand why each conflict mattered. Rated a perfect 5.0 stars on Apple Podcasts, the podcast has a small but enthusiastic audience. If you are specifically interested in the Sengoku period, perhaps because you have been watching the Shogun television series or playing Total War, this is a focused and well-paced way to get the real history behind the fiction.

Part of the New Books Network, this podcast is essentially a rolling seminar on the latest scholarship about Japan. Each episode features an in-depth interview with an author who has just published a new academic book, and the conversations typically run about an hour. Recent episodes have covered topics like race and eugenics in Japan from empire through the Cold War, the material culture of samurai, the secret politics of the atomic bomb, and narratives of divorce in Japanese women's literature. With nearly 480 episodes in the archive, the show has built up an extraordinary library of expert conversations spanning history, politics, literature, art, religion, and sociology. Host Marshall Poe and the rotating interviewers from the New Books Network ask substantive questions that push beyond the book jacket summary and get into the arguments, evidence, and debates that drive Japanese studies forward. The biweekly release schedule has been consistent for years. Rated 4.6 stars with 9 reviews on Apple Podcasts, the show does not have the mass audience of a narrative history podcast, but that is partly the point. This is the podcast for people who actually read the books, or who want to feel like they have. If you are a university student, a researcher, or just someone who reads academic monographs for fun, New Books in Japanese Studies is indispensable.

Christopher Gerteis brings an academic perspective to modern and contemporary Japanese history with this Substack-based podcast. The show zeroes in on the period from Meiji-era industrialization through the present day, covering ground that many Japan history podcasts only reach after hundreds of episodes. Episodes tackle specific themes rather than following a strict chronological sequence: the rise and fall of the Japanese Red Army, the myth of the Japanese middle class, postwar political stability and its discontents, labor and gender dynamics during industrialization, and the empty homes crisis facing modern Japan. At around 15 minutes per episode, Gerteis keeps things focused and efficient, delivering the kind of concise analysis you might get from a well-prepared university lecture. The show runs two parallel series, the main Japanese Modernity Podcast and a supplementary Deep Dive Podcast, totaling 11 episodes so far. It is a relatively new show, having launched in 2024, and does not yet have listener reviews on Apple Podcasts. But the content fills a genuine gap in the English-language podcast landscape, which tends to be heavy on premodern and wartime Japan while largely ignoring the postwar period. If you want to understand how Japan got from the Meiji Restoration to the present without wading through hundreds of hours of earlier history first, this is a smart place to start.

Public historian Jon Combey created this limited series to explore how films and television shows represent Japanese history, and whether they get it right. Across six episodes released in the summer of 2022, the show examines Seven Samurai, Princess Mononoke, the Netflix anime Yasuke about the legendary Black samurai, The Heike Story, and The Last Samurai. Each episode pairs Combey with a different guest, often another podcaster or academic specialist, to break down what the filmmakers changed, what they got right, and what the real history behind the story looks like. The Princess Mononoke episode digs into the Muromachi period and the historical role of ironworking communities, while the Seven Samurai discussion explores the actual social dynamics between samurai and farming villages in the 16th century. At about 50 minutes per episode, each installment goes deep enough to satisfy both film fans and history enthusiasts. The show earned a perfect 5.0-star rating from 5 reviewers on Apple Podcasts, with listeners praising the blend of media criticism and historical scholarship. Season 1 is a complete, self-contained series, though the host solicited feedback for a potential Season 2. If you have ever watched a Japanese period drama and wondered how much of it was real, this is exactly the podcast you have been looking for.

Justin Jacobs, a professor of history at American University, delivers what amounts to a full semester of East Asian history in podcast form, minus the tuition bill. The 61 episodes cover both China and Japan, tracing the parallel and intersecting histories of these two civilizations from their earliest origins through the modern era. Episodes on Confucius and the Analects, the steppe empires that shaped both nations, and the cultural exchanges along trade routes give Japanese history the broader Asian context it often lacks in English-language media. The lecture format runs long, with episodes frequently exceeding 90 minutes, but Jacobs brings a conversational energy that keeps the material engaging. Rated 4.8 stars from 92 reviews, the podcast has drawn praise for its passionate delivery and willingness to tackle big historiographical questions about how we understand East Asian civilizations. Some listeners note the show favors broad interpretation over granular detail, but that is partly by design. Jacobs is teaching you how to think about East Asian history, not just memorize dates. The comparative approach is particularly valuable for understanding how Japan and China influenced each other over centuries, and how their divergent paths in the modern era created the geopolitical landscape we know today. If you want the kind of wide-angle view that a good college survey course provides, Beyond Huaxia delivers it for free.