Monday, June 11, 2007

1:30 - 3:30 Panel 1: Election Campaigning in Japan

"Surrogate Representation: Forging New and Broader Constituencies in Japanese Politics"

Sherry Martin, Cornell University

"Running for National Office in Japan: The Institutional and Cultural Constraints Faced by Women Candidates"

Alisa Gaunder, Southwestern University

"How Large are Koizumi's Coattails? Party Leader Visits in the 2005 Japanese Election"

Kenneth McElwain, Stanford University

Discussant: Laurie Freeman, University of California - Santa Barbara

3:45 - 5:30 Panel 2: The Organization and Behavior of Political Parties

"Where Have All the Zoku Gone? LDP DM Policy Specialization and Expertise" (written with Ellis Krauss and Robert Pekkanen)

Ben Nyblade, University of British Columbia

"When Preferences are Not Behavior: Explaining Party Switch among Japanese Legislators in the 1990s"

Jun Saito, Wesleyan University

Discussant: Len Schoppa, University of Virginia

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

9:30 - 11:30 Panel 3: Electoral Systems and Voter Behavior

"The Political Economy of the Japanese Gender Gap"

Barry Burden, University of Wisconsin - Madison

"Has the Electoral System Reform Made Japanese Elections Party-Centered?"

Ko Maeda, University of North Texas

"The Incumbent Personal Vote in Japanese Politics"

Shigeo Hirano, Columbia University

Discussant: Mike Thies, University of California - Los Angeles

1:00 - 3:00 Panel 4: New Approaches to Electoral Analysis

"Stealing Elections on Election Night: A Comparison of Statistical Evidence from Japan, Canada, and the United States"

Ray Christensen, Brigham Young University

"Measuring Competitiveness in Multi-Member Districts"

Steven Reed, Chuo University and Kay Shimizu, Stanford University

"Declining Electoral Competitiveness: Post-reform Trends and Theoretical Pessimism"

Rob Weiner, Stanford University

Discussant: Margaret McKean, Duke University

3:00 - 3:15 Break

3:15 - 5:00 Panel 5: Legislative Issues in Japan Today

"Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Postal Privatization as a Window on Political and Policymaking Change"

Patricia Machlachlan, University of Texas - Austin

"The Slow Government Response to Japan's Bank Crisis: A Principal-Agent Analysis" (with Michio Muramatsu)

Ethan Scheiner, University of California - Davis

Discussant: Frances Rosenbluth, Yale University

5:15 - 5:45 Closing remarks