AY2020 brought challenges to all researchers, with the coronavirus pandemic sweeping across the globe, limiting access to archives, preventing conferences, and making even simple interviews far more difficult to carry out. Although most of my research resources were fortunately still available, the actual topic – in particular, my focus on the 2020 Olympics to supplement the limited Japanese government interest in the 2018 Meiji Restoration commemorations – was upended by the postponement of the Games themselves. This of course raised profound questions about what kind of Japan could be represented at the Games, or indeed whether they would go ahead at all. To adjust, I shifted my focus toward representations of collective agency, national sentiment, and international relations, leading to several publications focused on those themes. I also spoke about new directions in my research at several public lectures (held online, due to the pandemic). As a result, I was able to pursue research during the year, but it represents something of a turn from my original plans, while remaining open to the possibility that new national narratives will adjust in large part to incorporate Japan’s handling of the pandemic in comparative perspective.