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T.J. Pempel

Jack M. Forcey Professor of Political Science
Email
pempel@berkeley.edu
CV
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Personal Statement

 

T. J. Pempel received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1972. He is currently the Jack M. Forcey Professor of Political Scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. From 2001 until 2005, he was director of Berkeley’s Institute of East Asian Studies. Prior to Berkeley, he held tenured positions at Cornell University and the University of Colorado, as well as endowed chairs at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Washington. He directed Cornell University’s East Asia Program from 1989 until 1995. His research focuses on comparative politics, Japanese political economy, and Asian regional relations. Pempel has received numerous research grants, including those from the Fulbright Commission, the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission, and the MacArthur Foundation. He served as a presidentially-appointed member of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission from 2009-2020 and in 2016, he received the Foreign Ministry Commendation from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He serves on the editorial boards of a dozen professional journals and is the author of over 120 scholarly articles and the author or editor of twenty four books, most notably, Regime Shift: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy (Cornell University Press, 1998), Remapping East Asia (Cornell University Press, 2005) and in 2021, A Region of Regimes: Prosperity and Plunder in the Asia-Pacific (Cornell University Press). He was a competitive long distance runner for over forty years, completing thirty marathons; he remains a seasoned scuba diver with over 450 logged dives. He can be reached at pempel@berkeley.edu. 

 

Personal Statement

T. J. Pempel (Ph.D., Columbia) is Jack M. Forcey Professor of Political Science in U.C. Berkeley's Department of Political Science which he joined in July 2001. He served as director of the Institute of East Asian Studies from 2002 until 2006. There he held the Il Han New Chair in Asian Studies. Just prior to coming to Berkeley, he was at the University of Washington in Seattle where he was the Boeing Professor of International Studies in the Jackson School of International Studies and an adjunct professor in Political Science. From 1972 to 1991, he was on the faculty at Cornell University; he was also Director of Cornell's East Asia Program. In addition, he has been a faculty member at the University of Colorado and the University of Wisconsin. Professor Pempel's research and teaching focus on comparative politics, political economy, contemporary Japan, and Asian regional ties. His recent books include Remapping East Asia: The Construction of a Region; Regime Shift: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy (both by Cornell University Press); Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia and The Economic-Security Nexus in Northeast Asia (both by Routledge). In 2015, he co-edited a book entitled Two Crises; Different Outcomes (Cornell University Press) which analyzes the negative Asian experience in the 1997-98 crisis and the positive outcome in 2008-09. In addition, he has published over one hundred twenty scholarly articles and chapters in books. Professor Pempel is on the editorial boards of a dozen professional journals, and serves on various committees of the American Political Science Association, the Association for Asian Studies, and the International Studies Association Council. He is a presidentially-appointed Commissioner on the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission and is active in the Northeast Asian Cooperation Dialogue. His current research involves Asian adjustments to the rise in global finance and the decline in security bipolarity.

Academic Subfields
Comparative Politics
East Asia
Research Interests
Japan
Asian Regionalism
Political Economy
Degrees
B.S., Columbia University
M.A., Columbia University
Ph.D., Columbia University
Books

 

Bibliography of Comparative Public Policy in Britain, West Germany, Japan and France (Hayward, California: American Society on Public Administration, 1976), (with Douglas Ashford and Peter Katzenstein)

Policymaking in Contemporary Japan (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1977), editor, author of three chapters

Comparative Public Policy--A Cross National Bibliography (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1978) (with Douglas Ashford and Peter Katzenstein)

Patterns of Japanese Policymaking (Boulder: Westview, 1978)

Policy and Politics in Japan: Creative Conservatism (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981)

Trading Technology: Europe and Japan in the Middle East (New York: Praeger, 1986) (with Thomas Ilgen) 

Uncommon Democracies:  The Politics of One Party Dominance (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990) editor, author of two chapters

Democracias Diferentes--Los Regimenes con un Partido Dominante (Mexico City: Fonda de Cultura, 1991)

The Japanese Civil Service and Economic Development: Catalysts of Change (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995) co-editor with Michio Muramatsu and Kozo Yamamura; co-author of Introduction and one chapter; Oxford University Press

Regime Shift: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), a book in the series on Comparative Political Economy, edited by Peter J. Katzenstein, (Korean Translation, 2001; Chinese Translation, 2011)

The Politics of the Asian Economic Crisis (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999), in the series on Comparative Political Economy, edited by Peter J. Katzenstein

Beyond Bilateralism: U.S.-Japan Relations in the New Asia Pacific (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), a book in the series Contemporary Issues in Asia and the Pacific, edited by Muthiah Alagappa, co-editor with Ellis S. Krauss and contributor.

Remapping East Asia: The Construction of a Region (Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University Press, 2004), a book in the series on Comparative Political Economy, edited by Peter J. Katzenstein. Editor and contributor.

Nihon no Koto Kyoiku  Seisaku [Policymaking in Japanese Higher Eduction] (Tokyo, Tamagawa Daigaku Shuppanbu, 2004) -- Translation into Japanese of earlier book by the same title.

Political Economy of Northeast Asian Regionalism: Political Conflict and Economic Integration (Chettenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar, 2008), co-editor with Jehoon Park and Gerard Roland.

Crisis as Catalyst: Asia’s Dynamic Political Economy (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2008), co-editor with Andrew MacIntyre and John Ravenhill.

Regionalism, Economic Integration and Security in Asia: A Political Economy Approach (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2011) co-editor with Jehoon Park and Heungchong Kim.

Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia: Architecture and Beyond. (London: Routledge, 2012) co-editor with Chung-min Lee.

