Research / CV
Research Field
Political Science, Computational Social Science, Public Administration
Keywords
Presidency, Bureaucracy, Political Economy, Japan, United States
Methods
Machine Learning (Natural Language Processing), Causal Inference, Formal Models
Employment
2023-Curr. Assistant Professor (Tenured) at Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, Department of Economics.
2022 - 2023. Project Researcher at the University of Tokyo Graduate School for Humanities and Sociology
2019 - 2022 Research Fellow for Japan Society for Promotion of Science
2022 Young Visiting Fellow for Japan Instittute of International Affairs
2020- 2021 Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Japanese Studies Website (August 2020 - June 2021)
Education
・Ph.D. student at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School for Law and Politics
・Master from University of Tokyo Graduate School for Law and Politics (March 2019)
・Bachelor from University of Tokyo Faculty of Law (March 2017)
Refereed Articles
1. Saito, Takaharu. 2024. “Legislative Incapacity and Underreporting of COVID-19 Mortality,” Preventive Medicine Reports, 41: 102694. Article
Refereed Articles in Japanese
3 Saito, Takaharu. 2023. “The Transformation of the President's Use of Interagency Coordination in the 1960s-80s.” Pacific and American Studies. 23. 73-89. Article
2 Saito, Takaharu. 2022. “Sentiment Analysis of the Economic Report of the President in the United States.” The Japanese Journal of Behaviormetrics, 49, pp. 197-206. Article Replication
1 Saito, Takaharu. 2022. “Policymaking in Crisis: Interagency Coordination or Whitehouse-led Coordination.” Public Administration Review Quarterly, 179, p. 45-60.
Manuscripts Under Review
1. Saito, Takaharu. "Supervision among Agencies for the President: Ideological Conflicts, Rulemaking Capacity Gap, and Interagency Coordination" (Working Paper, April, 2024)
(Summary) Many important policies are implemented through interagency coordination. We posit that interagency coordination works as supervision among agencies. Using innovative datasets on interagency coordination in federal agencies for 23 years, this study demonstrates that agencies, that are aligned with the president and have less rulemaking capacity, are more likely to implement interagency coordination as collaborators. The result suggests that the agencies can expect to prevent other agencies from implementing undesired policies through interagency coordination. Furthermore, the president can expect the preferred agencies to influence policymaking not only by writing rules as leaders but also through supervision as collaborators when an ideologically opposing agency seems to lead policymaking.
The study was presented at the Japan Society for Quantitative Political Science 2020 Summer and APSA 2020 Online.
2. Saito, Takaharu. "Separation of Powers and Responsiveness of Unilateral Policymaking: Evidence from Climate Change Presidential Directives in Fifty-four Presidencies" (Working Paper , March 2024)
(Summary) Unilateral policymaking is a crucial source of policy change for presidents in the world. Scholars scrutinize the dynamic between the separation of powers and presidential unilateralism. Our research elucidates that the interplay is specifically contingent on public demand. We establish that while judicial constraints generally reduce the propensity for unilateral decision-making by presidents, when these constraints intersect with public demand, they can paradoxically encourage such an approach. Further, an ancillary quantitative text analysis of Climate Change Presidential Directives (CCPDs) discloses that their diversity is indicative of the nature of the respective political regimes. Collectively, these insights underscore that the separation of powers significantly contributes to the responsiveness inherent in unilateral executive actions.
(Summary) Recent discourse has lauded the efficacy of female leadership in national governments, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study employs two-way fixed effect (TWFE) and instrumental variable (IV) regression methodologies to reveal a more pronounced association between the proportion of female legislators and reduced epidemic-related mortality, rather than a direct correlation with female executive leadership. Further analysis elucidates that the effectiveness of female legislative representation is amplified through its interaction with the deliberative processes in governance. This suggests that policy diversity and inclusive decision-making mechanisms are instrumental in enhancing epidemic response efficacy.
