Notable Achievements

Tower-Hester Chair and Professor of Political Science Alisa Gaunder served as discussant for “Leadership in the Public Eye” and chair of “(Anti-)Feminisms in Law and Labor” at the Women and Politics in East Asia Workshop, held at the University of Texas at Austin on September 1. Co-organized by UT Professors Tiffany Barnes ’04 and Amy Liu, the workshop supported early-career faculty and Ph.D. students working on women and politics in East Asia.

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Alisa Gaunder

Professor of Political Science

Alisa Gaunder received her doctorate in political science, specializing in comparative politics and Japan, from the University of California, Berkeley in 2001. Her research interests include comparative political leadership, political parties, and women and politics. A recognized expert in Japanese politics, Dr. Gaunder is the author of Japanese Politics and Government (2017; 2023) and Political Reform in Japan: Leadership Looming Large (2007), and editor of The Routledge Handbook of Japanese Politics (2011). She is currently working on a book project with co-author Dr. Sarah Wiliarty provisionally titled Postwar Japanese and German Politics (forthcoming 2027).

Gaunder’s goal as a professor of political science is to motivate students to think critically – to teach students to have opinions, to ground these opinions with evidence, to express these opinions, and thereby to take an active role as responsible citizens. This goal has guided her as she has developed her courses at Southwestern. 

  • Biography

    Alisa Gaunder received her doctorate in political science, specializing in comparative politics and Japan, from the University of California, Berkeley in 2001. Her research interests include comparative political leadership, political parties, and women and politics. A recognized expert in Japanese politics, Dr. Gaunder is the author of Japanese Politics and Government (2017; 2023) and Political Reform in Japan: Leadership Looming Large (2007), and editor of The Routledge Handbook of Japanese Politics (2011). She is currently working on a book project with co-author Dr. Sarah Wiliarty provisionally titled Postwar Japanese and German Politics (forthcoming 2027).

    Gaunder’s goal as a professor of political science is to motivate students to think critically – to teach students to have opinions, to ground these opinions with evidence, to express these opinions, and thereby to take an active role as responsible citizens. This goal has guided her as she has developed her courses at Southwestern. 

  • Publications

    Books 

    Political Reform in Japan: Leadership Looming Large. London: Routledge, 2007.

    Japanese Politics and Government. London: Routledge, 2017.

    Japanese Politics and Government, 2nd Edition. London: Routledge, 2023.

    Postwar Japanese and German Politics (co-authored with Sarah Wiliarty), Routledge, forthcoming 2028.

    Edited Volumes

    The Routledge Handbook of Japanese Politics. London: Routledge, 2011.

    Refereed Journal Articles

    “Reform Leadership in the United States and Japan: A Comparison of John McCain and Ozawa Ichiro.” Leadership. 3.2 (May 2007): 173-189.

    “WIN WIN’s Struggles with the Institutional Transfer of the EMILY’s List Model to Japan: The Role of Accountability and Policy.” Japanese Journal of Political Science 12.1 (January 2011): 75-94.

    “The DPJ and Women: The Limited Impact of the 2009 Alternation of Power on Policy and Governance.” Journal of East Asian Studies, 12.3 (2012): 441-466.

    “Quota Nonadoption in Japan: The Role of the Women’s Movement and the Opposition.” Politics and Gender, 11.1 (2015): 176-186.

    “‘Madonnas,’ ‘Assassins,’ and ‘Girls’: How Female Politicians Respond to Media Labels Reflecting Party Leader Strategy.” U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal, 52 (2017): 23-45.

    “Conservative Women in Germany and Japan: Chancellors versus Madonnas.” (co-authored with Sarah Wiliarty). Politics and Gender, 16 (2020): 99-122.

    “Leadership in Crisis: Comparing Prime Minister Abe’s and Chancellor Merkel’s Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic.” (co-authored with Sarah Wiliarty). Contemporary Japan, (December 2025).

    Chapters in Edited Volumes

    “Women Running for National Office in Japan: Are Koizumi’s Female “Children” a Short-term Anomaly or a Lasting Phenomenon?” In Political Change in Japan: Electoral Behavior, Party Realignment, and the Koizumi Reforms, eds. Steven Reed, Kenneth Mori McElwain and Kay Shimizu. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 2009.

    “The Institutional Landscape of Japanese Politics.” In The Routledge Handbook of Japanese Politics, ed. Alisa Gaunder. London: Routledge, 2011.

    “The DPJ and Women: The Limited Impact of the 2009 Alternation of Power on Policy and Governance.” Japan Under the DPJ: The Politics of Transition and Governance, ed. Kenji E. Kushida and Phillip Y. Lipscy. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2013.

    “Conservative Female Candidates in Germany and Japan: Supply and Demand” (co-authored with Sarah Elise Wiliarty). Gender, Conservatism, and Political Representation, ed. Karen Celis and Sara Childs. ECPR Press, 2014.

    “Women in the 2014 Lower House Election.” Japan Decides 2014: The Japanese General Election, ed. Robert J. Pekkanen, Steven R. Reed, and Ethan Scheiner. London: Palgrave, 2016.

    Academic Affairs Publications

    “Guiding Principles for General Education Reform.” The ACAD Leader, June 2018.

    “Potential Positive Effects of the Global Pandemic.” The ACAD Leader, April 2021.

    “So You’re Going to be a New CAO: Strategies for Success.” The ACAD Leader, October 2022.

    “Navigating the Drama: Emotional Intelligence and Guiding Principles as Your Compass.” Academic Leader, January 2026.

    Book Reviews

    Japan Transformed: Political Change and Economic Restructuring. By Frances McCall Rosenbluth and Michael F. Thies. Journal of Japanese Studies, 38.1 (2012): 195-199.

    Decoding Boundaries in Contemporary Japan. Edited by Glenn D. Hook. Journal of Japanese Studies, 38.2 (2012): 473-476.

    The Evolution of Japan’s Party System: Politics and Policy in an Era of Institutional Change. Edited by Leonard J. Schoppa. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 2011 and Welfare Through Work: Conservative Ideas, Partisan Dynamics, and Social Protection in Japan. By Mari Miura. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012. Perspectives on Politics, 11.4 (2013): 1215-1217.

    The Abe Administration and the Rise of the Prime Ministerial Executive. By Aurelia George Mulgan. Monumenta Nipponica, 74.1 (2019): 157-160.

    Women and Political Inequality in Japan: Gender-Imbalanced Democracy. By Mikiko Eto. Social Science Japan Journal, 24 (2023): 247-250.

    Other scholarship

    “Bringing Scholarship to the Classroom.” ASIANetwork Exchange: A Journal for Asian Studies in the Liberal Arts, 16.1(Fall 2008): 64-70.

    “Political Parties in Democratic Japan.” Education About Asia, 16.1 (Spring 2011): 50-53.

    “Politics of Japan.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Political Science, ed. Rick Valelly. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

    “Japan Needs a Two-Party System.” Debating Japan, Volume 2, Issue 7 (July 29, 2019).

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  • Alisa Gaunder
    Cover of Japanese Politics and Government Has Special Meaning to its Author, Southwestern University Dean of the Faculty Dr. Alisa Gaunder

    For the cover of her latest book, she chose a beautiful picture of the National Diet Building in Tokyo. It is a gorgeous and classic shot that represents the contents of the book, but there is personal meaning as well.