Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall, Room E331
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

kkushida@stanford.edu
(510) 224-4197 (voice)
(650) 723-6530 (fax)

Research Interests
International comparative politics; political economy; information technology; Japan's political economy; IT-enabled transformation of services; and cloud computing.

Kenji Kushida is the Takahashi Research Associate in Japanese Studies. During the 2010–11 academic year, he served as a Walter H. Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow. He holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a graduate research associate at the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy. Kushida has an MA in East Asian studies and BAs in economics and East Asian studies, all from Stanford University.

Kushida's research interests are in the fields of comparative politics, political economy, and information technology. His country expertise is primarily in Japan, with comparisons to Korea, China, and the United States. He has three streams of research. The first examines political economy issues surrounding information technology, such as how IT is transforming services activities, and how cloud computing is opening new policy debates in different ways across diverse economies. Related past publications include comparative analyses of broadband and wireless development in Japan and South Korea. His second research stream examines, through a study of the political strategies of foreign multinational corporations in Japan, the mechanisms of how foreign direct investment can drive institutional change. A book manuscript is currently underway. The third stream analyzes how Japan’s political economy has transformed since the 1990s, with a focus on institutional change. An edited volume from the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center is forthcoming.