Presentations -

Constructing Modern Japan: Politics and Youth, Past and Present

Yuichiro Shimizu

Japan Center Public lecture (Doshicha University) , 

2025.06

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Oral presentation (invited, special), Tubingen University Japan Center

"Cultural Heritage and Oral History: As a Method of 'Practicing History'"

Yuichiro Shimizu

General Meeting of the Nagano Prefecture Association for the Protection of Cultural Properties (Nagano Prefectural Office) , 

2025.05

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Oral presentation (keynote), The Shinano History Society

「「聴くからひらく、夏のワークショップ2024」実践報告」

清水唯一朗

第8回オーラルヒストリーのつどい (東京大学先端研) , 

2025.04

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Oral presentation (invited, special), 東京大学先端科学技術研究センター政治行政システム分野

"The Contradiction Between Institutions and Integration: Taking Kazutaka Sogo's The Structure of Party Politics in Imperial Japan as a Starting Point"

SHIMIZU Yuichirou

The 3rd Modern Japanese Intellectual History Workshop (Ritsumeikan University) , 

2025.02

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Oral presentation (general), Modern Japanese Intellectual History Workshop

"A New Phase in Japanese Politics The Birth of the Ishiba Administration & the 50th General Election"

SHIMIZU Yuichirou

Japanese Studies Symposium (Tamkang University) , 

2024.11

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Oral presentation (general), Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association

"Why Does the Liberal Democratic Party Have So Many Hereditary Politicians? — A Historical Structural Analysis"

SHIMIZU Yuichirou

The 8th Annual Conference of the East Asian Consortium of Japanese Stuides (Tamkang University) , 

2024.11

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Oral presentation (general), East Asian Consortium of Japanese Stuides

"Who Becomes a Politician: A Historical and Structural Analysis of Modern Japanese Politics"

SHIMIZU Yuichiro

International Academic Symposium: "Aspects of Modern East Asian International Political Operations" (National Taipei University) , 

2024.10

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Oral presentation (invited, special), National Taipei University, Kazankai

Accumulating International Exchange Experiences :The Past and Future of Keio and MIT

Yuichiro Shimizu

From Samurai into Engineers: Panel Discussion celebrating the 150th anniversary of MIT's First Japanese Students (NEXUS (HAYDEN LIBRARY), BUILDING 14, MIT) , 

2024.09

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Oral presentation (invited, special), MIT GLOBAL EXPERIENCE

Opening Up Through 'Listening': The Modern and Contemporary History of Shinshu

Yuichiro Shimizu

Annual Conference 2024, The Shinano History Society (The Agata no Mori Cultural Hall in Matsumoto City) , 

2024.06

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Oral presentation (keynote), The Shinano History Society

"Logic of politics and media"

SHIMIZU Yuichiro

Japan Association for Media, Journalism and Communication Studies (The University of Tokyo) , 

2024.02

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Oral presentation (invited, special), Japan Association for Media, Journalism and Communication Studies

"Deliberations and investigations: the transformation of public debate in the Imperial Diet."

SHIMIZU Yuichiro

Kogi Kenkyukai (Keio University) , 

2024.02

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Oral presentation (invited, special), Kogi Kenkyukai

"Japanese Youth and Politics: A Comparison with Taiwanese youth"

SHIMIZU Yuichiro

Law and Politics Studies Special Lecture (National Kaohsiung University) , 

2024.01

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Oral presentation (invited, special), National Kaohsiung University School of Law

"Hara Takashi: Pioneer of Japanese Party Politics"

SHIMIZU Yuichiro

History Studies Special Lecture (National Taiwan Normal University) , 

2023.12

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Oral presentation (invited, special), Department of History, National Taiwan Normal University

"Why so many political dynasties in the Japanese Diet?: A historical structural analysis"

SHIMIZU Yuichiro

International Workshop “New Trends in Political History of Modern and Contemporary Japan” (KU Leuven) , 

2023.12

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Oral presentation (invited, special), Japanese Studies Group, Faculteit Letteren, KU Leuven

"Who Became a Politician?: A Portrait of Modern Japan」"

SHIMIZU Yuichiro

Leiden Lecture Series in Japanese Studies (Leiden University) , 

2023.12

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Oral presentation (invited, special), The Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Leiden University

　View Summary

Japan was the first emerging Asian nation to adopt Western-style constitutionalism, and it went on to modernize and democratize. There was a conflict between the Asian order and Western culture. This was manifested in the way politicians were organized through the Meiji Revolution, Taisho democracy, the Pacific War, rapid economic growth, and the "lost two or three decades" that followed. If so, who became politicians in Japan? Through tracing the transition structurally, Yuichiro Shimizu draws a portrait of Japan's modernization and democratization.

