Minoru Yanagihashi is a second-generation Japanese American. He grew up in Honolulu, Hawai’i, and early on, developed an interest in Japanese history and politics. He holds degrees from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa (BA), University of Washington (MLS), University of California, Berkeley (MA), and University of Michigan (PhD). Before his academic career, he served as an infantry officer in South Korea and was also a reference librarian at California State University at Los Angeles. He did field research on electoral politics in Hyogo Prefecture under a Fulbright-Hays grant. He has taught at several universities, including the University of Michigan and the University of Arizona. Besides electoral politics, he has interest in Japanese foreign policy and relations.
