Taro Tsuda, PhD ― Associate Professor
Born and raised in Massachusetts in the United States, Taro Tsuda earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from Harvard University. After his undergraduate career, he spent several years exploring his academic interests, doing an MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History at the University of Cambridge and an M.A. in Political Science at the University of California Berkeley before completing a Ph.D. in History and East Asian Languages at Harvard University.
Bridging the fields of history and political science, Taro Tsuda’s research focuses on the political history of modern and contemporary Japan. He is particularly interested in themes such as Japan’s political development in global and comparative perspective, Japan’s place in the global Cold War, the evolution of political parties and party politics, and the role of individual agency and political leadership. He has also written about the development, current state, and prospects of political history as an academic field.
A summary of Taro Tsuda’s research is available at the URL listed at the bottom of this page.
After earning his Ph.D., Taro Tsuda taught at several Japanese universities such as Kansai Gaidai University, International Christian University, and Meiji University before coming to Doshisha University in April 2026. At the Institute for the Liberal Arts, he teaches courses in subjects such as politics and global studies, Japanese politics, and Japan-US relations.