"Has Japan successfully embraced democracy?"

SHIMIZU Yuichiro

Japanese Studies Special Lecture (National Chengchi University) , 

2023.11

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Oral presentation (invited, special), Department of Japanese Language and Literature, Japanese Studies Degree Program, National Chengchi University

"Who Will Be Politicians: A Portrait of Modern Japanese Politicsy?"

SHIMIZU Yuichiro

Hua Kang East Asia Seminar vol. 9 (Chinese Culture University) , 

2023.11

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Oral presentation (invited, special), The Institute of East Asian Humanities and Social Sciences, Chinese Culture University

“Hara Takashi: Pioneer of Japanese Party Politics”

SHIMIZU Yuichiro

Modern Japanese History Association, New book from Japan No.4 (Online) , 

2023.10

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2023.11

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Oral presentation (invited, special), Modern Japanese History Association (MJHA)

　View Summary

As the first "commoner" prime minister, Hara Takashi led the first full-fledged political party cabinet. Born in the Morioka domain, which had been defeated in the Boshin War, Hara studied hard and worked as a newspaper reporter before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and rising to the rank of Vice Minister. Thereafter, he joined Ito Hirobumi's Seiyukai party and became a party politician. Amidst the Taisho Political Crisis and the 1918 Rice Riots, he served as a cabinet minister, and then as party leader, implementing reforms that sometimes antagonized and sometimes compromised with the various factions based on pre-Meiji feudal domains. After becoming the first elected politician to become prime minister of Japan, he was assassinated in the midst of attempting to bring about far-sighted reforms. Although Hara has sometimes been described as autocratic and dictatorial, this book examines his original intentions and argues that Hara was a realist politician who was willing to forge difficult compromises with his political opponents in order to achieve his aims.

“The Electoral District System & Japanese Politics: The year 1900 as a turning point”

SHIMIZU Yuichiro

European Association for Japanese Studies International Conference (Ghent University , Ghent ,) , 

2023.08

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Oral presentation (general), European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS)

　View Summary

The electoral system, which is the foundation of representative democracy, has been the subject of much debate in Japan in recent years. These include lowering the voting age, relaxing restrictions on electoral activities, and reexamining electoral administration.

Among these, the electoral district system has become the most controversial issue. As a result of the campaign to correct the disparity in the number of votes and the "unconstitutional state of affairs" ruling by the Supreme Court, a major revision of the electoral districts for the House of Representatives was made in November 2022.

Based on the principle that members of the National Diet are representatives of the people, the current electoral district allocation, which insists on the demarcation of basic municipalities, is questionable. On the other hand, while leaning on the "myth of representation of the people”, the fact remains that regional representatives have been selected. We can find the strong path-dependency, not just the pursuit of reelection possibilities for the representatives.

How then, have Japan's electoral districts been divided and changed? There have been major revisions of the electoral district system in 1889, 1900, 1919, 1925, 1945, 1947, and 1994. We can confirm that amendments, which were extremely frequent in the prewar period, became rare in the postwar period. This is inseparable from the instability of party politics and democracy in the prewar period and its stability in the postwar period. At the same time, it is also the institutional basis for the high probability of regime change in the prewar period and the establishment of one-party rule in the postwar period. Japan's electoral district system can be said to be a spatial political system that has strongly defined Japanese politics in the prewar and postwar periods.

In other words, understanding the effect of electoral districts reform is a major aid to understanding Japan's political culture and climate. In this report, we focus on the continuum of the electoral districts in order to examine their influence on Japanese politics.

「書評　伊藤陽平『日清・日露戦後経営と議会政治―官民調和構想の相克』」

清水唯一朗

第99回内務省研究会 (國學院大学（オンライン）) , 

2022.03

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Oral presentation (invited, special), 内務省研究会