Regional Think Tanks in Japan: Place Priority Through Infrastructural Consulting, Information Generation, and Leadership Development.

This paper presents an exploratory examination of regional think tanks in Japan and outlines the contribution that such an examination can make both as a comparative Asian case for regional think tank research as well as in theorization of regional think tanks on the basis of various constructs of place priority. After briefly outlining the main trends and tensions in the study of think tanks in general and providing an overview of the literature on think tanks in Japan, the paper focuses specifically on the small-scale regional think tanks situated throughout Japan. The conclusions are twofold. First of all, the research builds on previous research in furthering the descriptive characteristics of Japanese regional think tanks. Second, the research outlines various place priority constructs through which regional think tanks can be described, compared, and analyzed. These are the specific dimensions of influence that place priority think tanks bring to their locale: local development through infrastructural advocacy, local development through objective information generation, and local development through knowledge and leadership cultivation. The analysis that leads to these conclusions speaks on a broader level to the contribution that such a focus on small-scale think tanks can make to research on think tanks at large. Case study of such regional think tanks offers insight into a major tension confronting contemporary think tank research: agenda advocacy versus the various other objectives that think tanks aim for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]