Yumi S- SIPA

Yumiko Shimabukuro

Director of Urban & Social Policy Concentration for Executive MPA; Lecturer in the Discipline of International and Public Affairs

Yumi S- SIPA

International Affairs Building, Room 901D


Personal Details

Focus Areas: Inequality, Social Policy, East Asian Studies, and Leadership Development. 

Dr. Yumiko Shimabukuro is an award-winning author and educator with expertise in social welfare policy, poverty, East Asian studies, and global leadership development at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).  She is the founding director of the Urban and Social Policy Program for the Executive MPA and the Co-Founder of the Center on Japanese Economy and Business’ Japanese Management Leadership Program at the Columbia Business School. 

In the area of social welfare policy, Dr. Shimabukuro's research on economic and social welfare developments in East Asia over the last decade has culminated in Misery Beneath the Miracle in East Asia with A.J. Lukauskas (Cornell University Press 2024).  The book reveals an unsettling reality that challenges prevailing views of the East Asian miracle. Combining big-picture analysis, abundant data, a dynamic interdisciplinary framework, and powerful human stories, it sheds light on the social ills—from elderly poverty, working poverty, child maltreatment, to affordable housing crises—that governments have failed to address adequately. It finds that one of the major forces behind the multidimensional welfare crises is the region’s productivist welfare strategy, which prioritizes economic growth while eschewing a robust social safety net, leaving the most vulnerable segments of society largely unprotected. Misery beneath the Miracle warns that the extreme imbalance between growth and social welfare not only has inflicted devastating human costs but also carries the potential to hurt their economic performance in the long run.  Dr. Shimabukuro is currently completing a manuscript entitled Building an Inegalitarian Welfare State: The Impact of Dualistic Coordinated Capitalism & Elite-Made Democracy in Japan that analyzes how the country's pursuit of modern capitalist democracy over the course of a century generated conditions inimical to the development of a safety net.  Her article-length papers address the issues of industrial relations, the social policy preferences of business and organized labor, and the process of non-linear institutional change. 

At the Center on Japanese Economy and Business (CJEB), Shimabukuro and Ryoko Ogino (Managing Director of CJEB) founded the Japanese Management Leadership Program, which is comprised of leadership research seminars, global communication in leadership training, innovation and diversity workshops, and a women’s career advancement initiative for the center’s visiting scholars and its broader CJEB network members in New York and Tokyo.  Shimabukuro’s latest project with Ogino, Rising above Inequality: Global Lessons from Japanese Women in Leadership, reveals the extraordinary journey of everyday ordinary women who have risen above inequality against all odds (under contract with Columbia University Press).

Dr. Shimabukuro is the recipient of the Harvard Teaching Excellence Award and the Columbia University-SIPA Outstanding Teaching Award.  Her international and inclusive pedagogical methods are featured in her book project, Transferable Teaching Skills: The Essential Strategies for Any Classroom (under contract with Oxford University Press).  Continually inspired by her students’ aspirations and challenges, her award-winning professional development book, Dream Rut: Navigating Your Path Forward, reveals new insights into why people get stuck while chasing their dreams and how to move forward through visual aids and self-reflective prompts. 

Before joining academia, Shimabukuro served in various capacities in investment banking and the non-profit sector, working on issues ranging from financial product innovation to sustainable development practices.  She received an MIA in International Economic Policy from Columbia University, a PhD from the Department of Political Science at MIT specializing in the political economy of redistribution in East Asia, and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship from Harvard University. 

Education

  • Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Harvard University
  • PhD in Political Economy, MIT
  • MA in International Economics, Columbia University
  • BA in International Relations, Lewis & Clark College

In The Media

Inclusive Prosperity

In their new book, Misery beneath the Miracle in East Asia, a pair of SIPA scholars challenge the narrative of shared prosperity in East Asia, revealing how the region’s focus on economic growth has come at the expense of social welfare.

Jan 31 2025
Meet the SIPA Community

The political scientist elaborates on her ongoing research on inequality and her journey to SIPA. 

 

May 24 2023