Gerald Curtis will retire this month from Columbia University, where he has been teaching since 1968.
The 75-year-old has met every prime minister since Eisaku Sato (in office 1964-72), dines with the Emperor and is privy to insider knowledge on party politics. At a 2009 Tokyo book launch for his memoir "Seiji to Sanma: Nihon to Kurashite 45-nen," Yasuhiro Nakasone, then 91, was one of a few former prime ministers who attended. Without notes, and none the worse for a few whiskeys, Nakasone rattled off Curtis' accomplishments and entertained the crowd with anecdotes and detailed references to the text.
I first took a class from Curtis in 1980 where he focused on the actual politics of politics, as well as the human factor, which has been lost to subsequent generations of political scientists who work in a field dominated by quantitative analysis. Since then I have enjoyed skiing, hiking, dining and attending jazz gigs with Curtis in scenic Gunma Prefecture and Tokyo.