Rate My Professor Takeharu Okubo

Okubo’s research focuses on the history of Asian and Japanese political thought and comparative political thought, with particular emphasis on encounters with Dutch jurisprudence, political economy, and statistics in early modern and modern Japan. His major publications include the book 近代日本の政治構想とオランダ (University of Tokyo Press, 2010; expanded new edition, 2022), its English translation The Quest for Civilization: Encounters with Dutch Jurisprudence, Political Economy, and Statistics at the Dawn of Modern Japan (Brill, 2014), and a chapter titled “The Concept of Rights in Modern Japan” in The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Political Theory (Oxford University Press, 2020). He received the 政治研究櫻田會奨励賞 in 2012 for his book on modern Japanese political thought and the Netherlands. Okubo has contributed to international conferences and research projects on topics including Dutch studies in nineteenth-century Japan and the influence of European jurisprudence on modern Japan.