Here are some of my publications:
“Japan in 2018,” Asian Survey, Vol. 59 (No. 1, February 2019), pp. 63-76.
“Democratization in East Asia,” book chapter in Routledge Handbook of Politics in Asia (Shiping Hua, ed.). London: Routledge, 2018. Pp. 15-25.
“Changing of the Guard in Nuclear Policymaking: Energy Security, Economic Development, and US-ROK Relations,” book chapter in Beyond Acrimony: The Future of U.S.-ROK Nuclear Cooperation (Adam N. Stulberg and Man-Sung Yim, editors), forthcoming.
Review of Vlado Vivoda, Energy Security in Japan: Challenges After Fukushima in Pacific Affairs, June 2015, Vol. 88, No. 2. Pp. 156-8.
Review of Jimintō seiji no hen’yō (The Transformation of LDP Politics) by Nakakita Kōji, Social Science Japan Journal, June 2015, Vol. 18.
“The Development of Japan’s Developmental State: Stages of Growth and the Social Costs of Energy and Export Promotion Policies,” book chapter in East Asian Development Model: 21st Century Perspectives (Shiping Hua and Ruihua Hu, editors). London: Routledge, 2014. Pp. 101-120.
“Japanese Political Finance and Its Dark Side,” book chapter in Parties and Politics in Contemporary Japan: Political Chaos and Stalemate in the 21st Century (Ronald J. Hrebenar and Akira Nakamura, editors). London: Routledge, 2014. Pp. 56-79.
Growing Democracy in Japan: The Parliamentary Cabinet System Since 1868. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2014.
Praise for Growing Democracy in Japan:
“Growing Democracy in Japan is a scholarly contribution to the understanding of an important—indeed central—aspect of Japanese government and politics.” — J. A .A. Stockwin, author of Governing Japan: Divided Politics in a Resurgent Economy
“Growing Democracy in Japan is the only book in English that explicates the development of the cabinet system, the key institution in Japanese government. Woodall strikes the right level of detail, and his writing is lively.” — John Creighton Campbell, emeritus, University of Michgan
“Woodall addresses an important question in the field of Japanese politics: Why hasn’t the cabinet wielded more authority in the Japanese version of parliamentary government? To unravel this puzzle, Woodall carefully situates the Japanese case in a cross-national comparative perspective, and then delves into the history in its full complexity. He applies a keen analytical lens, demonstrating how crafty bureaucrats and wily backbenchers have resisted cabinet control.”–Steven K. Vogel, University of California, Berkeley
“Matching in analytical depth what it attains in historical breadth, this book raises a question often posed but never satisfactorily answered until now:”why has Japan failed to evolve into a fully-functioning Westminster-style cabinet system?”–Aurelia George Mulgan, University of New South Wales
“Quite often the best ideas seem so obvious in retrospect. As soon as you start reading Growing Democracy in Japan, it strikes you as odd that no one has previously thought of tracing the evolution of Japan’s cabinet system from its mid-19th century origins, through its mid-20th century forms and into its 21st century incarnation. Brian Woodall has produced a readable, lively and provocative addition to the literature on Japan’s political structures that I am sure all of us who teach about the politics of Japan will be recommending to students as well as using to enliven their lectures.”–Ian Neary, Oxford University
“The Development of China’s Developmental State: Environmental Challenges and Stages of Growth” China Currents, vol. 13 (no. 1), May 2014. Coauthored with Siqi Han.
“Japan: Energy Efficiency Paragon, Green Growth Laggard,” book chapter in Can Green Sustain Growth? From the Religion to the Reality of Sustainable Prosperity (John Zysman and Mark Huberty, editors). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013. Pp. 150-169.
“Japan’s New Basic Energy Plan,” Energy Policy 39 (June 2011), pp. 3741–3749. Coauthored with John S. Duffield.
Elections in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan under the Single Non-Transferable Vote. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press (1999). Co-editor with Bernard Grofman, Sung-Chull Lee, and Edwin Winckler.
