May 18, 2016
At the conference of the Japanese Association of Electoral Studies (JAES) held on Saturday, May 14, Associate Professor Yuichiro Shimizu of the Faculty of Policy Management received the "Excellent Poster" award for his outstanding poster presentation.
The Japanese Association of Electoral Studies (JAES) is an academic society that aims to promote research on elections and related topics, foster cooperation among researchers, and facilitate communication and cooperation with academic societies in other countries.
The JAES Awards were established in fiscal year 2009 to promote research exchange among members and the development of electoral studies in a broad sense. The awards consist of three categories: the "Excellent Poster" award for outstanding research presentations by members in the poster session of the annual meeting, the "Excellent Paper Presentation" award for outstanding paper presentations by members at the annual meeting, and the "Excellent Article" award for outstanding contributed articles by members published in the *Japanese Journal of Electoral Studies*.
Associate Professor Shimizu received the award for his presentation at the association's 2015 annual meeting, titled "How Were Electoral Districts Created? An Examination from the Perspective of Continuity and Discontinuity between the Early Modern and Modern Periods," which was recognized for its unprecedented approach.
Comment from Associate Professor Shimizu
Election season is just around the corner. Curiously, we all belong to an "electoral district" where we cast our votes. When and how was this framework created? I began my research with this simple question and discovered it to be a fascinating topic.
I am very pleased that the beginning of this new approach—which treats electoral districts as a spatial "institution" and clarifies the formation of Japan's political culture through their continuity and discontinuity, rather than relying on literature or public opinion polls—was recognized. I am deeply grateful to this campus for providing me with so many seeds for such ideas.