Research

• Comparative Politics (Political institutions, Electoral systems, Party competition, Strategic voting, Japanese politics)

• Editor, Japanese Journal of Political Science (since 2018)

• Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

• Google Scholar Profile

• ORCID: 0000-0002-7773-7129

Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications

• 2023. "Balance-Minded Voting in Post-2012 Japan: Why the Largest Opposition Party Receives Votes from Non-Supporters." Asian Survey 63 (6): 934–951. [Link to the article]

• 2023. "Wedge Issue Politics in Japan: Why Not Revising the Constitution is Helping the Pro-Revision Ruling Party." Journal of East Asian Studies 23(2): 317-331. [Link to the article]

• 2019. "Electoral Incentives, Policy Compromise, and Coalition Durability: Japan's LDP-Komeito Government in a Mixed Electoral System." Japanese Journal of Political Science 20(1): 53-73. With Adam P. Liff. [Link to the article]

• 2017. "Explaining the Surges and Declines of the Japanese Communist Party." Asian Survey 57(4): 665-689. [Link to the article]

• 2017. "What Motivates Moderation? Policy Shifts of Ruling Parties, Opposition Parties, and Niche Parties." Representation 52(2-3): 215-226. [Link to the article]

• 2016. "Voter Turnout and District-Level Competitiveness in Mixed-Member Electoral Systems." Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties 26(4): 452-469. [Link to the article]

• 2016. "Honeymoon or Consolidation, or Both?: Time Dependence of Democratic Durability." Democratization 23(4): 575-591. [Link to the article]

• 2015. "Determinants of Opposition Fragmentation: Parliamentary Rules and Opposition Strategies." Party Politics 21(5): 763-774. [Link to the article] / [Replication materials]

• 2012. "An Irrational Party of Rational Members: The Collision of Legislators' Re-election Quest with Party Success in the Japan Socialist Party." Comparative Political Studies 45(3): 341-365. [Link to the article]

• 2010. "Two Modes of Democratic Breakdown: A Competing Risks Analysis of Democratic Durability." Journal of Politics. 72(4): 1129-1143. [Link to the article] / [Replication materials]

• 2010. "Factors Behind the Historic Defeat of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party in 2009." Asian Survey 50(5): 888-907. [Link to the article]

• 2010. "Divided We Fall: Opposition Fragmentation and the Electoral Fortunes of Governing Parties." British Journal of Political Science. 40(2):419-434. [Link to the article] / [Replication materials]

• 2008. "Re-Examining the Contamination Effect of Japan's Mixed Electoral System Using the Treatment-Effects Model." Electoral Studies 27(4):723-731.

• 2007. "Learning in Hierarchies: An Empirical Test Using Library Catalogues." Journal of Theoretical Politics 19(4): 425-63. With Thomas H. Hammond and Kyle I. Jen.

• 2007. "Prime Ministerial Popularity and the Changing Electoral Fortunes of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party." Asian Survey 47(3): 415-433. With Dennis Patterson.

• 2006. "Duration of Party Control in Parliamentary and Presidential Governments: A Study of 65 Democracies, 1950-1998." Comparative Political Studies 39(3): 352-374. With Misa Nishikawa. (see below for data)

Other Academic Publications

• Forthcoming. “Japan.” in Francesco Cavatorta, Eoin O’Malley, and Alex Baturo (eds.) Handbook on Opposition Politics. Edward Elgar Books.

• 2023. "Political Parties in East Asia." in Neil Carter, Dan Keith, Gyda Sindre, and Sofia Vasilopoulou (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Political Parties. Routledge.

• 2022. "The 2021 Election Results." in Robert J. Pekkanen, Steven R. Reed, and Daniel M. Smith (eds.) Japan Decides 2021: The Japanese General Election.Palgrave Macmillan.

• 2018. "The JCP: A Perpetual Spoiler?" in Robert J. Pekkanen, Steven R. Reed, Ethan Scheiner, and Daniel M. Smith (eds.) Japan Decides 2017: The Japanese General Election. Palgrave Macmillan.

• 2009. "Has the Electoral System Reform Made Japanese Elections Party-Centered?" in Steven R. Reed, Kay Shimizu, and Kenneth Mori McElwain (eds.) Political Change in Japan: Electoral Behavior, Party Realignment, and the Koizumi Reforms. The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.

• 2006. "The General Election in Japan, September 2005." Electoral Studies 25(3): 621-27.

• 2004. "Amerika: 'butaniku kubari' to giin no saisen tsuikyu." In Takeshi Kohno and Masahiro Iwasaki, eds., Rieki yudo seiji: kokusai hikaku to mekanizumu. Tokyo: Ashi Shobo. (Title translation: "The United States: 'Pork Distribution' and Politicians' Reelection Quest.")

Outreach Publications and Blog Posts

• 2024. "Political earthquake throws Japan's politics into uncharted territory" East Asia Forum.

• 2024. "A Former Prime Minister Leads the Largest Opposition, Yet Faces the Same Dilemma" Japan Political Pulse, Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA.

• 2023. "Opposition Infightings Continue to Help Kishida" Japan Political Pulse, Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA.

• 2022. "Akai shu tekisasu shu ni ihen ari?" (in Japanese) Newsweek-Japan.

• 2022. "The Continuing Predicament of Japan’s Opposition" Japan Political Pulse, Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA.

• 2021. "Amerika no mirai wo sayu suru nidaiseito no gekito sono shinbu" (in Japanese) Gendai Bijinesu.

• 2019. "What will the Japanese upper house elections mean for Abe?" East Asia Forum.

