Profile

Robert
Nordström

MA Political Science, Research Associate Waseda University

About

I am a doctoral student in political science at Waseda University, with research interests spanning local politics, electoral systems, social issues, public opinion, and mental health. My work focuses on how a lack of electoral competition affects democratic governance, particularly in Japanese local politics. My dissertation examines the impact of uncontested and uncompetitive elections on democratic quality, investigating how reduced political competition shapes legislators’ behavior, fiscal outcomes, and voter trust in democracy. I also explore how gender disparities influence the content and priorities of local politics in Japan and the causes and effects of corruption in Japanese local politics, which remain underexplored in existing scholarship.

Among my achievements is “The Effects of Uncontested Elections on Legislative Speechmaking: An Analysis of Legislative Performance in Japan’s Prefectural Assemblies” (Electoral Studies, 2024), demonstrating how uncontested elections affect legislators’ participation in debates. This work highlights the broader implications of electoral design on legislative performance and democratic accountability. Another co-authored study, currently under review, investigates how gender disparities influence legislative debates in Japanese local assemblies, adding a crucial perspective to understanding representation and policymaking processes in these institutions.

In addition to electoral studies, I am deeply interested in social issues in Japan, particularly human rights and LGBTQ+ rights. My recent research focuses on same-sex marriage and the rights of sexual minorities, exploring differences in attitudes among politicians, activists, and the general public. By employing interviews, survey research, and analysis of established data sources, I aim to elucidate how various societal actors perceive these critical issues and how judicial and political actions shape public opinion.

I have also conducted extensive research on mental health in Japan, addressing pressing social crises like suicide and loneliness. My studies, such as “Suicide and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan” (J. Public Health, 2021) and “Perceptions of Social Rigidity Predict Loneliness Across the Japanese Population” (Scientific Reports, 2022), provide evidence-based insights into the societal and structural factors driving these issues. Through these works, I contribute to understanding and addressing mental health challenges in Japan.

By integrating my research across these domains, using advanced methods such as original surveys, experiments, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) models, I aim to contribute to scholarship and policy debates on democratic governance, social equity, and public well-being in Japan and beyond.

I currently am a Research Associate at the School of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University. I was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences (JSPS) Research Fellowship for Young Researchers (DC2) from 2022 – 2024. I was funded by the Nomura Foundation Foreign Student Scholarship from 2020 – 2022.

I have been enrolled at the doctoral program in Political Science at the Graduate School of Political Science of Waseda University since 2019. I did my M.A. in Political Science at Waseda University 2017 – 2019. I did my B.A. at the Swedish School of Social Science at the University of Helsinki and did a student exchange at the University of Tokyo in 2016.