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The Weatherhead East Asian Institute (WEAI) of Columbia University is pleased to present an online discussion of the Japanese government’s actions concerning COVID-19 and the publics reactions. Join Professors Harukata Takenaka, Gerald Curtis, and Takako Hikotani the social and political challenges that Japan faces with this global pandemic.

Japan experienced one of the early outbreaks of COVID-19 with the Princess Diamond cruise ship incident in February, and is currently seeing a return of rising case numbers throughout the country. How has the political leadership handled the situation, both at the national and local level? How has the public responded to the government’s handling of the crisis? Is there any chance that the Japanese public could become more inclined toward a populist leader if the Abe administration mishandles the situation?

The presentation will be live on the WEAI Facebook account.

This event is free to the public with registration. Please click the button below to register:

About the Speakers:

Harukata Takenaka is professor of political science at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo. He specializes in comparative politics and international political economy, with a particular focus on Japanese political economy. His research interests include democracy in Japan, and Japan’s political and economic stagnation since the 1990s. He is currently working on aborted democratization in prewar Japan, the politics of Japan’s financial crisis since the 1990s and the role of the Japanese Senate (House of Councilors) in postwar Japanese politics.

He received a B.A. from the Faculty of Law of the University of Tokyo and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University. He is the author of Senze Nihon ni okeru Minshuka no Zasetsu [Aborted Democratization in Prewar Japan], (Bokutakusha, 2002), and the co-editor of Akusesu Kokusai Seijikeizai [Access to International Political Economy],(Nihon Keizai Hyoronsha, 2003).

Professor Curtis is the author of The Logic of Japanese Politics, The Japanese Way of Politics, Election Campaigning Japanese Style, Seiji to Sanma – Nihon to Kurashite 45 nen (Politics and Saury: 45 Years Living with Japan)and numerous other books and articles written in both English and Japanese and translated into Chinese, Korean, Thai and other languages. Professor Curtis has held appointments at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, London; the College de France, Paris; the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore; and in Tokyo at Keio, Waseda, and Tokyo Universities, the Graduate Research Institute for Policy Studies, and the International Institute of Economic Studies. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Japan Society of New York, the Japan Center for International Exchange USA, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has served as Special Advisor to Newsweek for its Japanese and Korean language editions, the International Advisory Board of the Asahi Shimbun, the Advisory Council for the Center for Global Partnership of the Japan Foundation, the Trilateral Commission, the Board of Directors of the US-Japan Foundation and as Director of the U.S.-Japan Parliamentary Exchange Program.

Gerald Curtis (Ph.D., Columbia, 1968) is Burgess Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Columbia University and concurrently Distinguished Research Fellow at the Tokyo Foundation. He served as Director of Columbia’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute for a total of twelve years between 1974 and 1990.

Biographies provided by Columbia University