4. Saito, Takaharu. "Does Business Experience Lead to More Unilateral Policymaking? Evidence from CEO Governors in the United States" (Working Paper , March 2024)
(Summary) Unilateral action constitutes a fundamental aspect of policy formulation within the executive branch. Prior analyses have predominantly focused on the role of institutional dynamics, such as conflicts with legislative and judicial branches, in shaping executive strategies. Our study elucidates that governors in the United States with a background as chief executive officers (CEO governors) exhibit a higher propensity towards unilateral policymaking than their non-CEO counterparts, as evidenced by a regression discontinuity design (RD) analysis. These findings underscore the critical influence of an executive’s professional background on the inclination towards executive unilateralism, suggesting a more significant effect than traditionally anticipated.
Other Ongoing Research
Saito, Takaharu. "Does Divided Government Control Unilateral Policymaking?"
Annaka, Susumu, Takaharu Saito, Junpei Suzuki, and Gento Kato. "Japanese Attitudes toward Pandemic Triage: A Replication of Knotz et al. (2021)" (Data analysis)
Suzuki, Junpei, Susumu Annnaka, Takaharu Saito, and Gento Kato. “Is the Household Analogy Persuasive in Japan? A Replication of Barnes & Hicks (2021)” (Presented at SPSA 2023)
Takikawa, Hiroki, Zeyu Lyu, Zhemeng Xie, Saito, Takaharu, Aguru Ishibashi. "Happiness is not Mutual: Exploring Differences in the Perception of Well-being with Words-association Network" (Presented at IC2S2)
Saito, Takaharu. "Controlling Bureaucracy as Congress Demands?: President's Use of Signing Statement and Federal Agencies" (Presented at APSA 2022)
Other Publication
Takaharu Saito. Forthcoming. "CULCON: A Concise History: The Interchange of Intellectuals between Japan and the US after WW2”. Research for Japan Foundation and United States-Japan Conference on Cultural & Educational Interchange.
Awards
2020 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Overseas Challenge Program for Young Researcher
2019 Japan Society for Promotion of Science, Doctoral Research Fellowship (DC1)
2017 Seiunjuku Fundation, Seiunjuku Yasuhiro Nakasone Awards (Excellence)
Research Grants
2023-2024 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up (¥2,800,000)
2023/7 Japanese Association of American Studies, Travel Grant (APSA2023) (¥150,000)
2022/9 American Studies Foundation, Travel Grant for International Conference APSA 2020 (¥100,000)
2019-2022 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science , Kakenhi Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows 19J21712 (¥3,100,000)
2019-2022 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science , Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (DC1) (¥7,200,000)
2021 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Overseas Challenge Program for Young Researchers (¥1,400,000)
2020/5 American Studies Foundation, Travel Grant for International Conference APSA 2020 (¥100,000) (Cancelled due to COVID-19)
2020/3 Computational Social Science Japan Workshop 2020, Visiting Grant for Young scholars (¥65,000)
2020/3 American Studies Foundation, Travel Grant for International Conference MPSA 2020 (¥100,000) (Cancelled due to COVID-19)
Presentation
Takaharu Saito. "Does Divided Government Control Unilateral Policymaking? Evidence from Chair Elections." American Political Science Association Annual Meeting 2023. Los Angeles, USA. September 2023.
Takaharu Saito. "Does Divided Government Control Unilateral Policymaking? Evidence from Chair Elections." Japan Politics Online Seminar Series. Online. August 2023.
Takikawa, Hiroki, Zeyu Lyu, Zhemeng Xie, Saito, Takaharu, Aguru Ishibashi. "Exploring multi-dimensional concept of well-being thorough geometry of culture approach." IC2S2 2023. Copenhagen, Denmark. June 2023.
Takaharu Saito. "Controlling Bureaucracy as Congress Demands?" American Political Science Association Annual Meeting 2022. Montreal, Canada. September 2022.
Takaharu Saito. "Controlling Bureaucracy as Congress Demands?" Japan Society for Quantitative Political Science Summer Meeting 2022. Tokyo, Japan. July 2022.
Takaharu Saito. "Presidential Control on Bureaucracy and Interagency Coordination in the United States." International Political Science Association the 26th World Congress of Political Science. Lisbon, Portugal. July 2021. (Cancelled due to COVID-19)
Takaharu Saito. "Presidential Control on Bureaucracy and Interagency Coordination" Midwest Political Science Association, 2020 Annual Meeting. Chicago, Illinois, U.S.. April 2020. (Cancelled due to COVID-19)