Kenneth Mori McElwain

I'm excited to share the dataset behind my book project: the Japanese Municipal Elections Dataset (JMED)! 👤 223,561 candidates 🗳️ 21,111 elections 🗾 2,027 municipalities 🗓️ 2005–2025 Explore the map or download the data: charlesmcclean.com/jmed/

As part of our current volume, Steve R. Entrich has guest-edited a special issue on internalization of labour in Japan, with papers examining the impact of study abroad experiences on career paths and the life of labour migrants in semi-urban spaces: academic.oup.com/ssjj/issue/2...

By reassessing the relationship between institutions, policy ideas and advisory systems, Gayoung Choi offers a new approach to explaining Japan's delayed response to demographic decline. The paper is part of our current issue and is available here: academic.oup.com/ssjj/article...

In our current issue, Yasukazu Ichino and Mai Seki examine how new #teaching methods such as flipped classrooms which were employed during the #Covid-19 pandemic have affected students' study performance in #Japan. The article is #openaccess: academic.oup.com/ssjj/article...

Does this display of effort affect voters' evolution of politicians? Kenshin Takagi addresses this question for the case of #Japan. This new article reports the results of a vignette experiment testing how effort cues improve voters’ evaluations of politicians: academic.oup.com/ssjj/article...

In our current issue, Jeremy Yellen discusses Peter Mauch's new monograph Tojo: The Rise and Fall of Japan’s Most Controversial World War II General, published by Harvard University Press. The full review is available here: academic.oup.com/ssjj/article...

In our current issue, Ashu Okada and Kazunori Inamasu explore the factors that determine negative public responses to political comments by celebrities in #Japan. The full paper is available here: academic.oup.com/ssjj/article...

In our current issue, Björn-Ole Kamm reviews Ben Whaley's newly published Toward a Gameic World: New Rules of Engagement from Japanese Video Games, published by University of Michigan Press. The full text is available here: academic.oup.com/ssjj/article... #Japan #Gaming #BookReview #SSJJ

In their new paper, Matthew Linley and David Green of Nagoya University examine how the participation of immigrants in local communities affects the life satisfaction of foreign residents in Japan, building on extensive new survey data. The study is available here: academic.oup.com/ssjj/article...

Hello all! I did a podcast with the fantastic @galendruke.bsky.social on the state of Japanese politics these days. He was a great interviewer---super prepared, interesting questions---so any kudos go to him. Hopefully it'll be useful to some of my friends as well. www.gdpolitics.com/p/can-a-popu...

We are excited to share our first article of 2026. Yukiko Nishikawa reflects on the scandal surrounding Johnny Kitagawa and explains how social constructs like seken and social scripts, such as kuki o yomu and sontaku, have perpetuated sexual abuse in Japan: academic.oup.com/ssjj/article...

How did #Japan respond to #COVID-19? Discover more in our Virtual Special Issue on the pandemic’s political and social impact: academic.oup.com/ssjj/pages/c...

What drives public support during global health crises? Yida Zhai compares Japan and China’s COVID-19 responses, showing how state performance and economic aid shape approval—while revealing the fragility of China’s reliance on material support. 🔗 academic.oup.com/ssjj/article...

In his new paper, Till Knaudt traces the history of The Tribes, a hippie commune on Suwanose Island, revealing its links to the Californian Beat scene, West Coast Zen, the Japanese New Left, and environmental activism in Japan: academic.oup.com/ssjj/article...

In their new article, Julia Gerster and Akihiro Shibayama of Tohoku University provide a detailed analysis of the intricate local dynamics surrounding the preservation of schools as memorial sites for the victims of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake #OpenAccess: academic.oup.com/ssjj/article...

Takaichi wins, with Koizumi falling surprisingly short in the lawmaker votes - he didn't even win all of Hayashi's votes. Probably in part down to lawmakers not wanting to ignore the constituency votes, but also a pretty clear sign of a party running scared of populist challenges from its right.

What's the difference between @epssnet.bsky.social and the "old" EPSA, and why you should come to our conference in Belfast in June 2026: epssnet.org/uncategorize...

⏳Due Sunday! Submit your JPSA-APSA Working Group application by June 1st. Explore civic research on demographic change in Tokyo, Japan, in October 2025. #PoliSci #JPSA #APSA 🔗Apply today! buff.ly/5lbML1t #PoliSci #JPSA #APSA

As @ykshrt.bsky.social wrote, our paper (with Saki Kuzushima, now on the job market!) on how international law, backed by constitutional principles, can persuade citizens to support political reforms is now out (Open Access). A true pleasure to work with these fantastic colleagues and friends.

But I'm going to start with self-promotion! New paper with my wonderful colleagues K Kawata and M Nakabayashi in Political Psychology. Narrative>statistical evidence in increasing support for poverty relief spending, using info treatments & conjoint analysis. OA at doi.org/10.1111/pops...! polisky

Trained myself out of posting on the other site a ways back, so slowly getting back into the swing of things here. I'll mostly oscillate between cute animals, rugby (for the next few months at least), and new/cool research (mine and others). Happy to rejoin a cool community!