Degrees: PHD, 2002, Columbia Univ; MPHIL, 1996, Columbia Univ; MA, 1992, Georgetown Univ; LLB, 1990, Hokkaido Univ

Bio:

TAKASHI KANATSU, associate professor, received his LL.B. from Hokkaido University, Japan, in 1990 and his M.A. from Georgetown University (Latin American studies) in 1992. He worked as an associate researcher at IDCJ (International Development Center in Japan), a nonprofit think tank for the economic development of developing countries, where he participated in four Latin American-related research projects and visited five Latin American countries. He earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University (political science) in 2002. His dissertation examined the macro-political impact on the IT industrial development in South Korea and Taiwan. He teaches courses in Asian politics, Latin American and Caribbean politics, Japanese politics, and Chinese politics. He specializes in the political economy of developing countries, particularly in the areas of government roles in high-tech industrial development and the inter-regional comparative political economy of Asia and Latin America. He recently published a textbook "Asian Politics : Tradition, Transformation & Future" (Linus Publications, 2008). He is also authors of many articles. He has traveled through all of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Latin American countries, South Korea, Taiwan and China, in addition to his native country Japan. He speaks Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese. His current research projects range from the Brazilian aircraft industry, the emergence of IT industry in China, democratization and collective Memory, to the politics of Japanese Immigration to Colombia. His most recent research focus is high-technology industrial development and environment. He has been serving a co-director of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Hofstra as well as the director of Hofstra in Japan study abroad program.