EJARN members
EJARN brings together researchers specializing in Japanese politics, economics, business, security, and Europe-Japan relations. The network includes scholars from universities and research institutes across Europe, Japan, and beyond.
Shogo Akagawa
Shogo Akagawa is a journalist currently working for the Japanese newspaper Nikkei as editor-in-chief for EMEA, based in London. He is also a lecturer at Freie Universität Berlin.
Axel Berkofsky
Axel Berkofsky is a professor at the University of Pavia, Italy, and a senior associate research fellow at the Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale (ISPI) in Milan, Italy.
Verena Blechinger-Talcott
Verena Blechinger-Talcott is the Chair of Japanese Politics and Political Economy at the Institute of East Asian Affairs, Freie Universität Berlin.
Beata Bochorodycz
Beata Bochorodycz is an associate professor at the Institute of Oriental Studies at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. Her research focuses on Japanese politics, diplomacy and foreign policy, U.S.-Japan relations and the Okinawa issue, as well as social movements and civil society.
Guibourg Delamotte
Guibourg Delamotte, a French and Australian dual citizen, is a tenured professor of political science at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco) in Paris. She teaches in Inalco’s Japanese studies department, which she headed in 2024–2025. She also teaches at Sciences Po Paris.
Bart Gaens
Bart Gaens works as a leading research fellow in the Global Security Research Programme at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) in Helsinki. He also holds the title of docent at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Helsinki.
Linus Hagström
Linus Hagström is a professor of political science and director of studies for the PhD program in political science at the Swedish Defence University. Additionally, he is an editorial board member of Pacific Affairs, Journal of Peace and War Studies, and Journal of Northeast Asian History.
Chris Hughes
Chris Hughes is a professor of international politics and Japanese studies and pro-vice-chancellor (education) at the University of Warwick. Previously, he was a research associate at the Institute for Peace Science, Hiroshima University (IPSHU).
Michal Kolmaš
Michal Kolmaš is an associate professor and chair of Asian studies at Metropolitan University Prague in the Czech Republic. Previously, he was a visiting fellow at the University of Massachusetts Boston in the United States, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, and Hokkaido University in Japan.
Pekka Korhonen
Pekka Korhonen is a professor of world politics at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. He began his studies on Japan in 1986 as a visiting research student at the University of Tokyo, focusing on Japanese foreign policy. Since then, Japan has remained a central focus of his work, while he has also sought to avoid becoming a “Japanologist,” by which he means a researcher focused solely on Japan.
Sébastien Lechevalier
Sébastien Lechevalier is an economist and a professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, specializing in the Japanese economy and Asian capitalisms. He is also the founder and president of the Fondation France-Japon de l’EHESS (FFJ).
Eva Liias
Eva Liias is a Research Fellow at the European Institute of Japanese Studies at the Stockholm School of Economics. She is also affiliated with the University of Tartu School of Economics and Business Administration.
Wrenn Yennie Lindgren
Wrenn Yennie Lindgren is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Center for Asian Research at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). She is also an Associate Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI).
Paul Midford
Paul Midford is Professor of International Relations at Meiji Gakuin University in Yokohama, Japan. He specializes in Japanese foreign and security policy, and East Asian regional politics and security.
Richard Nakamura
Richard Nakamura has conducted research on the Japanese economy, business, and industry since the late 1990s. His work has primarily focused on longitudinal studies of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) processes in Japan, where he has analyzed productivity and organizational effects using both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Ian Neary
Ian Neary is Emeritus Fellow of the Nissan Institute and St Antony’s College at the University of Oxford. He retired from his position as Professor of the Politics of Japan in the Department of Politics and International Relations in September 2019.
Patricia A. Nelson
Patricia A. Nelson researches and publishes on institutional change and the logic of inter-organizational institutions, foreign direct investment in high-technology sectors, government-business relations, and business history.
John Nilsson-Wright
John Nilsson-Wright (formerly Swenson-Wright) is a Senior University Lecturer at the University of Cambridge and an Official Fellow at Darwin College. He is also concurrently Senior Research Fellow for Northeast Asia and Korea Foundation Korea Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House.
Maaike Okano-Heijmans
Maaike Okano-Heijmans is a Senior Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael in The Hague. She is also a Visiting Lecturer at Leiden University, where she teaches “Non-Western Diplomacy” in the Master of Science in International Relations and Diplomacy (MIRD).
Paul O’Shea
Paul O’Shea is Senior Lecturer at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies at Lund University. He was awarded the title of Docent by Lund University in 2019.
Norbert Palanovics
Norbert Palanovics is a Hungarian scholar and Hungary’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Japan.
