Events & Calendars Koji Murata: "Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy After Abe"

Currently, both American and Japanese politics are highly volatile. In the global context, all of us have experienced the COVID-19 pandemic and the terrible Russian invasion into Ukraine. Also, the Japanese people were recently faced with the tragic assassination of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in July. As a Japanese specialist of American political and diplomatic history, I will use this talk to examine American politics after the midterm election, and deliver observations on Japanese politics and foreign policy after Abe.

Speaker Bio:
Koji Murata is a professor of political science, in the Faculty of Law, at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. Professor Murata obtained his B.A. in political science from Doshisha University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Kobe University in Kobe, Japan. He also received his MPhil in political science from The George Washington University, where he studied as a Fulbright student from 1991 to 1995.

Professor Murata served as dean of the Faculty of Law from 2011 to 2013 and president of Doshisha University from 2013 to 2016. He was also Special Advisor for Minister of Defense Kono Taro from 2019 to 2020. Professor Murata's specialties include the history of U.S.-Japan relations, American foreign policy in Northeast Asia, and American politics and films.