Modules

Global Intensive Modules

Area of Expertise

International Relations of Contemporary Japan

Career

Currently, Professor of Japanese Politics and International Relations at the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield, UK, he is Director of the National Institute of Japanese Studies (NIJS) and Director of Research (Regionalisation and Globalisation cluster) at the White Rose East Asia Centre. Having attained his MA (first class) in political science from the University of British Columbia in 1974 he then graduated in Japanese Studies at Osaka University of Foreign Studies in 1975, and again in 1977 he graduated in Japanese from the Stanford Center of the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies. He gained his LL.D. in Political Science at Chuo University, Tokyo, in 1997. His main area of research is Japan's contemporary international relations, particular in relation to East Asia, as well as in security and risk in East Asia. His work explores Japan's role in the restructuring of the East Asian political economy and spatial scales of order at the regional, sub-regional and micro-regional levels. His work details the role of both state and non-state actors in the political, economic and security dimensions of regional relations and how new orders and sites of governance emerge in the process of global and regional transformations. A continuing interest remains Japanese defense and security policy. His research has challenged the realist approach dominant in the field by drawing attention to the domestic constraints imposed on the policy-making process, examining issues of structure, agency and particularly norms in determining security policy. He has been the recipient of a number of prestigious awards from the British Academy, the Japan Foundation, the Leverhulme Foundation, the McArthur Foundation as well as others.