Yuichiro Shimizu is a Japanese political scientist specializing in Japanese political and diplomatic history and oral history. Born in Nagano Prefecture in 1974, he graduated from Keio University and earned his doctorate in law there in 2005. After working at the University of Tokyo’s Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, he joined Keio’s Faculty of Policy Management, where he became a professor in 2017. His research examines political parties, bureaucracy, elite recruitment, and electoral institutions. He also records policymaking processes through interviews with participants. Tracing the development of Japan’s bureaucracy from the Meiji Restoration to the emergence of university-trained administrative elites, “The Origins of the Modern Japanese Bureaucracy” appeared in English in 2019, translated by Amin Ghadimi. Its Japanese original, published in 2013, received an award from the Public Policy Studies Association, Japan, in 2014. Following a journalist and diplomat who became a party leader and prime minister, “Hara Takashi: ‘Heimin Saisho’ no Kyozo to Jitsuzo” examines Hara’s reforms through his conflicts and compromises with the ruling oligarchy. Drawing on two decades of teaching and workshops, “‘Kiku’ Koto no Kyokasho: Intabyu de Michi o Hiraku” explains how to prepare for interviews, formulate questions, transcribe conversations, and turn testimony into articles and research.
