Purpose of Establishment

In order to respond to the paradigm shift in the entire social system that is occurring as a result of advances in science and technology, rapid globalization, and changes in the global environment, the Joint Research Center for Law and Policy is engaged in interdisciplinary and international research on cutting-edge legal policy issues through collaboration between theory and practice, and proposes legal policy concepts that support the realization of human-centered innovation, leaving no one behind. The purpose of this program is to propose legal policy concepts that support the realization of innovation, and to promote the development of new academic fields and the cultivation of creative leaders in these fields.

Profile of the Vice Director

Soga – Interdisciplinary International Collaborative Research Section – Section Leader Kengo Soga (Professor at Kyoto University School of Law (Public Policy Joint Research Department), Public Administration)

Professor Soga conducts empirical research on contemporary Japanese politics and public administration. He explores the actual state of administrative bureaucracy and activities of local governments through theoretical analysis using game theory and statistical analysis using quantitative data. After graduating from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo, he served as a research assistant at the Graduate School of Law and Politics at the University of Tokyo, an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Law at Osaka University, and a professor at the Graduate School of Law at Kobe University. He assumed his current position in 2015. He has won the Japan Public Policy Association Award/Writing Award (2008, 2017), and the 10th Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Award (2014). His major publications include “The Study of Public Administration [New Edition]” (Yuhikaku, 2022), “Japan’s Local Government” (Chukoshinsho, 2019), “Modern Japanese Bureaucracy” (University of Tokyo Press, 2016), “Bureaucracy as a Game” (University of Tokyo Press, 2005), etc.