From the book’s dust jacket:
“In recent years there has been a marked resurgence of interest in the effects of electoral laws on important aspects of politics such as party competition. In this volume, a distinguished group of scholars looks at the impact of one set of electoral rules—the single non-transferable vote—on electoral competition in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Under this plan citizens are allowed one vote even though there is more than one seat to be filled. In comparative studies of the adoption and rejection of the single nontransferable vote and the consequences of its use across different settings, the contributors explore the differences in the operation and effects of the application of the same rule in different countries. Arguing that any single feature of a political system is embedded in a political structure and cannot be understood in isolation, the authors demonstrate how the same rule can have different consequences depending on the context in which it operates. The contributors offer fresh insights into the comparative study of political institutions as well as into the operation of particular electoral rules.”
“Japan’s Failure in Pharmaceuticals: The Toxic Effects of Price Controls,” Japan Studies Review, vol. 3, Fall 1999. Coauthored with Aki Yoshikawa.
“Political Feasibility and Empirical Assessments of a Pacific Free Trade Area,” book chapter in Economic Development and Cooperation in the Pacific Basin (David Roland-Holst and Hiro Lee, Eds.), London: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Coauthored with Hiro Lee.
Japan Under Construction: Corruption, Politics, and Public Works. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
From the book’s dust jacket: “I would like to commend Professor Woodall for his in-depth look at the corrupt dango system that has plagued the public works market in Japan. Having spent the last ten years trying to pry open the closed Japanese public works market, I believe that this book lays out clearly the structural problems that block access for U.S. firms. I hope that this illuminating look at how the Japanese system operates will lead to further changes in Japan’s public procurement system.”—Senator Frank L. Murkowski
“Woodall has done a wonderful job of getting behind the scenes to look at the preeminent sector where money flows to politicians. This is the richest and most subtle analysis of this industry to appear in English.”—Ezra F. Vogel, author of Japan as Number One
“An important contribution to our knowledge of Japan. Brian Woodall has dug up quite a bit of new factual information on this understudied industry.”—Frances Rosenbluth, author of Financial Politics in Contemporary Japan and coauthor of Japan’s Political Marketplace
“Japan’s Double Standards: Technical Standards and U.S.-Japan Economic Relations,” book chapter in Japan’s Technical Standards: Implications for Global Trade and Competitiveness (John R. McIntyre, Ed.), Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 1996.
Japan’s Changing World Role: Emerging Leader or Perpetual Follower? New York: The Japan Society, 1993.
In this monograph – part of the Japan Society’s David MacEachron Policy Forum Series – Brian Woodall (Harvard University) evaluates the prospects for an expanded role for Japan on the world stage. The point of departure is the classic image of postwar Japan as an economic colossus and a political dwarf in world affairs. After assessing four broad scenarios for Japan’s future role, Woodall focuses intensively on the causes and consequences of change and continuity in the country’s involvement in four substantive realms – official development assistance, foreign direct investment, international organizations, and national security policy. Woodall then poses the question of “Whither Japan’s Role in the World?” He concludes that, “because of its momentous importance for the future course of international political and economic affairs, it is certain that Japan’s world role will be, as it no doubt should, the object of intense debate in the years to come.”
“The Politics of Land in Japan’s Dual Political Economy,” book chapter in Land Issues in Japan: A Policy Failure? (John O. Haley and Kozo Yamamura, Eds.). Seattle: The Society for Japanese Studies, 1992.
“Inside Japan’s Leviathan: Decision-Making in the Government Bureaucracy,” Institute of Governmental Studies Working Paper 88-19, University of California at Berkeley, July 1988. Coauthored with Nobuhiro Hiwatari.
“The Venture Boom and Japanese Industrial Policy: Promoting the Neglected Winners,” Asian Survey, vol. 25, pg. 692-714, June 1985. Coauthored with Aki Yoshikawa.