POLS W4472

Medium-High in terms of reading 1 take-home midterm (pick 2 essay topics, 1000 words each) 1 take-home final (pick 2 topics, 1500 words each)

In short, I am very glad to have taken this class. For starters, Curtis is quite an engaging lecturer and I fairly enjoyed his anecdotes about living in Japan. You can get a lot of the required material just from going to his lecture (but do reading as they will help you in getting a better essay grade). I think a lot of this course depends on picking and choosing which readings are truly essential to the course. As an established scholar in Japanese politics, he definitely know his stuff and has high but clear expectation from his students. Yes, the TA does most of the grading but Curtis goes over each paper (which my other SIPA professor did not do). The papers are not graded lightly so you still have to do a fair amount of work for an A or A-. FYI: The undergrads are not graded easier than the grads (trust me, I asked). I was also under the impression that the class is somewhat curved (30% A's)

Light. One in-class midterm and one in-class final. A 10 page book review of things about Japan that can interest him and you. For Fall 2011, as we did pretty well, he even waived the final and added 2 pages requirement to the book review. How considerate!

One of the best courses that I have taken at Columbia University. Professor Curtis knows everything about Japan and its politics, and most importantly, its main politicians, almost all prime ministers except one since the 1970s. The best thing about him as a professor is that he cares about his students and wants to interact with them to learn about them and to know them individually.And he is a personality. Wearing a pair of sunglasses when lecturing in the first two classes and talking about how big a drinking appetite he has when he returns to Japan for socializing with his informants of the Japanese community in Tokyo. For the book review assignment, when students want to write something interesting that others have not written before even though the scholarly material is not enough, he encouraged them to go ahead even though the final ones might lack substantial material. He likes to see fresh new ideas, even though they might not be fully developed during his short course in Fall. And he does not like the word "political scientist", blaming them as second-rate economists. He likes to describe himself as an anthropologist or sociologist, just writing down the facts about history and societies, not trying to make up boring theories. Take this Class!

1 take home midterm (2 questions), 1 10 page paper on topic of choice

Although Professor Curtis' anecdotes can be repetitive (I don't know how many times he mentioned the importance of the Hatoyama government to not "think out loud"), they are still varied enough to make his lectures enjoyable. Although there were numerous complaints about his inability to show up to office hours and the disorganized nature of his lecture style, the real point of taking Curtis is to be able to listen to his experiences dealing with politicians for almost a half century. This does make it vital however, to get a good TA to discuss the readings and your final paper with, because Curtis only focuses on his own theories in class. For people who want a more traditional lecture-style that focuses on concrete definitions and theories, he did bring in a guest professor who spent 75 excruciating minutes droning through the basics covered in any Intro. to Comparative Politics course. Curtis also insists that undergraduates are graded more leniently than the numerous graduate students, so it is fairly easy to get an A.

I'm sorta mystified by all the glowing tributes about Curtis on this page. I've taken two classes with him, and both consisted of hearing over and over again stories that begin, "When I was out with [Prime Minister's Name] he told me [self-aggrandizing anecdote]." Or his infamous 'taxi story', in which he tells his students that he's in-touch with the common Japanese people because he talks to taxi drivers on the ride between Narita and his apartment in ritzy Roppongi. Nevermind that normal Japanese people take the train. I know it's easy to get enchanted by reputation, and i was at first as well, but upon thorough self-examination after completing his courses, I realized he had taught me next-to-nothing, except for how to assemble a reading list about 20th century Japan, which he never actually discussed in class. Even his books were disappointing. Over his 4 decade career, he's published 4 books, two of which i've read, 'logic' and 'way'. These books are extraordinarily pedantic and cumbersome, and offer very very little in the way of meta-analysis or significant insight.He's built a career on essentially being a bizarro oral historian, in which his information comes from the powerful instead of the powerless. But i think it's important to remember that access doesn't equal research, it only equals status. In fact, his cozy relationship with the LDP probably hinders his abil…

2 take home exams, one 10 page paper, plus sections.

When he's not redundant he is a pretty good teacher and it's not a bad class. However, someone needs to clear up this easy grading thing. It's not the easiest course in the world. According to my transcript, only 31% of students in the class got in the "A" range (A+, A, or A-). That's not too high for a polisci class. You are going to have to do a pretty decent chunk of the reading to get an A. And you have to go to sections (if you are an undergrad). If you are interested in Japanese Politics by all means take the class, but don't assume you will get an A as reviewers below suggest.

he told me [self-aggrandizing anecdote]." Or his infamous \'taxi story\', in which he tells his students that he\'s in-touch with the common Japanese people because he talks to taxi drivers on the ride between Narita and his apartment in ritzy Roppongi. Nevermind that normal Japanese people take the train. \r\n\r\nI know it\'s easy to get enchanted by reputation, and i was at first as well, but upon thorough self-examination after completing his courses, I realized he had taught me next-to-nothing, except for how to assemble a reading list about 20th century Japan, which he never actually discussed in class. Even his books were disappointing. Over his 4 decade career, he\'s published 4 books, two of which i\'ve read, \'logic\' and \'way\'. These books are extraordinarily pedantic and cumbersome, and offer very very little in the way of meta-analysis or significant insight.He\'s built a career on essentially being a bizarro oral historian, in which his information comes from the powerful instead of the powerless. But i think it\'s important to remember that access doesn\'t equal research, it only equals status. In fact, his cozy relationship with the LDP probably hinders his ability to see the political landscape clearly. \r\n\r\nIn short, this man is not a teacher, because anecdotes are not education. He\'s not a mentor, as numerous reports of him being an \'absentee advisor\'…