Giulio Pugliese
Dr. Giulio Pugliese is Departmental Lecturer in Japanese Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. He specializes in domestic Japanese and international politics, and the international economics of the Asia-Pacific, with a focus on Japan, China, and the United States.
Annette Skovsted Hansen
Annette Skovsted Hansen, PhD, is Associate Professor of Japanese History at Aarhus University in Denmark. She is spokesperson for the Association of Development Researchers in Denmark (FAU), a member of the Consultative Committee for Development Research (FFU) under the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a member of the editorial committee for Forum for Development Studies.
Dick Stegewerns
Dick Stegewerns is Associate Professor at the University of Oslo, where he teaches courses on modern and contemporary Japanese history, international relations, politics, society, culture, and film.
Cornelia Storz
Cornelia Storz is Professor of Economic Institutions, Innovation and East Asian Development at Goethe University Frankfurt.
Patrik Ström
Patrik Ström is Director of the European Institute of Japanese Studies (EIJS) at the Stockholm School of Economics and Associate Professor of Economic Geography.
Kenji Suzuki
Kenji Suzuki is Dean and Professor at the School of Global Japanese Studies at Meiji University in Tokyo. He is also Representative Director of the Japan Institute of Scandinavian Studies (JISS) and Senior Research Associate at the European Institute of Japanese Studies at the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden.
Marie Söderberg
Marie Söderberg is Professor at the European Institute of Japanese Studies at the Stockholm School of Economics.
Wilhelm M. Vosse
Wilhelm Vosse is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo, Japan, where he has also served as Director of the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) and Department Chair.
Bryce Wakefield
Bryce Wakefield is National Executive Director of the Australian Institute of International Affairs.
Executive Committee Members
Dr. Patrik Ström,
Patrik.strom@hhs.se
Dr. Axel Berkofsky,
Axel.Berkofsky@unipv.it
Professor Christopher Hughes,
c.w.hughes@warwick.ac.uk
Dr. Paul Midford,
Paulmid@k.meijigakuin.ac.jp
Professor Cornelia Storz,
storz@wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de
Dr. Sébastien Lechevalier,
sebastien.lechevalier@ehess.fr
Dr. Maaike Okano-Heijmans,
mheijmans@clingendael.nl
Shogo Akagawa
Shogo Akagawa is a journalist currently working for the Japanese newspaper Nikkei as editor-in-chief for EMEA, based in London. He is also a lecturer at Freie Universität Berlin.
He began his career after working as a trainee at several European banks. In 1999, he was awarded the Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association Prize for Journalism. He has published numerous interviews with European heads of state and central bank governors, as well as articles and books, and has given lectures in Japan and Europe.
He holds a BA in economics from Keio University and a master’s degree and doctorate in political science from Freie Universität Berlin.
Website: https://researchmap.jp/AkagawaDr?lang=ja
Email: shogo.akagawa@nex.nikkei.com
Axel Berkofsky
Axel Berkofsky is a professor at the University of Pavia, Italy, and a senior associate research fellow at the Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale (ISPI) in Milan, Italy.
Dr. Berkofsky has published extensively on Japanese foreign and security policy, China, and EU-Asia relations, and he is a regular contributor to journals, magazines, newspapers, and online publications.
He is a member of the EJARN executive committee.
Email: Axel.Berkofsky@unipv.it
Verena Blechinger-Talcott
Verena Blechinger-Talcott is the Chair of Japanese Politics and Political Economy at the Institute of East Asian Affairs, Freie Universität Berlin.
Before joining the faculty of Freie Universität Berlin, she held appointments as an assistant professor of government at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY (2003–2004), and as an Advanced Research Fellow in the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at Harvard University (2002–2003). From 1997 to 2002, she was a research fellow and later head of the Social Science Section (1999–2002) and deputy director (2001–2002) at the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ), Tokyo. In 2008, she was a visiting professor at the Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo.
Her research interests include Japanese politics in a comparative perspective, institutional change in Japanese politics, and government-business relations in both domestic politics and international relations. Her current research project focuses on corporate social responsibility and social business in Japan.
She is the author of many articles and book chapters. Her main publications include the monograph Governing Japan: Political System, Reform Processes and International Relations in Comparative Perspective (co-editor), Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2006.
Website: www.fu-berlin.de/e/oas/japanologie/institut/mitarbeiter/professoren/blechinger/index.html
Email: vblechin@zedat.fu-berlin.de
Beata Bochorodycz
Beata Bochorodycz is an associate professor at the Institute of Oriental Studies at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. Her research focuses on Japanese politics, diplomacy and foreign policy, U.S.-Japan relations and the Okinawa issue, as well as social movements and civil society.
