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Kenji Hirashima

Division Department of Comparative Contemporary Politics
Research Fields German Politics, Comparative Politics
E-mail hirashimiss.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Teaching and Research Appointments

January 1986 − March 2000 Associate Professor, Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo
August 1987 − August 1989 DAAD Fellow, University of Constance, Germany
October 1997 − March 1998 Visiting Researcher, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, Germany
August 1998 − August 1999 Visiting Researcher, East Asia Program, Cornell University, USA
April 2000 − Professor, Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo
April 2005 −
July 2005
Visiting Professor, University of Osnabrueck, Germany
June 2011 Visiting Professor, L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sciences Sociales, Paris

Topics of Research

1Public Policy Change in Germany
Kenji Hirashima researches on how unified Germany is adapting itself to the globalization and the deepening European integration as well as to the changing domestic conditions, tracing governance transformations in specific public policy areas.
2Formation and Transformation of Modern States in Europe
He has been long interested in understanding historical processes of nation- and state-making in Europe from various analytical frameworks such as modernization, political development and macro-sociological state theories.
3Germany and Japan Compared in Historical Institutionalist Perspectives
Inspired by historical institutionalism, the aim of the paired comparison between postwar Germany and Japan is to explore similarities and differences of governance transformations in light of their respective peculiar state traditions.
4EU Policy Making and Polity in the Making
Often characterized as unprecedentedly ‘sui generis’, the EU polity poses intellectual challenges to our hitherto common ideas of national political systems and their democratic legitimacy. This research topic aims at reflective thinking of the unknown objective of the EU, which constitutes the purpose of the ISS European research group.

