Historian Sheldon Garon will receive one of Japan’s highest honors awarded to a civilian from another country, the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon.

The award honors Garon’s contributions “to the promotion of academic exchanges and mutual understanding between Japan and the United States,” according to the official announcement from the Consulate General of Japan in New York.

The award citation noted that Garon, the Nissan Professor in Japanese Studies and professor of history and East Asian studies, has “distinguished himself in the field of modern Japanese history, contextualizing this subject through a transnational approach.” It also highlights Garon’s scholarship and teaching to expand “the globalization of Japanese academia and the mutual understanding between Japan and the United States.”

Garon has taught at Princeton for more than 40 years.