Her recent publications include Japan’s Foreign Policy Making: Central Government Reforms, Decision-Making Processes, and Diplomacy (co-authored with K. Żakowski and M. Socha; Springer, 2018); Fukushima and Civil Society: Japanese Anti-Nuclear Movement from the Socio-Political Perspective (Routledge, 2022; published in Japanese by Akashi Shoten in 2024); and “The security policy community and the consensus on the U.S.–Japan alliance: The role of think tanks, experts, and alliance managers,” The Pacific Review (2024, pp. 1–31).
Beata Bochorodycz holds an MA in Japanese studies from Adam Mickiewicz University and an MA in political science from Kyushu University in Japan, as well as a PhD and habilitated PhD (dr hab.) from the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. She has received scholarships from the International Rotary Club, the Japanese Ministry of Education, the Japan Foundation, and the Fulbright Foundation. She has worked and stayed as a visiting researcher at Yokohama National University; the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.; the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London; and the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo.
Email: bochorod@amu.edu.pl
Guibourg Delamotte
Guibourg Delamotte, a French and Australian dual citizen, is a tenured professor of political science at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco) in Paris. She teaches in Inalco’s Japanese studies department, which she headed in 2024–2025. She also teaches at Sciences Po Paris.
She is a research fellow at the French Research Institute on East Asia (IFRAE/UMR 8043) and a visiting senior research fellow at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), University of Tokyo (attached to the ROLES project). She is also a distinguished research fellow at the Japan Forum on International Relations (JFIR), Tokyo, and an academic fellow at the Institute for Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University Japan in Tokyo. She was among the first visiting fellows at the National Institute of Defense Studies (Ministry of Defense, Tokyo). She has been a member of EJARN since its creation.
She holds degrees in law from the University of Oxford and Panthéon-Assas University, in PPE and comparative politics from Sciences Po Paris, and in Japanese studies from Inalco. She defended her doctorate in political studies on Japan’s defense policy at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and her habilitation to supervise doctoral students at Sciences Po Paris on Japanese democracy.
Her published work includes Le Japon, un leader discret (Eyrolles, 2023), La Démocratie au Japon, singulière et universelle (École normale supérieure Éditions, 2022), and, as co-editor, Géopolitique et géoéconomie du monde contemporain: Conflits et puissances (La Découverte, 2025), and The Abe Legacy: How Japan Has Been Shaped by Abe Shinzō (Lexington, 2021).
Email: gdelamotte@inalco.fr
Bart Gaens
Bart Gaens works as a leading research fellow in the Global Security Research Programme at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) in Helsinki. He also holds the title of docent at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Helsinki.
In the past, he has worked as a project director for FIIA’s Center on U.S. Politics and Power (CUSPP), as a professor of Japanese studies at the University of Helsinki, and as a specially appointed associate professor at Osaka University in Japan.
He has published on Europe-Asia interregionalism and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) process, Japan’s foreign policy and regional role, India’s foreign policy and relations with the EU, domestic politics in Myanmar, and security-related issues in the Indo-Pacific region. He has also co-edited volumes and reports on connectivity, EU-Asia relations, the U.S.-China rivalry, transatlantic relations, and Japan’s search for strategic partnerships.
Website: https://www.fiia.fi/en/expert/bart-gaens
Email: bart.gaens@fiia.fi
Linus Hagström
Linus Hagström is a professor of political science and director of studies for the PhD program in political science at the Swedish Defence University. Additionally, he is an editorial board member of Pacific Affairs, Journal of Peace and War Studies, and Journal of Northeast Asian History.
Hagström’s research focuses on identity, power, and international security, including the role of discourse, narrative, and discipline. Empirically, he focuses on East Asian international politics, with a special emphasis on Japan.
Hagström has recently published articles in The International Spectator, Life Writing, Review of International Studies, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, International Studies Review, Journal of Japanese Studies, Survival, European Political Science, The Washington Quarterly, and European Journal of International Relations, and has edited special issues for Asian Perspective, The Pacific Review, and Cambridge Review of International Affairs.
Website: https://www.fhs.se/sc/profilsida.html?identity=400.516db7771614259560644385
Email: linus.hagstrom@fhs.se
Chris Hughes
Chris Hughes is a professor of international politics and Japanese studies and pro-vice-chancellor (education) at the University of Warwick. Previously, he was a research associate at the Institute for Peace Science, Hiroshima University (IPSHU). From 2000 to 2001, he was a visiting associate professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo, and in 2006 he held the Asahi Shimbun Visiting Chair of Mass Media and Politics at the Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo.
He has been a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and a visiting scholar at the East Asia Institute, Freie Universität Berlin. In 2009–2010, he was the Edwin O. Reischauer Visiting Professor of Japanese Studies at Harvard University. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford (BA and MA), the University of Rochester (MA), and the University of Sheffield (MA and PhD). He has received research scholarships from the Japanese Ministry of Education, the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee, the European Union, the British Council, and the British Academy.
