Takashi Okamoto (born 1965) is a Japanese historian specializing in modern Chinese history and the international history of East Asia. Born in Kyoto, he studied history at Kobe University and completed postgraduate work in East Asian history at Kyoto University. After teaching at the University of Miyazaki and Kyoto Prefectural University, he became a professor at Waseda University. His research examines how the regional order centered on the Qing dynasty was transformed through its encounter with Western international law and the modern nation-state, reshaping relations among China, Korea, Japan, and neighboring territories. His book “Zokkoku to Jishu no Aida” received the Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities. His representative work, “Chūgoku no Tanjō: Higashi Ajia no Kindai Gaikō to Kokka Keisei,” traces how disputes involving Ryukyu, Vietnam, Korea, Tibet, and Mongolia contributed to the formation of China as a modern territorial state.
