U.VA. EXPERT READY TO INTERPRET JAPAN'S ELECTION RESULTS 

	In late September, Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto
dissolved parliament and called new elections. On October 20, the
500 seats in the lower house of the Japanese parliament will be up
for grabs. The elections will be held under a new electoral system
that could see Hashimoto lose his seat -- the first time ever that a
sitting prime minister in Japan could lose in a general election. 

	Leonard J. Schoppa, an expert in Japanese politics and
assistant professor of government and foreign affairs at the
University of Virginia, is ready to help reporters put the elections
into historical context and explain their implications -- both for
Japanese domestic politics and for world affairs.


LEONARD J. SCHOPPA (D. Phil., Oxford), Assistant Professor 

Office phone: (804) 924-3211
Home phone: (804) 295-6485
E-mail: ljs2k@virginia.edu

	Schoppa's current research focuses on the recent electoral
reforms in Japan and how they can be expected to affect domestic
politics. His fields of study include comparative government and
international relations, with an emphasis on the foreign policies of
Japan.  He has written on U.S. Japanese economic relations. Schoppa
also has looked into comparative education policy and is the author
of Education Reform in Japan:  A Case of Immobilist Politics.  He
contributes to various journals, including International
Organization and the Journal of Japanese Studies.  He is a Rhodes
Scholar and Reischauer Post-Doctoral Fellow at Harvard University. 

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October 4, 1996