He is the author of Japan’s Reemergence as ‘Normal’ Military Power (2004), Japan’s Remilitarisation (2009), and Japan’s Foreign and Security Policy under the ‘Abe Doctrine’ (2015). He is a co-editor of The Pacific Review.
His research interests include Japanese foreign and security policy, Japanese international political economy, regionalism in East Asia, Japanese radicalism and terrorism, post-Cold War traditional and non-traditional security policy, U.S.-Japan alliance relations, North Korea’s external political and economic relations, and globalization and security. He is a member of the EJARN executive committee.
Website: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/hughes
Email: c.w.hughes@warwick.ac.uk
Michal Kolmaš
Michal Kolmaš is an associate professor and chair of Asian studies at Metropolitan University Prague in the Czech Republic. Previously, he was a visiting fellow at the University of Massachusetts Boston in the United States, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, and Hokkaido University in Japan.
He focuses on and has published on Japanese foreign policy, national identity, environmental norms, animal rights, and climate politics in journals including The Pacific Review, Social Science Japan Journal, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Australian Journal of International Affairs, Japanese Journal of Political Science, and International Relations of the Asia-Pacific. His latest book, National Identity and Japanese Revisionism, was published by Routledge in 2019.
Email: michal.kolmas@mup.cz
Pekka Korhonen
Pekka Korhonen is a professor of world politics at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. He began his studies on Japan in 1986 as a visiting research student at the University of Tokyo, focusing on Japanese foreign policy. Since then, Japan has remained a central focus of his work, while he has also sought to avoid becoming a “Japanologist,” by which he means a researcher focused solely on Japan.
His research instead spans international political economy, world politics, and geopolitics, and methodologically he specializes in conceptual, rhetorical, and narrative analysis.
During the 1990s, he focused in particular on Asian and Pacific integration, which resulted in the books Japan and the Pacific Free Trade Area (Routledge, 1994) and Japan and Asia Pacific Integration: Pacific Romances 1968–1996 (Routledge, 1998). In recent decades, he has primarily studied the conceptual history of Asia over the past 2,500 years, across several languages and cultural contexts, including Japan. He has written on the subject in Japanese アジアの西の境 (International Research Center for Japanese Studies, 2000) and in a number of articles in Finnish, Swedish, and English.
Website: http://users.jyu.fi/~pkonen/PekkaKorhonenJYU/Etusivu.html
Email: pekka.a.korhonen@jyu.fi
Sébastien Lechevalier
Sébastien Lechevalier is an economist and a professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, specializing in the Japanese economy and Asian capitalisms. He is also the founder and president of the Fondation France-Japon de l’EHESS (FFJ).
Trained as a labor economist, he has published extensively on various dimensions of the Japanese economy in a comparative perspective, including Lessons from the Japanese Experience: Towards an Alternative Economic Policy? (ENS Éditions, 2016). His book The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism (Routledge, 2014) was published in three languages and has been cited as one of the most influential works on the Japanese economy published during the last decade.
His other research interests include innovation (Innovation Beyond Technology, Springer, 2019), industrial policy (“Financialization and industrial policies in Japan and Korea: Evolving complementarities and loss of state capabilities,” Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 2019, Vol. 48), and inequality and redistribution (“Decomposing Preference for Redistribution: Beyond the Trans-Atlantic Perspective,” forthcoming).
Website: https://sebastienlechevalier.wordpress.com/
Eva Liias
Eva Liias is a Research Fellow at the European Institute of Japanese Studies at the Stockholm School of Economics. She is also affiliated with the University of Tartu School of Economics and Business Administration.
Her academic background spans Japanese studies, Chinese studies, and linguistics at the University of Tübingen. She received her PhD in Japanese Studies from the Free University of Berlin, where her doctoral research examined Japanese responses to the internationalization of higher education. She has also studied at Sophia University and conducted research at the University of Tokyo.
Before beginning her doctoral studies, she worked in China for several years. That experience sparked her interest in higher education policy, internationalization, and intercultural communication.
Her research focuses on EU–Japan relations in geopolitics, geoeconomics, business and trade, and digital and green cooperation, with particular attention to Nordic-Baltic and Japanese perspectives. Her current work examines EU–Japan trade relations and the Indo-Pacific, agri-food trade and non-tariff barriers, business model innovation, the green transformation of Japanese general trading companies (sōgō shōsha), and broader questions of economic security.
More recently, she has explored the growing strategic role of space and emerging space ecosystems in EU–Japan relations.
