After a four-month hiatus, the monthly workshop for young social scientists will resume at noon on Thursday, January 23. It is sponsored by the Institute of Social Science, Tokyo University. The arrangements are as in the past.*

Presenting in January will be Daniel Nagashima, who is now at Waseda and is working on his dissertation in political science at the University of Virginia under Prof. Leonard Schoppa, He is interested in how coalitions come about in parliamentary systems, and will discuss the pre-electoral coalition (PEC) between the Liberal Democrats and Koumeitou in 1999. One question is how the motivations of each party had been affected by the electoral reform of 1994. Another is that, if the coalition made sense then, why didn't it happen earlier? Also, what about the coalition agreement itself, which was (and still is) rather short and vague? PEC agreements in other countries tend to be longer and more specific.

All are welcome to attend, with or without advance notice. If you would like to be on the mailing list, and in particular if interested in presenting, please let me know.

John Campbell

*Meetings of the Shaken Social Science Dissertation Workshop start at
12 pm on Thursdays and go to 1:30 and sometimes beyond.
The Institute
of Social Science provides coffee and tea and you are welcome to bring lunch. The location is a seminar room on the 5th floor in the Akamon General Research (Sougou Kenkyuu) Building. The building is off to the right after you come through Akamon, or you can cut through the grounds of Ito Hall off Hongou Doori. It is Bldg 38 on this map:

http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/about/documents/Hongo_Campu
sMap_E.pdf