Regions: Israel / Palestine / Jordan / Syria / Lebanon
Researcher Profile
As an undergraduate student in 2011, I became interested in Middle Eastern politics following the "Arab Spring" — the wave of political upheavals that swept the Arab world in succession. Among the questions this raised, I became particularly interested in why Arab monarchies maintain their authoritarian systems, and I pursued research on contemporary Arab monarchies in graduate school, taking Jordan as my primary case study. After obtaining my doctorate in 2018, I have deepened my research on contemporary Jordanian politics through topics including parliamentary politics, clientelism, Islam and monarchy, and central-local relations.
I joined JIME Center in 2021 and am responsible for trend analysis on the politics, economics, and energy situation of Levant countries (Syria, Palestine/Israel, Jordan, Lebanon) and jihadist movements in the Middle East. As educational activities outside the research institute, I have taught courses on Middle Eastern politics and Islam at Ritsumeikan University, Doshisha University, Aichi Prefectural University, Takushoku University, Keiwagakuen University, Nihon University, and Otsuma Women's University.
Career
- 2022 — Senior Researcher, JIME Center (current)
- 2023 — Project Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University (current)
- 2021–2022 Researcher, JIME Center
- 2018–2022 Project Research Fellow, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University
- 2018–2020 Visiting Research Fellow, School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford (Sasakawa Peace Foundation Fellow)
- 2013–2018 Doctoral Program, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University
- 2011–2013 Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo
Selected Works
- BookMonograph: Ruling Networks and Resource Distribution in Contemporary Arab Monarchies: Jordan, a Non-Oil State, Navigating Its Path (Nakanishiya Shuppan, 2022)
- ArticleArticle: "A Weakening Hezbollah and the Future of the Lebanese State" (Middle East Trends Analysis, 2025)
- ArticleArticle: "Measuring Human Activity by Satellite: An Analysis of Ramadan Using Nighttime Light Imagery" (in Sunaga Emiko and Kumakura Wakako eds. Islamic Digital Humanities, Jinbun Shoin, 2024)
- ArticleArticle: "Domestic Politics: Developments in Jordanian Politics around the Monarchy-Led Reform Vision" (in Nakamura Satoru ed. Monarchical States, Minerva Shobo, 2023)
- ArticleArticle: "Propaganda Trends of the Islamic State Khorasan Province" (Middle East Trends Analysis, 2023)
- ArticleArticle: "The Resilience of Clientelism in Contemporary Jordanian Authoritarianism: An Analysis of Electoral System Reforms in the 2010s" (Annual Bulletin of the Japanese Association of Comparative Politics, 2022)
- ContributionContribution: "The Calculations of Arab States over the Gaza War" (JCCME News, 2024)