• 2019. "Jikou renritsu no mekanizumu to komeito no eikyoryoku no gensen." (in Japanese) Komei. July. pp.18-23.

• 2019. "Sekaiteki nimo mezurashii jikou renritsu chouki seiken wo bunseki suru." (in Japanese) Daisanbunmei. No.715. pp.23-25.

• 2018. "Why Shinzo Abe faces an uphill battle to revise Japan’s constitution." With Adam P. Liff. Monkey Cage (Washington Post).

• 2018. "Ikkyo tajaku no seiji wo dou miruka" (in Japanese) SYNODOS.

• 2018. "The Enigma of Shinzo Abe’s Long Tenure and How His Success Can Undermine His Party’s Dominant Position." In Arthur Alexander, Editor, Expert Voices on Japan: Security, Economic, Social, and Foreign Policy Recommendations. The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation.

• 2018. "How Shinzo Abe’s Success Can Undermine His Party’s Dominance in Japanese Politics." In Policy Guidance from the U.S.-Japan Network for the Future Cohort IV. The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation.

Data

• [NEW!] PR vote results by municipality in the 2024 House of Representatives election: Data in CSV format (Source: Soumusho).

• DID% of Japan's single-member distrtics after the 2022 redistricting (Percentage of people living in census-defined Densely Inhabited Districts): Data in CSV format. (Note: Population data are from the 2020 census. It was not possible to calculate the exact values for some of the districts that divide municipalities. Those cases are denoted by the value of 1 in the "estimated" variable.)

• District-level summary results of the Canadian general elections, 2015 and 2019: Data in CSV format. The data source is Elections Canada (preliminary results), accessed on 10/20/2015 and 10/22/2019, respectively.

• The 2017 Election for the Japanese House of Representatives: Results of single-member districts (CSV format) / Codebook. (Notes: Yuki Yanai (Kochi University of Technology) obtained the information from Asahi Shimbun's website and created a data set. I then converted the variable names into English and add a few variables. Results from the PR tier are available on Prof. Yanai's website.)

• DID% of Japan's single-member distrtics, after the 2017 redistricting: Please contact me if you want this variable.

• DID% of Japan's single-member distrtics in 2014: Data in CSV format. (Note: The numbers are based on the 2010 census)

• The 2016 Election for the Japanese House of Councillors: Results of prefectural districts (CSV format) / Codebook.

• District-level summary results of the Canadian general elections, 2011 and 2015: Data in CSV format. The data sources are here for 2011, accessed on 10/19/2015, and here for 2015 (preliminary results), accessed on 10/20/2015.

• The 2014 Election for the Japanese House of Representatives: Results of single-member districts (comma delimited text) / Codebook.

• The 2013 Election for the Japanese House of Councillors: Results of prefectural districts (comma delimited text) / Codebook.

• The 2012 Election for the Japanese House of Representatives: Results of single-member districts (comma delimited text) / Codebook.

• The 2010 Election for the Japanese House of Councillors: Results of prefectural districts (comma delimited text) / Codebook.

• The 2009 Election for the Japanese House of Representatives: Results of single-member districts (comma delimited text) / Codebook.

• The 2007 Election for the Japanese House of Councillors: Results of prefectural districts (comma delimited text) / Codebook.

• The 2005 Election for the Japanese House of Representatives: Results of single-member districts (comma delimited text) / Codebook.

• The 2004 Election for the Japanese House of Councillors: Results of prefectural districts (comma delimited text) / Codebook.

• The government duration data used in Maeda & Nishikawa (2006): Table (pdf) / Numerical data (comma delimited text) / Codebook. (If you use this data set, please cite our CPS article.)

Teaching

Courses I regularly teach:

• Undergraduate
  • American Government--Process and Policies
  • Introduction to Political Research Methods
  • Governments and Politics around the World
  • Politics of Japan
• Graduate
  • Quantitative Political Research Methods
  • Comparative Political Institutions

Contact Information

Physical address (for UPS, DHL, FedEx, etc):
Department of Political Science
University of North Texas
Wooten Hall, Room 125
Denton, TX 76203

Phone:(940)565-2276 / Fax:(940)565-4818

My office is located in 135 Wooten Hall
Phone:(940)565-2337
Email: Ko.Maeda-at-unt.edu (please replace -at- with @)

Fall 2024 Office Hours:
Tue/Thurs 11:00 to 12:30 (No appointments necessary)

Some more things about me...

• I enjoy traveling. When I was 20 to 21 years old, I made a 9-month trip to Asia and South Pacific. My favorite cities in the world are Kolkata (India), Peshawar (Pakistan), Kashgar (Xinjiang, China), and New York City.
  
• I was a big eater. When I was a college student, I ate 25 pieces of pizza in 20 minutes and won a pizza-eating championship.
• I like reading. My most favorite author is Shiba Ryotaro. My favorite books written in English include The Moon and Sixpence (Somerset Maugham), No Longer at Ease (Chinua Achebe), Lord of the Flies (William Golding), and Animal Farm (George Orwell).
• I got bit by a monkey in the head when I was little.
• I share the same birthday as John F. Kennedy.
• I have an Erdos number of 5 (Erdos--C.Tovey--N.Schofield--G.Miller--T.Hammond--me).
• I know my name is difficult to pronounce for non-Japanese people. It is pronounced Koh Mah-eh-dah. My given name "Ko" means farming or plowing.
• I am a big Michigan State Sports fan. When I was at MSU, I sometimes painted my face to show my Spartan spirit, and my face was on TV several times.
  
• I used to be cute.