Shisaku is a homophone meaning essay, a meditation upon a subject, a policy or measures a government takes. A fitting title for analyst Michael Cucek's blog which provides insight and opinion on Japanese politics, with a distinct hint of satire. In the eight years he's been writing the blog, Shisaku has become a go-to English-language resource for anyone who follows or is curious about the political culture in Japan. Topics focus on current events but often segue into commentaries on overarching political issues. Cucek has a degree in East Asian Studies from Stanford University and did graduate work at UC Santa Barbara and Columbia University. He now lives in Tokyo where he writes and does private consulting, with an emphasis on Japanese politics. He is also a research associate at the MIT Center for International Studies.
How did you begin blogging and what inspired you to launch Shisaku?
I began blogging after I got complaints from my friends who were receiving emails from me about my ideas on what was going on in Japanese politics. One of them said, "Michael, go get a blog," and that's when I started. The inspiration was my feeling that the quality of information available on Japan was relatively poor. After the 1990s, and the collapse of the bubble, reporting on Japan became thinner, more rote and less interesting. In fact, quite boring. I felt that there was a lot of humor, a lot of backstory, that no one was covering. The level of understanding was diminishing. It reached its nadir during the late 1990s. I and others felt that there was an opening for commentary.