Lully Miura
President, Yamaneko Research Institute, Inc.
Lully Miura is a political scientist who helps policy makers, media, and the public to understand the world and make it a better place. She founded and is president of Yamaneko Research Institute, Inc., an independent thinktank dedicated to the most pressing issues for Japan and the world.
Lully has brought about new perspectives and analysis to critical issues. Her first book, Civilian’s War: On the Origins of Aggressive Democracies, Iwanami, 2012, focused on civilian led wars against military advice in modern democracies. It reignited the debate on the relationship between democracy and security, and provided implications for established norms such as civilian control.
She is an author of many books including A Guidebook to Japanese Politics and Diplomacy, Bungei-Shunju 2015, A New World Order in the ‘Trump Era’, Ushio, 2017, Politics that is Important to You, Bungei-Shunju 2018, War and Peace in the 21st Century: Why Conscription System Is Needed Again, Shincho-sha 2019.
She has provided the definitive story behind the epic security law reforms in 2015 co-authored book with Masahiko Kohmura, former Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) vice president (Dilemma of the State, Shincho-sya 2017). Her other co-authored books include; Choosing Politics, Bungei Shunjyu 2019 (with Toru Hashimoto, ex-mayor and governor of Osaka), and Realism of Nation State, Kadokawa 2017, (with Naoki Inose, ex-governor of Tokyo). She also contributed to Martin Fackler & Yoichi Funabashi eds., Reinventing Japan, Praeger, 2018 an introduction focusing Japan’s Soft Power.
As a regular commentator/contributor to several TV programs and newspapers, Lully has provided perspectives on both international and domestic issues. Lully is also an advisory panel member of Fuji Television and Yoshimoto Kogyo, one of Japan’s biggest entertainment conglomerates.
Lully is the winner of numerous prizes including Seiron-Shinpu-sho. She was a member of PM’s advisory panel on National Defense Program Guidelines FY 2019, advisory panel member for Kyodo news 2016-2019, and book review committee member for Yomiuri Shimbun 2017-2018.
As a leading female thinker, she is regarded as an opinion leader on issues of feminism and diversity. Her first autobiography, The Meaning of Loneliness, the Taste of Life as a Woman, Shincho-sha 2019 touches on the difficulties facing modern women. The book has become a bestseller having covered sensitive topics such as sexual violence, raising a daughter, and losing a baby…
Lully graduated from the University of Tokyo and the Graduate School of Public Policy (GraSPP) and earned her PhD from the Graduate School for Law and Politics, the University of Tokyo. After conducting various research projects as a lecturer at the University of Tokyo, she founded her own thinktank, Yamaneko Research Institute, Inc. She is a honorary professor for Tokyo International University.