Welcome to Hiro Sasada’s website.

My name is Hironori Sasada. I am Associate Professor of international studies in the Office of International Affairs at Hokkaido University.

About me
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Research
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Teaching

I am originally from Kumamoto, Japan. After graduating from a high school in Kumamoto, I moved to the United States to study politics and lived there for 15 years. I received my B.A. in political science at U.C. Berkeley, my M.A. in international relations at U.C. San Diego, and my Ph.D. in political science at the University of Washington in Seattle. My research interests include political economy, party politics, and foreign policy of Japan and East Asia. I am the author of The Evolution of the Japanese Developmental State: Institutions Locked-in by Ideas (Routledge, 2012). The book was also published in Japanese and Korean. My recent articles appeared in The Japanese Political Economy, Journal of East Asian Studies, Japanese Journal of Political Science, Asian Journal of Political Science, and The SAIS Review.

My research interests include political economy, party politics, and foreign policy of Japan and East Asia. Currently, I am researching the Japanese government’s agricultural trade policies from a view point of historical institutionalism. My latest article “The ‘Third Arrow’ or Friendly Fire? The LDP Government’s Reform Plan for the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives” appeared in the November 2015 issue of The Japanese Political Economy. Another article “Alternative Paths to Party Polarization: External Impacts of Intraparty Organization in Japan” (co-authored with N. Fujimura and S. Machidori) appeared in The Journal of East Asian Studies in September 2013.

Research »

Books:

Journal Articles:

(Peer-reviewed articles)

“The ‘Third Arrow’ or Friendly Fire? The LDP Government’s Reform Plan for the Japanese Agricultural Co-op,” in Japanese Political Economy, Vol. 41 No. 1-2, 2015, pp.1-22..
“Alternative Paths to Party Polarization: External Impacts of Intraparty Organization in Japan” coauthored with N. Fujimura and S. Machidori in Journal of East Asian Studies, Vol. 13, No. 3, December 2013, pp.409-441.
“The Impact of Rural Votes in Foreign Policies: The FTA Policies under the DPJ government in Japan” in Asian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 21, No. 3, December 2013, pp.224-248.
「統制会・業界団体制度の発展過程 ― 経路依存とアイディア」 [Institutional Evolution of Industrial Associations in Japan: Path Dependency and Idea]” in 『レヴァイアサン』, Vol. 48, Spring 2011, pp.131-149.
“The Electoral Origin of Japan’s Nationalistic Leadership: Primaries in the LDP Presidential Election and the Pull-Effect” in Journal of East Asian Studies, Vol.10, No.1, January 2010, pp.1-30.
“Japan’s New Agricultural Trade Policy and Electoral Reform: ‘Agricultural Policy in an Offensive Posture [seme no nōsei],’” in Japanese Journal of Political Science, Vol. 9. No. 2, August 2008, pp. 121-144.