Selected Publications

  • Waimaru kyowakoku no hokai (The Collapse of the Weimar Republic), University of Tokyo Press, 1991, 313pp.
  • “Rekishiteki pasupekutivu ni okeru neokoporatizumuron- nishiyoroppa no seijihatten ni kansuru ichikosatsu (Neo-Corporatist Theories in Historical Perspective)”, Shakaikagakukenkyu, 43(1992) no.6, 169-85.
  • “Seijihattenron saiko- 19 seiki yoroppa kindai to riberarizumu (Rethinking Political Development Theories)”, Shakaikagakukenkyu 45(1993) no.2, 235-51.
  • Doitsu gendai seiji (Policy and Politics in Contemporary Germany), University of Tokyo Press, 1994, 238pp.
  • “Renposei to seitosei no henyo (Transformation of Federalism and Party System)”, in: Sakai Eihachiro/Hosaka Kazuo (eds.), Yooroppa doitsu eno Michi (A United Germany on the Way to the European Union), Univesity of Tokyo Press, 1996, 101-27.
  • “Oshu togo to minshuteki seitosei- kokka wo koeru minshuteki gavanansu no kokoromi (European Integration and Democratic Legitimacy)”, in: Tokyo Daigaku Shakaikagaku Kenkyusho (ed.), 20 Seiki Shisutemu 5: Kokka no Tayosei to Shijo (The 20th Century Global System 5, National Diversity and the Global Market: The System and its Discontents), University of Tokyo Press, 1998, 277-303.
  • “Dai 9 sho: Bundan kokka no seiritsu/antei/henyo (Chapter 9: Establishment, Stabilization, and Transformation of the Divided States)”, “Dai 10 sho: Touitsu doitsu (Chapter 10: United Germany)”, in: Kimura Seiji (ed.), Doitsushi (German History), Yamakawa shuppansha, 2001, 335-409.
  • “Coping with Fiscal Burdens: A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Japanese and German Fiscal Policy in the 1990s”, Ulrich Teichler; Gisela Trommsdorff (eds.), Challenges of the 21st Century in Japan and Germany, Papst Science Publishers: Lengerich: pp.37-61, 2002.
  • “Seiji kozo no henyo to seisaku henka-Oshu tougou no nakano doitsu (Transformation of Political Structure and Policy Changes)”, Nihon hikaku seiji gakkai (ed.), EU no nakano kokumin kokka (Nation-States in the EU), Waseda daigaku shuppanbu, 2003, 25-46.
  • Yoroppa hikaku seiji hattenron (European Political Development: Comparative Studies) by Gerhard Lehmbruch, translated and edited by Kenji Hirashima, University of Tokyo Press, 2004, 196pp.
  • EU wa kokka wo koerareruka (Is EU Transcending Nation-States?), Iwanami Shoten, 2004, 135pp.
  • “Political Immobilism, Economic Malaise, and Institutional Changes: Japan's Political Economy in the Lost Decade”, Gesine Foljanty-Jost (ed.), Japan in the 1990s, Lit Verlag: pp.119-132, 2004.
  • “Regime Shift in Japan?”, Swiss Political Science Review, 10(3): pp.31-54, Autumn 2004.
  • “Seitai no kanten kara EU wo kangaeru (Considering the EU Polity)”, Nakamura Tamio (ed.), EU kenkyu no shin chihei (New Dimensions in EU Studies), Mineruva shobo, 2005, 29-50.
  • Yoroppa seijishi (Political History of Europe)(with Yoshihiro Iida), Hosodaigaku-kyoikushinkokai, 2005, 314pp.
  • “Kigyo-seifukan kankei: Gurobaruka no nakano ginko-seisaku (Firm-Government Relations: Japanese and German Banking-sector Policies in the Globalization)”, in: Akira Kudo, Takeo Kikkawa and Glenn D. Hook (eds.), Gendai nihon kigyo 1 Kigyo taisei Part 1 [The Contemporary Japanese Enterprise 1: Enterprise Systems Part 1], Yuhikaku, 2005, 316-40.
  • “Die Reformpolitik in Japan und Deutschland im Vergleich”, in György Szell und Carmen Schmidt (hg.), Veröffentlichungen der Forschungsstelle Japan, 16, Universität Osnabrück: pp.5-19, 2005.
  • “The Emergence of European Employment Policy: Mechanisms of Policy Change in Multiple Actor Systems”, University of Tokyo Journal of Law and Politics, 5 (Special Issue on Policy System Framework): pp.38-51, Spring 2008.
  • “Zentai to Bubun: Seifkan-kankei to Seisaku-sisutemu (The Whole and the parts: Intergovernmental Relations and Policy System)”(with Ro Morita and Toshiyuki Kanai), in: Hideaki Shiroyma/ Kazuo Ohgushi (eds.), Seisaku-kakushin no riron (Political Theory of Policy Change) [Seiji-kukan no henyo to seisaku-kakushin 1 (Transformation of Political Space and Policy Innovation 1)], University of Tokyo Press, 2008, 37-66.
  • Kokkyo wo koeru Seisakujikken: EU (Policy Experimentation beyond Borders: EU), Seiji-kukan no henyo to seisaku-kakushin 2 (Transformation of Political Space and Policy Innovation 2), edited by Kenji Hirashima, University of Tokyo Press, 2008, 244pp.
  • Germany and Japan after 1989. Reform Pressures and Political system Dynamics. (Ed. with Roland Czada.), ISS Research Series No.33, February 2009.
  • Yoroppa seijishi (Political History of Europe)(with Yoshihiro Iida), revised new edition, Hosodaigaku-kyoikushinkokai, 2010, 289pp.
  • “European Integration in a Historical Perspective: How Did It Begin and What Are the Lessons for Asia?”, Tamio Nakamura (ed.), East Asian Regionalism from a Legal Perspective, Routledge: London & New York, 2009, pp.107-21.
  • Yooroppa seiji handobukku(Handbook of European Politics) second edition(edited with Yasuo Baba), University of Tokyo Press, 2010, 346pp.
  • Governance of Contemporary Japan. ISS/Shaken International Symposium.(Symposium Committee ed.), ISS Research Series No. 47, December 2011.(edited volume with preface and a comment on Prof. Czada's chapter)
  • “Wohin treibt der Sozialstaat?”, Deutschstudien 47(2013), 99-113.
  • 98 entries to Iwanami World's Who's Who (Iwanami Shoten 2013).
  • “A Longer Shadow of History: Bismarckian Welfare States and the Political Mechanisms of Structural Reforms”, Shakaikagaku Kenkyu vol. 66, no. 1, 139-161.
  • Governance Approach and EU Studies, Mari Osawa and Iwao Sato (eds.), Reconsidering Governance I, Univeristy of Tokyo Press, 2016, 67-88.
  • Politics in Unified Germany: Transformation of the Semisovereign State, University of Tokyo Press, 2018, 215pp.
  • Black and Red: The Demise of the Two Main Parties?, GAKUSHIKAI KAIHO, No. 929 (March 2018), 27-31.
  • Japanese Pathway to Fiscal Consolidation: The Rock of Sisyphus or a Lack of Commitment?, Carmen Schmidt and Ralf Kleinfeld (eds.), The Crisis of Democracy: Chances, Risks, and Challenges in Japan (East Asia) and Germany (Europe), Cambridge Scholars Publishers, 2019, 387-402.
  • "Rethinking Politics in Western Central Europe", Shakaikagaku Kenkyu vol. 71, no. 1,121-138.
  • "The Building of Modern Constitutinoal States along the Rhein", Shakaikagaku Kenkyu vol. 72, no. 1,207-227.
  • "Liberalism and the Constitutional States : The Legacy of Liberalism in Western Central Europe", Shakaikagaku Kenkyu vol. 73, no. 1,75-94.

Educational Activities

Graduate School of Law and Politics, The University of Tokyo State and Democracy in Contemporary Europe
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo Methods of Contemporary European Stuies (Summer Semester)
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