Email: eva.liias@hhs.se
Wrenn Yennie Lindgren
Wrenn Yennie Lindgren is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Center for Asian Research at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). She is also an Associate Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI).
Her main research interests include Japanese politics and foreign policy, foreign policy analysis and legitimation, identity politics, international relations in East Asia and the Indo-Pacific, and Asia-Arctic diplomacy.
Wrenn’s peer-reviewed work has appeared in, among others, The Pacific Review, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, Japanese Journal of Political Science, Asian Perspective, Asian Politics & Policy, Polar Geography, and Journal of Eurasian Studies.
She co-edited the volume China and Nordic Diplomacy (Routledge, 2018) and contributed chapters on Japan to Kinship in International Relations (Routledge, 2018) and The Routledge Handbook of Arctic Security (Routledge, 2020).
Wrenn holds a PhD in International Relations from Stockholm University. She was a Japan Foundation Fellow at Meiji University from 2018–2020 and a visiting fellow at Waseda University’s Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies (GSAPS) in Tokyo.
Website: https://www.nupi.no/en/about-nupi/employees/researchers/wrenn-yennie-lindgren
E-mail: wyl@nupi.no
Paul Midford
Paul Midford is Professor of International Relations at Meiji Gakuin University in Yokohama, Japan. He specializes in Japanese foreign and security policy, and East Asian regional politics and security.
Midford has published in International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, Security Studies, The Pacific Review, Asian Survey, and Japan Forum.
He is the author of Rethinking Japanese Public Opinion and Security: From Pacifism to Realism? (Stanford University Press, 2011) and Overcoming Isolationism: Japan’s Leadership in East Asian Security Multilateralism (Stanford University Press, 2020).
He is co-editor, together with Wilhelm Vosse, of Japan’s New Security Partnerships: Beyond the Security Alliance (Manchester University Press, 2018) and New Directions in Japan’s Security: Non-U.S.-Centric Evolution (Routledge, 2020).
Midford received his PhD in Political Science from Columbia University in 2001. He previously taught at Kanazawa University, Lafayette College, Kwansei Gakuin University, and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.
He is a member of the EJARN Executive Committee.
Email: Paulmid@k.meijigakuin.ac.jp
Richard Nakamura
Richard Nakamura has conducted research on the Japanese economy, business, and industry since the late 1990s. His work has primarily focused on longitudinal studies of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) processes in Japan, where he has analyzed productivity and organizational effects using both quantitative and qualitative methods.
In 2005, he received his PhD from the Stockholm School of Economics with the thesis Motives, Partner Selection and Productivity Effects of M&As: The Pattern of Japanese Mergers and Acquisitions.
His current research examines the micro-level effects of changing foreign direct investment (FDI) patterns in Japan and the Nordic region, with a particular focus on Japanese and Chinese FDI. He is also studying the effects of the Bank of Japan’s quantitative easing (QE) regime on the credit-guarantee scheme for Japanese SMEs.
In addition to his research, he teaches international business, globalization, business ethics, applied organizational theory, and research methodology at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg.
Areas of specialization include international business studies, Japanese and East Asian industry and business, FDI, and the efficiency effects of M&As on production and organization.
Email: Richard.nakamura@gu.se
Ian Neary
Ian Neary is Emeritus Fellow of the Nissan Institute and St Antony’s College at the University of Oxford. He retired from his position as Professor of the Politics of Japan in the Department of Politics and International Relations in September 2019.
He previously taught Japanese politics at the Universities of Huddersfield, Newcastle, and Essex, and has been a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Saitama, Fukuoka, and Kyushu.
His research has focused on policymaking in Japan, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry, and on comparative studies of human rights implementation in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
In 2010, he published a biography of Matsumoto Jiichiro (1887–1966), a human rights activist, businessman, and left-wing politician.
He has also published the textbook The State and Politics in Japan (2002; 2nd edition, 2019) and a translation of Teraki and Kurokawa’s Hisabetsu Buraku no Rekishi (Renaissance Books, 2019).
He is currently working on a study of the development and impact of Dowa policy.
Email: ian.neary@nissan.ox.ac.uk
Patricia A. Nelson
Patricia A. Nelson, Senior Research Fellow at the European Institute of Japanese Studies (EIJS), researches and publishes on institutional change and the logic of inter-organizational institutions, foreign direct investment in high-technology sectors, government-business relations, and business history.
She received her PhD in International Political Economy from the University of Warwick, where she studied under Susan Strange.
She subsequently received postdoctoral fellowships from the Social Science Research Council and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at Hitotsubashi University, as well as from the Program on U.S.–Japan Relations at Harvard University.
