Revisiting the U.S. Footprints: A critical exploration of interscholastic/intercollegiate policy debate in post-world War II Japan

Updating Ellis’s (1968), Ishii and Klopf ’s (1975), Davidson’s (1977), Becker’s (1983), and Inoue’s (1996) earlier studies on Japanese forensics, as well as extending Woods and Konishi’s (2008) more recent studies on the history of the U.S.-Japan student debate exchange, this essay will discuss some of the notable transmutations that this U.S.-grown educational technology has gone through on Japanese soil at the turn of this century. Sketching what has happened in the Japanese debate community after World War II, we specifi cally engage our

analysis on the following recent developments: (1) the crisis in traditional intercollegiate policy debate and (2) the growth of debate events and venues alternative to, and outside of, traditional college debate.