Takaaki Suzuki is Director of East Asian Studies and Associate Professor of Political Science at Ohio University. He received his B.A. in Government and East Asian Studies from Oberlin College, his M.A. in International Affairs and Certificate in East Asian Studies from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and his Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University. His work is primarily in the field of international relations and comparative politics, with a regional focus on East Asia. Dr. Suzuki has conducted extensive research in Japan at the Ministry of Finance and the University of Tokyo through the funding of the Japan Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the American Council of Learned Societies. He held the Matsushita Postdoctoral Fellowship at Columbia University, and was a Visiting Scholar at the Reischauer Institute, Harvard University.

Dr. Suzuki's book, Japan's Budget Politics: Balancing International and Domestic Interests, is published by Lynne Rienner Publishers as part of Columbia University's East Asian Institute Series. The book examines the interplay of the international and domestic forces that have shaped Japanese maocroeconomic policy. Some of his other recent publications include: “Administrative Reform and the Politics of Budgetary Retrenchment in Japan” (forthcoming); “Nationalism, Identity and Security in Post Cold War Japan” (2008); “The East Asian Developmental Model in the Era of Global Finance: The Case of Japan” (2007); Modernity and the Transformation of the Japanese State" (2007); "Global Finance, Democracy, and the State in Japan” (2006); "Keyensianism, Monetarism, and the Contradiction of Japan's Modern Welfare State" (2003). His ongoing project examines the rise of global finance and neoliberal ideology and its impact on the state and democracy in Japan.

Courses taught by Dr. Suzuki include Current World Problems, Comparative Politics, East Asia in World Politics, Politics and Government of Japan, and the Graduate Seminar in Comparative Politics. Dr. Suzuki has received the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teacher Award.