Dr Saori Shibata

School of Languages, Arts and Societies

Lecturer in East Asian Studies

Saori Shibata 2025 profile photo
Profile picture of Saori Shibata 2025 profile photo
S.Shibata@sheffield.ac.uk

Full contact details

Dr Saori Shibata
School of Languages, Arts and Societies
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
Profile

Dr Saori Shibata joined SEAS in 2021 after working as lecturer in Political Economy of Japan at Leiden University (2014-2021).

She completed a PhD in Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK (2015). 

Qualifications

2015
Ph.D., University of Birmingham, Department of Political Science and International Studies (UK)

Thesis: Consensus-based to a Disorganized Model of Japanese Capitalism: The emergence of new forms of labour activism

2007
M.A., University of Birmingham, Department of Political Science and International Studies (UK)

Research interests

Saori’s research focuses on Japan’s political economy, including the changing nature of work, the digital economy and how Japan’s model of capitalism is transforming. This draws on institutionalist approaches to capitalism and critical political economy. She has published on these topics in journals such as New Political Economy, Review of International Political Economy and British Journal of Political Science. She is the author of Contesting Precarity in Japan: The Rise of Nonregular Workers and the New Policy Dissensus published by Cornell University Press.  

Publications

Books

  • Shibata S (2020) Contesting Precarity in Japan The Rise of Nonregular Workers and the New Policy Dissensus. Cornell University Press.

Journal articles

  • Shibata S & Lechevalier S (2025) . The Japanese Political Economy.
  • Lechevalier S & Shibata S (2024) . Competition & Change.
  • Shibata S & Bailey DJ (2024) . Economy and Society, 53(4), 719-744.
  • Shibata S (2022) . Global Political Economy, 1(1), 173-187.
  • Bailey DJ, Lewis PC & Shibata S (2022) . Capital & Class, 46(3), 331-491.
  • Shibata S (2021) . Review of International Political Economy, 29(5), 1549-1576.
  • Bailey D, Huke N, Lewis P & Shibata S (2021) . Social Policy and Society, 20(1), 158-171.
  • Shibata S (2020) . New Political Economy, 25(4), 535-551.
  • Shibata S (2019) . Science, Technology and Society, 24(2), 271-287.
  • Bailey DJ & Shibata S (2019) . British Journal of Political Science, 49(2), 683-709.
  • Shibata S (2017) . Japan Forum, 29(3), 399-422.
  • Shibata S (2016) . British Journal of Industrial Relations, 54(3), 496-521.
  • Bailey DJ & Shibata S (2014) . Capital & Class, 38(1), 239-251.

Book chapters

  • Shibata S (2023) In Atzeni M, Azzellini D, Mezzadri A, Apitzsch U & Phoebe M (Ed.), Handbook of Research on the Global Political Economy of Work Edward Elgar Publishing
  • Shibata S (2023) , Temporary and Gig Economy Workers in China and Japan (pp. 48-73). Oxford University PressOxford
  • Clua-Losada M, Bailey DJ & Shibata S (2022) Real democracy in a time of Corona-crisis capitalism In Regelmann A (Ed.), The Crisis and the Future of Democracy (pp. 280-323). Brussels: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.
  • Shibata S (2022) , The Routledge Handbook of the Gig Economy (pp. 401-418). Routledge
  • Shibata S (2022) Public Health and Capitalism in Japan: The Impact of Labour Market Challenges and Welfare on Public Health In van der Veere A, Schneider F & Lo CY-P (Ed.), Public Health in Asia during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Global Health Governance, Migrant Labour, and International Health Crises Amsterdam University Press
  • Shibata S (2021) Contradiction and Discontent in Japan: Abenomics and the Failing Politics of Economic Reform In Maslow S & Wirth C (Ed.), Crisis Narratives, Institutional Change, and the Transformation of the Japanese State State University of New York Press
  • Shibata S (2020) Re-packaging old policies? ‘Abenomics’ and the lack of an alternative growth model for Japan’s political economy In Chiavacci D & Lechevalier S (Ed.), Japanese Political Economy Revisited Abenomics and Institutional Change Routledge
  • Shibata S & Bailey D (2018) Contesting anti-austerity in low resistance models of capitalism In Fishwick A & Connolly H (Ed.), Austerity and Working-Class Resistance Survival, Disruption and Creation in Hard Times

Book reviews

  • SHIBATA S (2021) . Social Science Japan Journal, 24(1), 233-235.
  • Shibata S (2018) . Information, Communication & Society, 21(12), 1772-1778.
  • Shibata S (2016) . Capital & Class, 40(1), 218-221.
  • Shibata S (2012) . Labor History, 53(1), 164-165.

Other

  • Shibata S (2025) Eikoku no Daigakuga Chokumensuru Aratana Kadaito Torikumi [Challenges facing UK universities and new initiatives].
Teaching interests

Saori constantly strives in her teaching to engage the interest and enthusiasm of students and aim to inspire them in their learning, in particularly through the adoption of a range of innovative teaching methods that are designed to ensure participation within the classroom and a depth of learning.

Teaching activities

For academic year 2021/22 I am teaching the following modules:

EAS10XXX – Thinking Transnationally 

EAS2031 – Postwar Japanese Politics 

EAS683 – Global Governance and Japan

EAS6236 – Postwar Japanese Politics