She has also held academic appointments in the United Kingdom and Japan, including at the University of Edinburgh Business School, Seijo University, and Keio University.
Email: nelson.p.a@gmail.com
John Nilsson-Wright
John Nilsson-Wright (formerly Swenson-Wright) is a Senior University Lecturer at the University of Cambridge and an Official Fellow at Darwin College. He is also concurrently Senior Research Fellow for Northeast Asia and Korea Foundation Korea Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House.
He served as Head of the Chatham House Asia Programme from March 2014 to October 2016. He is a graduate of Christ Church and St Antony’s College, Oxford, and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
His research focuses on Cold War history and contemporary international relations in Northeast Asia, with particular reference to Japan and the Koreas.
He is the author and editor of several books, including Unequal Allies? United States Security and Alliance Policy Toward Japan 1945–1960 (Stanford University Press, 2004), Crisis of Peace and New Leadership in Korea: Lessons of Kim Dae-jung’s Legacies (Yonsei University Press, 2014), The Politics and International Relations of Modern Korea (Routledge, 2016), and Global Britain and Proactive Japan: Developing a 21st Century Partnership (Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2019).
His recent articles include “Nuclear Crisis on the Korean Peninsula: Strategic Adaptation, the Abe Administration and Extended Deterrence in the Face of Uncertainty” in Japan Forum (2018) and “Creative Minilateralism in a Changing Asia: Opportunities for Security Convergence and Cooperation between Australia, India, and Japan” published by Chatham House (2017).
His current research examines populism and identity politics as contemporary and historical phenomena in both Europe and Northeast Asia.
Websites:
https://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/directory/nilssonwrightjohn
http://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/network/john-nilsson-wright/
http://www.chathamhouse.org/research/regions/asia
Maaike Okano-Heijmans
Maaike Okano-Heijmans is a Senior Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael in The Hague. She is also a Visiting Lecturer at Leiden University, where she teaches “Non-Western Diplomacy” in the Master of Science in International Relations and Diplomacy (MIRD).
Her main research interests include connectivity, economic diplomacy, and international relations in EU–Asia relations, with a particular focus on China and Japan. A key question underlying much of her work is how developments in these fields affect Europe, the European Union, and, in particular, the Netherlands.
Since joining Clingendael in 2006, she has also worked on consular affairs and diplomacy, sometimes referred to as “citizen security” or “duty of care.”
Maaike leads Clingendael’s projects on “Geopolitics, Great Powers and Global Governance” for the Dutch ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense. She is a regular speaker at Track 1.5 dialogues, think tanks, and universities in Europe and Asia.
She received her PhD from the University of Antwerp in Belgium and holds Master degrees from the University of Amsterdam and Waseda University in Tokyo.
Website: https://www.clingendael.org/person/maaike-okano-heijmans
Paul O’Shea
Paul O’Shea is Senior Lecturer at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies at Lund University. He was awarded the title of Docent by Lund University in 2019.
He received a joint PhD from Tohoku University in Japan and the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. Before moving to Sweden, he was a lecturer at Aarhus University in Denmark. He was also a postdoctoral fellow at the European Institute of Japanese Studies at the Stockholm School of Economics.
His research focuses on society, politics, and international relations in Japan and the broader East Asian region. He has written articles, books, and book chapters on topics including the U.S.–Japan alliance, international trade, territorial disputes, food security, and military bases.
He has published research articles in journals including Asian Security, The Pacific Review, Asian Survey, Global Affairs, and Media, War & Conflict.
He recently published the co-authored monograph Regional Risk and Security in Japan: Whither the Everyday with Glenn Hook of the University of Sheffield and Ra Mason of the University of East Anglia (Routledge). He also recently co-edited the volume Risk State: Japan’s Foreign Policy Processes in an Era of Uncertainty (Routledge).
Email: paul.oshea@ace.lu.se
Norbert Palanovics
Norbert Palanovics is a Hungarian scholar and Hungary’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Japan.
Dr. Palanovics received his PhD from Nagoya University, where he researched and taught Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) and peacebuilding policies. He was also a visiting research associate at the Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C., where he researched the U.S.–Japan alliance.
Before his more than decade-long stay in Japan, Dr. Palanovics worked as a Senior Lecturer at Universidad de las Américas Puebla in Mexico. His peer-reviewed publications include articles on Japan’s foreign policy, peacebuilding and development assistance policies, and negotiation processes.
Dr. Palanovics also worked as a Japan and East Asia correspondent for Hungarian media. In addition, he has extensive business experience and served as Japan and East Asia representative and regional manager for one of Hungary’s largest food manufacturing companies between 2008 and 2016.
He was appointed Ambassador of Hungary to Japan in 2016.
