Events

Past Event

"Assessing the New Abe Administration in Japan"

September 26, 2006
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
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Assessing the New Abe Administration in Japan

In partnership with the Center on Japanese Economy and Business (CJEB)
Professor Gerald L. Curtis
Burgess Professor of Political Science, Columbia University
Tuesday, September 26, 2006

On Tuesday, September 26, 2006 Professor Curtis of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute discussed the election of Shinzo Abe and analyzed its consequences for domestic and foreign policy, and its implications for the long-term evolution of Japanese politics.

Professor Curtis discussed the election of Shinzo Abe and analyzed its consequences for domestic and foreign policy, and its implications for the long-term evolution of Japanese politics .

Gerald L. Curtis is the Burgess Professor of Political Science and director of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute’s Toyota Research Program.

Professor Curtis served as director of the East Asian Institute for a total of twelve years between 1974 and 1992. He is concurrently visiting professor at the Graduate Research Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo and a faculty fellow at Japan ‘s Research Institute of Economy, Trade, and Industry (RIETI).

Professor Curtis is recognized as a leading scholar on modern Japanese politics and foreign policy and U.S. policy toward Japan and East Asia . He has an extensive list of publications in both English and Japanese. His classes at Columbia have covered Japanese politics, Japanese foreign policy, democracy in East Asia, U.S. policy in East Asia , and comparative political party analysis .

Professor Curtis is the author of Election Campaigning Japanese Style (Columbia University Press, 1971), which became a best-seller in its Japanese version, Daigishi No Tanjo. The Japanese Way of Politics (Columbia University Press, 1988) received the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize in 1989. His most recent book on Japanese politics is The Logic of Japanese Politics: Leaders, Institutions, and the Limits of Change (Columbia University Press, 1999), published in Japanese as Nagata-cho Seiji No Koubou, a book that draws on his intimate personal knowledge of Japan’s political leaders.

In 1996 Professor Curtis produced and narrated in Japanese a series of twelve half hour lecture programs for NHK television on the theme of Japanese politics in comparative perspective, later published as Nihon No Seiji O Doo Miru Ka. Professor Curtis has written extensively–and is frequently called upon as a speaker and consultant–on policy issues regarding Japan , U.S.-Japan relations, and international relations in East Asia . He is a columnist for the Chunichi Shimbun, a regular contributor to other newspapers and intellectual journals, and a frequent commentator in the mass media in the United States, Japan , and other countries. He is on the board of directors of the U.S.-Japan Foundation and the Japan Center for International Exchange, and he serves as a special advisor to Newsweek for Newsweek Japan and Newsweek Korea.

In October 2002, Professor Curtis was awarded the prestigious Japan Foundation Award in recognition of his scholarly work and his major contributions in fostering cultural exchange between Japan and the rest of the world.

Professor Curtis was decorated by the Emporer of Japan with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star in 2004.

Professor Curtis received his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1969 and, after some years as an instructor at Columbia, he joined the faculty in 1976.