Category: Japan-related research

Categories
Japan-related research

JPOSS #3 “How to Frame Japan-Related Research for Publications and the Job Market”

The third session of the Japanese Politics Online Seminar Series (JPOSS) took place on September 17, 2020. Phillip Lipscy (University of Toronto) chaired the seminar and moderated the question and answer session.

Amy Catalinac (NYU) discussed research framing, drawing on her own research to argue that using Japan to try to understand something general about the world can be an effective way to appeal to a wider audience in political science. Yusaku Horiuchi (Dartmouth) described his experience as faculty outside of the United States, explaining the struggles he endured but also the insights he gained. He suggested that Japan scholars should aim to write the best paper possible rather than trying to aim for lower-level journals. Dan Smith (Harvard) emphasized the importance of cultivating professional networks and making effective use of public engagement and social media. Charles Crabtree (Dartmouth) provided advice about approaching the job market, emphasizing how candidates should place Japan in a broader context to increase appeal, apply broadly, and practice self-care in a tough market. Christina Davis (Harvard) described some of the challenges of finding the right balance between Japan expertise and scholarship that appeals to the broader political science community.

The session attracted over one hundred participants, a new record for JPOSS. An active Q&A session included additional words of wisdom from Tom Le (Pomona), Susan Pharr (Harvard) and Hiroki Takeuchi (Southern Methodist) on topics such as how to approach advisors to secure strong letters of support and differences between research and teaching universities.

The organizers would like to thank the presenters, discussants, and participants, as well as the staff at the Harvard Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, who provided administrative support. We look forward to seeing you at the next session of JPOSS: https://jposs.org/

Categories
comparative politics Japan-related research

JPOSS #2 “Do Firms Benefit from the Revolving Door? Evidence from Japan”

The second session of the Japanese Politics Online Seminar Series (JPOSS) took place on August 14, 2020. Daniel Smith (Harvard) chaired the seminar and moderated the question and answer session, he also welcomed other future participants to submit papers for future sessions at https://jposs.org/submit/.

Trevor Incerti (Yale) and Hikaru Yamagishi (Yale) presented their paper, “Do Firms Benefit from the Revolving Door? Evidence from Japan.” In their presentation, Incerti and Yamagishi presented a quantitative dataset that explores an area of Japanese political economy that is widely known but less understood, the private sector hiring of former civil servants—a process known as the revolving door (or amakudari in Japanese). Incerti and Yamagishi leverage a 2009 law requiring Japanese bureaucratic agencies to report all private sector hires of former civil servants in order to build the first comprehensive dataset of revolving door hires in Japan. In addition to presenting a descriptive account of revolving door hires over the past ten years and data on Japanese government contracts, the authors discussed their plans for integrating said datasets into future research projects that explore various aspects of how Japanese firms benefit from hiring former bureaucrats.

Discussant comments were offered by Hye Young You (NYU), Yuhua Wang (Harvard), and Ulrike Schaede (UCSD). The discussion raised interesting questions about how the revolving door impacts Japanese politics and economy. The discussants and the audience also offered many constructive suggestions on possible future directions of the research.

The seminar attracted around fifty-five participants from all over the world. The organizers would like to thank the presenters, discussants, and participants, as well as the staff at the Harvard Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, who provided administrative support. We look forward to seeing you at the next session of JPOSS. You can learn more here: https://jposs.org/

Categories
comparative politics Japan-related research

JPOSS #1 “The New Consensus on Immigration? Identifying the Racial Undertones of Immigrant Selection Outside the Western Context”

The inaugural session of the Japanese Politics Online Seminar Series (JPOSS) took place on July 9, 2020. Phillip Lipscy (University of Toronto) offered welcome remarks and encouraged participants to submit papers for future sessions at https://jposs.org/submit/. Amy Catalinac (New York University) chaired the seminar and moderated the question and answer session.

Nicholas A. R. Fraser (University of Toronto) and John W. Cheng (Tsuda University) presented their paper, “The New Consensus on Immigration?: Identifying the Racial Undertones of Immigrant Selection Outside the Western Context.” In their presentation, Fraser and Cheng explored Japanese attitudes toward immigration—a topic that is increasingly salient in contemporary Japanese politics. Specifically, they discussed the results of a survey-based study that asks respondents to consider allowing randomly generated profiles of hypothetical immigrants to enter Japan. Building on previous studies that explore public support for immigration, they demonstrated that Japanese respondents tend to prefer high-skilled immigrants. Moreover, Fraser and Cheng’s study finds that Japanese tend to prefer white immigrants from developed countries over those from developing countries. Fraser and Cheng explained how their paper contributes to our understanding of Japanese immigration policy and the politics that shape it.

Discussant comments were offered by Hilary Holbrow (Harvard University), Rieko Kage (University of Tokyo), Charles Crabtree (Dartmouth College), and Yusaku Horiuchi (Dartmouth College). The discussion raised fascinating questions about whether and how racial biases in the West translate to the Japanese context. The discussants and audience also offered many constructive suggestions on the framing, research design, and analysis of the paper.

The seminar attracted around sixty participants from all over the world. The organizers would like to thank the presenters, discussants, and participants, as well as the staff at the Harvard Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, who provided administrative support. We look forward to seeing you at the next session of JPOSS. You can learn more here: https://jposs.org/