Harukata Takenaka is an associate professor of political science at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo. He specializes in comparative politics and international political economy, with a particular focus on Japanese political economy. His research interests include democracy in Japan, and Japan's political and economic stagnation since the 1990s. He is currently working on aborted democratization in prewar Japan, the politics of Japan's financial crisis since the 1990s and the role of the Japanese Senate (House of Councilors) in postwar Japanese politics.

He received a B.A. from the Faculty of Law of the University of Tokyo and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University. He is the author of Senze Nihon ni okeru Minshuka no Zasetsu [Aborted Democratization in Prewar Japan], (Bokutakusha, 2002), and the co-editor of Akusesu Kokusai Seijikeizai [Access to International Political Economy],(Nihon Keizai Hyoronsha, 2003).