His research interests include Japanese foreign affairs and contemporary Japanese society. He is also interested in food culture, travel, languages, and football. Earlier in his career, he worked as a football referee.
Email: palanovicsnorbert@yahoo.com
Giulio Pugliese
Giulio Pugliese is Departmental Lecturer in Japanese Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. He specializes in domestic Japanese and international politics, and the international economics of the Asia-Pacific, with a focus on Japan, China, and the United States.
He has presented and published on academic, policy-oriented, and commercial topics, including in The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Asien, The Australian Journal of International Affairs, East Asian Policy, NATO Strategic Communications, Pacific Affairs, and The Pacific Review.
He is a regular contributor to Asia Maior, Italy’s leading journal on contemporary Asian affairs. He also co-authored Sino-Japanese Power Politics: Might, Money and Minds (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), which is also available in Korean.
He was a Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter in the Department of Chinese Studies at Heidelberg University, a Lecturer in War Studies at King’s College London, and a recipient of a British Academy postdoctoral fellowship.
He has held visiting scholar positions at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and George Washington University.
Email: giulio.pugliese@kcl.ac.uk
Annette Skovsted Hansen
Annette Skovsted Hansen, PhD, is Associate Professor of Japanese History at Aarhus University in Denmark. She is spokesperson for the Association of Development Researchers in Denmark (FAU), a member of the Consultative Committee for Development Research (FFU) under the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a member of the editorial committee for Forum for Development Studies.
From 1991 to 1998, she worked as international staff in the Department of Public Information at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.
She holds an MA in Japanese History from Columbia University in New York and a PhD in History from the University of Copenhagen. She has published articles on language in 19th-century Japan and on the cultural history of global alumni networks connected to Japanese private-sector foreign aid.
She also co-edited the Nordic-Japanese volume Aid Relationships in Asia: Exploring Ownership in Japanese and Nordic Aid (Palgrave, 2008) together with Alf Morten Jerve and Yasutami Shimomura.
Her current research focuses on shipping as global history, inspired by her Danida-funded project on Port Efficiency and Public Private Capacity Development in the Ghanaian port of Tema (PEPP). She recently received an International Network Programme grant to develop a project on global ports and shipping with researchers at Kobe University and the University of Haifa.
She is also working on a book project about the history of the social and cultural dimensions of development assistance from 1947 to 2017. The project examines the strategic outcomes of Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) compared with Danish ODA, focusing on communication channels and networks among alumni who participated in overseas courses financed by ODA and their host countries. Examples include formal alumni societies and the dissemination of newsletters.
Ghana project: https://projects.au.dk/port-efficiency-and-public-private-capacity-in-ghana-pepp/
International Network Programme: https://projects.au.dk/global-ports-and-shipping/
Email: ostash@cas.au.dk
Dick Stegewerns
Dick Stegewerns is Associate Professor at the University of Oslo, where he teaches courses on modern and contemporary Japanese history, international relations, politics, society, culture, and film.
He is currently conducting research projects on postwar Japanese war films, Japanese views of the outside world, the visualization of Japanese history in film, manga, and anime, the Japanese film director Naruse Mikio, and a postwar global history of the Japanese fermented drink sake.
He was a visiting researcher at Nichibunken from 2017 to 2018 and led the collective research project on Tōzai bunmeiron: the Japanese discourse on the dichotomy between Eastern and Western civilization, and the related tendency in Japan to position the country between these two civilizations.
His recent publications include “From Chinese World Order to Japan’s Modern Mindset” in Kurt Almqvist and Yukiko Duke Bergman (eds.), Japan’s Past and Present (Bokförlaget Stolpe, 2020); “The Cinematic Reconstruction of East Asia in Postwar Japanese War Films” in Barak Kushner (ed.), Overcoming Empire in Post-Imperial East Asia (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020); and “The Three Waves (and Ways) of Sake Appreciation in the West” in Nancy Stalker (ed.), Devouring Japan – Japanese Cuisine and Foodways (Oxford University Press, 2018).
Website: https://www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english/people/aca/japanese-studies/tenured/dickst/
Email: dick.stegewerns@ikos.uio.no
Cornelia Storz
Cornelia Storz is Professor of Economic Institutions, Innovation and East Asian Development at Goethe University Frankfurt.
With expertise in comparative institutional analysis, innovation systems, and industry emergence, she has carried out research projects supported by the DFG (German Research Foundation), the Volkswagen Foundation, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training (JILPT).
She has published books and more than 40 articles on innovation and entrepreneurship. Her research focuses on the relationship between institutions and innovation, entrepreneurship in new industries, university-industry collaboration, and firm formation in emerging industries.
She is a member of the Executive Committee of the European research network EJARN.
