Please see below. Thanks very much!

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NEMOTO, Kuniaki (Ph.D)
Research Fellow / Assistant Professor
Organization for Japan-US Studies, Waseda University http://sites.google.com/site/knemoto1978/

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Waseda University Organization for Japan-US Studies
(WOJUSS) Policy Seminar (Jan 16, 2014)

Patricia L. Maclachlan
University of Texas at Austin

"Why Interest Groups Still Matter in Japanese
Elections: An Organizational Perspective"
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Waseda University Organization for Japan-US Studies
(WOJUSS) would like to invite you to a seminar on Jan 16, 2014. Please see the details below.
Please RSVP at info-wojuss[at]list.waseda.jp or visit our event website at http://www.kikou.waseda.ac.jp/wojuss/eng/event/.

[Speaker]
Patricia L. Maclachlan
Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin

[Title]
"Why Interest Groups Still Matter in Japanese
Elections: An Organizational Perspective."

[Date/Time]
2:30-4:00pm, Jan 16, 2014.

[Place]
Multipurpose Lecture Room, Okuma Memorial Tower (Bldg.#26), Waseda Campus
(MAP) http://www.waseda.jp/eng/campus/map.html

[Abstract]
In the wake of Japan's 1994 electoral reforms, many scholars predicted that interest groups would gradually lose their longstanding influence in elections. While groups are certainly much weaker today than they were a generation ago, recent electoral trends indicate that they may be experiencing something of a revival. To explain this puzzle, I offer an alternative interpretation of interest group influence that emphasizes organizational factors. Specifically, I show how organizational complementarities between large, nationally oriented groups and the two main parties continue to position those groups to coopt a number of electoral functions, including vote mobilization, the coordination of vote gathering across constituencies, and electoral monitoring. I illustrate these findings with reference to associations of postmasters and farmers and assess their implications for median voter theories.

[Short Biography]
Patricia L. Maclachlan received her PhD in comparative politics from Columbia University in 1996 and was a research associate at Harvard University's Program on U.S.-Japan Relations from 1995-96. After working for one year as a tenure-track assistant professor at the University of Calgary's Department of Political Science, she joined the University of Texas in 1997, where she is now Associate Professor of Government and Asian Studies. She also served as director of UT's Center for East Asian Studies from 2007-2010.
Dr. Maclachlan's research focuses on the politics and political economy of Japan. Her publications include Consumer Politics in Postwar
Japan: The Institutional Boundaries of Citizen Activism (Columbia University Press, 2002), The Ambivalent Consumer: Questioning Consumption in East Asia and the West (Cornell University Press, 2006), which she co-edited with Sheldon Garon, and The People's Post Office: The History and Politics of the Japanese Postal System, 1871-2010 (Harvard University East Asia Center, 2011).

[Commentator]
Aiji Tanaka
Professor, Waseda University

[Moderator]
Kuniaki Nemoto
Assistant Professor, Waseda University

[Language]
English

Please send any inquiries about the event to info-wojuss[at]list.waseda.jp.