The Economic-Security Nexus in Northeast Asia (London: Routledge, 2012)

Japan in Crisis: What Will It Take for Japan to Rise Again? (Seoul, Asan Institute, 2012) Co-editor with Yongshik Bong

Asian Responses to the Global Financial Crisis: The Impact of Regionalism and the Role of the G-20 (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2012) co-editor with Jehoon Park and Geng Xiao.

Two Crises, Different Outcomes: East Asia and Global Finance (Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2015), co-editor with Keiichi Tsunekawa

Japan and Asia’s Contested Order: The Interplay of Security, Economics and Identity (London; Palgrave McMillan, 2018) co-editor with Yul Sohn, and author of three chapters.

A Region of Regimes: Prosperity and Plunder in the Asia-Pacific (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2021)

Articles

 

SELECTED ARTICLES

"The Bureaucratization of Policymaking in Postwar Japan," American Journal of Political Science (Vol.18, No.4, November 1974)

"The Dilemma of Parliamentary Opposition in Japan," Polity (September 1975)

"Japanese Foreign Economic Policy: The Domestic Bases for International Behaviors," International Organization (Vol.31, No.4, Autumn 1977)

"Corporatism without Labor?: The Japanese Anomaly", in: Philippe Schmitter and Gerhard Lehmbruch  (eds.), Trends Towards Corporatist Intermediation (Beverly Hills,CA: Sage, 1979): 231-70. With Keichi Tsunekawa

"The Unbundling of 'Japan, Inc.': The Changing Dynamics of Japanese Policy Formation," Journal of Japanese Studies (Vol.13, No.2 , Special Issue 1987)

"The Baby Target: 'Reform' of the Japanese Bureaucracy under the American Occupation," in Robert Ward and Yoshikazu Sakamoto (eds.) Democratizing Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987)

"The Japanese Challenge: A New Capitalism," Alfred Phaller (ed.) Der Kampf umden Wohlstand von Morgen (Bonn: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 1986)

"Japan and Sweden: Polarities of 'Responsible Capitalism'," Dankwart A. Rustow and Kenneth P. Erickson (eds.) Comparative Political Dynamics: Global Research Perspectives (New York: Harper and Row, 1991)

 

"Occupational Welfare and the Japanese Experience," Michael Shalev (ed.) Occupational Welfare and the Welfare State in Comparative Perspective (London: Plenum Press, 1993) (with Toshimitsu Shinkawa).

"Regime Shift: Japanese Politics in a Changing World Economy," Journal of Japanese Studies (Vol.23, No.2, Summer 1997)

"Contemporary Japanese Athletics: Window on the Cultural Roots of Nationalism-Internationalism," Sepp Linhart (ed.) Japanese Culture as Seen Through its Leisure (Albany: SUNY Press, 1998)

"Structural Gaiatsu: International Finance and Political Change in Japan," Comparative Political Studies (December 1999)

 

"The Developmental Regime in a Changing Worlds Economy," Meredith Woo-Cumings (ed.) The Developmental State in Historical Perspective (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999)

"Labor Exclusion and Privatized Welfare: Two Keys to Asia Capitalist Development," Evelyne Huber (ed.) Models of Capitalism: Lessons for Latin America (Penn State Press, 2002)

“The Race to Connect East Asia: An Unending Steeplechase,” Asian Economic Policy Review 1 (2006): 239-254.

 

“A Decade of Political Torpor: When Political Logic Trumps Economic Rationality” in Peter J. Katzenstein and Takashi Shiraishi (eds.) Beyond Japan: The Dynamics of East Asian Regionalism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006)

*”Learning to Lose is for Losers: The Japanese LDP’s Reform Struggle,” in Edward Friedman and Joseph Wong (eds.) Political Transitions in Dominant Party Systems: Learning to Lose.(London: Routledge, 2008): 109-126.

“How Bush Bungled Asia: How Unilateralism, Militarism, and Economic Abdication Have Weakened the U.S. Across Asia,” The Pacific Review 25, 5 (2008).

“The ‘Unbungling of East Asia,” Global Asia, 3, 4 (Winter, 2008).

“Soft Balancing, Hedging, and Institutional Darwinism: The Economic-Security Nexus and East Asian Regionalism,” Journal of East Asian Studies 10 (2010), 209–238.

“Between Pork and Productivity: The Collapse of the Liberal Democratic Party,” Journal of Japanese Studies 36:2 (2010): 227-254.

“More “Pax” – Less “Americana”: Security in the Asia-Pacific,” International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 10:3 (2010).

“Between Pork and Productivity: Upending the Japanese Model of Capitalism,” in Masanobu Ido (ed.) Varieties of Capitalism, Types of Democracy and Globalization, London, Routledge, 2012.

“Thucydides [Clap] Trap: US-China Relations in a Changing Asia-Pacific,” Global Asia Vol. 10, no. 4 (Winter 2015): 88-93

Regional decoupling: the Asia-Pacific minus the USA?” The Pacific Review, Vol. 32, no. 2, 2019: 256-.65.

Right target; wrong tactics: the trump administration upends East Asian order,” The Pacific Review, Vol. 32, no. 6 (2019): 996-1018

Japan: Working to Shape the Regional Order,” in Japan and Asia’s Contested Order: The Interplay of Security, Economics and Identity (London; Palgrave McMillan, 2018)

“Disconnecting from the Region: The Asia-Pacific Minus the US?” in Kai He (ed.) Contested Multilateralism 2.0 and East Asian Security. (London: Routledge, 2020):

Asia’s Lesser Powers Confront US–China Threat to the Regional Order,” Issues & Studies  Vol. 56, No. 2 (June 2020).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teaching