Website: www.wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de/Professoren/storz
Email: storz@wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de
Patrik Ström
Patrik Ström is Director of the European Institute of Japanese Studies (EIJS) at the Stockholm School of Economics and Associate Professor of Economic Geography.
He holds a PhD in Business Administration from Roskilde University in Denmark and an Econ Dr. in Economic Geography from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
His research focuses on the development of the advanced service industry and the transformation of economies that are becoming increasingly service- and knowledge-based. His primary regional focus has been Japan, South Korea, China, other emerging markets in East Asia, and the European Union’s Single Market for services.
He has also been involved in policy-related work for the European Commission and the European Parliament. Recent projects examine how the advanced service industry facilitates green and circular economic development in Europe and Asia.
Before joining the European Institute of Japanese Studies, Patrik worked at the Department of Business Administration at the University of Gothenburg and at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) in Uppsala.
He has also been a visiting researcher at Nippon Institute of Technology, Keio University, Stanford University, and the University of British Columbia.
Email: Patrik.Strom@hhs.se
Kenji Suzuki
Kenji Suzuki is Dean and Professor at the School of Global Japanese Studies at Meiji University in Tokyo. He is also Representative Director of the Japan Institute of Scandinavian Studies (JISS) and Senior Research Associate at the European Institute of Japanese Studies at the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden.
After receiving his LL.B. from the University of Tokyo and working at a research institute for three years, he earned a Master degree from the London School of Economics. He then continued to the University of Warwick, where he received his PhD in 2000.
During this period, he moved to Stockholm and became Assistant Professor at the European Institute of Japanese Studies. He became Associate Professor in 2004 and began working at Meiji University in 2008.
His initial research interests focused on government-industry relations and their impact on the development of economic policies such as competition policy, financial policy, and social policy. He has also studied government-industry relations from the perspective of corporate social responsibility.
More recently, his research has moved in a sociological direction. He focuses on international comparisons of values and ideas, and on how these relate to socioeconomic conditions and social institutions.
Email: kenjisuz@meiji.ac.jp
Marie Söderberg
Marie Söderberg is Professor at the European Institute of Japanese Studies at the Stockholm School of Economics.
She received her PhD from Stockholm University in 1986. Her doctoral thesis was titled Japan’s Military Export Policy.
She has published extensively on Japanese influence in Asia and on Japan–China, Japan–South Korea, and Japan–North Korea relations. A central focus of her research is Japanese foreign aid policy, a field in which she has conducted numerous studies over the years.
Marie Söderberg is Senior Editor of East Asian Economics and Business Studies, the European Institute of Japanese Studies book series published by Routledge in London and New York.
She is also Chair of the Executive Committee of EJARN (European Japan Advanced Research Network) and Chair of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.
Email: Marie.Soderberg@hhs.se
Wilhelm Vosse
Wilhelm Vosse is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo, Japan, where he has also served as Director of the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) and Department Chair.
He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Hanover in Germany and has been a Lecturer at Keio University (SFC) in Tokyo. He has held visiting researcher positions at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University, the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies at the University of Oxford, and the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick.
His research interests include Japanese foreign and security policy, EU–Japan security relations, and the influence of technology on global security.
Recent research projects have analyzed Japan’s new security partnerships and Japan’s cooperation with the European Union and NATO in counter-piracy missions. He is currently conducting a research project on cyber diplomacy in Japan and Europe.
He is co-editor of five books, including Governing Insecurity in Japan (Routledge, 2014), Japan’s New Security Partnerships (Manchester University Press, 2018), and New Directions in Japan’s Security (Routledge, 2020).
Email: vosse@icu.ac.jp
Bryce Wakefield
Bryce Wakefield is National Executive Director of the Australian Institute of International Affairs.
From 2012 to 2018, he was Lecturer in Japanese Politics and International Relations at Leiden University’s Institute for Area Studies. From 2008 to 2012, he was the associate responsible for Northeast Asian programs at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.
His recent publications focus on constitutional issues and defense policy in Japan. He has also edited several multi-author publications on Japanese politics and foreign policy, including A Time for Change?: Japan’s “Peace” Constitution at 65 (Woodrow Wilson Center, 2012).
His other writings have focused on political marketing and national identity in Japan. His work and views have appeared in outlets including BusinessWeek, Der Spiegel, Financial Times, and The Washington Times, as well as on C-SPAN and in Japanese media such as The Daily Yomiuri, NHK, and Sankei Shimbun.
He lived in Japan for six years and has been a Visiting Associate Professor at Keio University in Tokyo.
He earned a Master degree from Osaka University’s School of International Public Policy and a PhD in Political Studies from the University of Auckland.
He was Politics Editor for the academic journal Japan Studies.