"Tito Trivia," one of the short stories included in Lost in Transition, has won the 2011 Ethnographic Fiction Prize from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology (American Anthropological Association)
Winner, 2009 Leeds Prize in Urban Anthropology from the Society for Urban, National, and Transnational/Global Anthropology (SUNTA) section of the American Anthropological Association.
Winner, 2009 Lynton Caldwell Prize, presented by the Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics section of the American Political Science Association.
Winner, Kemper and Leila Williams Prize for Excellence in Historical Scholarship (presented by Historic New Orleans Collection and the Louisiana Historical Association)
James N. Yamazaki received the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon by the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs in Los Angeles in May 1996.
Honorable Mention in the Art History and Criticism category, 2010 PROSE Awards (The American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence)