ASU journalism students report from Tokyo
The annual Borderlands Project sends Cronkite students to Japan to report on immigration, policy and cultural identity in Tokyo
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi prays at a memorial for victims of Japan’s 2011 earthquake in Fukushima, Japan, on March 11. The tsunami caused the meltdown of three nuclear reactors and a yearslong shutdown of the country’s whole nuclear industry. Photo courtesy Reuben J. Brown/Cronkite Borderlands Project
Students at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication recently published the annual Howard G. Buffett Foundation Borderlands Project, featuring reporting from Asia for the first time in the initiative’s 15-year history.
This year, 12 student journalists journeyed to Tokyo, one of the world’s largest and most globally connected cities, to explore a new dimension of “borderlands.”
The project — available via the school’s Cronkite News outlet and in print next month — examines how Tokyo functions as a modern border region, revealing the complex ways borders operate in an increasingly interconnected world. Students explored the systems and policies that shape Japan’s immigration experience and connected with migrants themselves through examining the Kurdish and Korean immigrant communities; business and detention policies affecting immigrants; how American politics and gas exports impact Japan; and more.
“Global energy markets shape people’s lives in enormous ways. While they’re complex and highly technical systems, they’re also shaped by culture, memory and history,” said Reuben Brown, a student pursuing a master’s degree in investigative journalism. “Without reporting in Tokyo, Fukushima and Shimizu for this story, I would not have come to understand the motivations of Japan’s energy policy to nearly the same degree.”
“Tokyo is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world and a major global hub for migration, trade, diplomacy, culture and technological exchange," said Rodrigo Cervantes, a clinical assistant professor at the Cronkite School, an award-winning international journalist and the Borderlands Project’s lead. "It is an ideal place for our students not only to report, but also to understand, empathize and, in the process, become stronger journalists and better people.”
Andrés Cediel, Buffett Foundation visiting professor of visual journalism, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation professor of practice Regina Revazova — both journalists with deep international reporting experience — also supported students’ travel and reporting.
“This was a meaningful experience in that it not only exposed students to a different culture and region of the globe, it provided context and relevance,” said Cronkite School Dean Battinto L. Batts. “I am extremely pleased that our students were able to make this journey and produce such extraordinary work. Congratulations to all of them and their professors, and a huge thank you to the Howard G. Buffett Foundation for making this possible.”
The Borderlands Project is generously supported by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The foundation’s chairman and CEO Howard Graham Buffett will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters during ASU’s spring commencement on May 11.
The annual reporting initiative has highlighted a different global borderland each year. Students travel to a region during spring break to report on its communities, conflicts and culture; the resulting stories have won numerous national and regional awards. Past trips have included countries such as the Dominican Republic, Panama, Costa Rica, Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, Hungary and Peru.
As one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world and a major global hub for trade, migration, diplomacy and cultural exchange, Tokyo broadens the initiative’s exploration of borderlands beyond physical frontiers, examining how they operate in a globalized society.
Explore the 2026 Borderlands Project here.