title: Gregory Smits
text: # Gregory Smits
  
  Gregory James Smits (born 1960) is an American historian, academic, writer and Japanologist. He is a professor of Japanese history at Pennsylvania State University.
  
  ## Early life
  
  Smits was born in Columbia, Missouri. He earned a BA from the University of Florida in 1983. He was awarded a master's degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The University of Southern California granted his Ph.D.
  
  ## Select works
  
  Smit's published writings encompass 8 works in 18 publications in 2 languages and 1,101 library holdings.
  
  * The sages' scale in Japan: Nakae Tōju (1608-1648) and situational weighing, 1991
  * Visions of Ryukyu identity and ideology in early-modern thought and politics, 1999
  * Jahana Noboru: Ikinawan activist and scholar, 2002
  * The politics of culture in early twentieth century Okinawa, 2006
  * Economic thought in early modern Japan, 2010
  