Ulrike Schaede

Ulrike Schaede is a Professor of Japanese Business at the University of California, San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS), where she also serves as the founding director of the Japan Forum for Innovation and Technology (JFIT) and faculty coordinator of the International Management Track. She holds a Ph.D. in Japan Studies and Economics from Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany.

Her research centers on Japanese business organization, corporate strategy, political economy, and innovation, with a focus on understanding Japan’s evolving business system in the context of global capitalism. She has authored and co-authored eight books, including the award-winning The Business Reinvention of Japan (Stanford University Press, 2020), which won the 2021 Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize and a U.S. Axiom Business Book Award, and The Digital Transformation and Japan’s Political Economy (Cambridge University Press, 2022).

Her recent publications reflect a strong trend in analyzing Japan’s adaptation to digital disruption, corporate reinvention, and structural economic change. These works span disciplines including business strategy, political economy, technology policy, and organizational behavior, highlighting her interdisciplinary approach to understanding contemporary Japan.

• 2021 Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize
• 2021 U.S. Axiom Business Book Award (silver medal, 'Economics')

Schaede advises and contributes to numerous academic and policy institutions. She is Associate Editor of The Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, serves on the advisory boards of the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), IGPI Inc. (Japan), ICF at Mitsubishi Research Institute, LINK-J, and the IN-EAST program at the University of Duisburg-Essen. She teaches core GPS courses such as “Strategy and Negotiation,” “Managing Business Reinvention,” and “Business and Management in Japan.” At JFIT, she leads the weekly “Japan Zoominar” webinar series, connecting global experts on Japan. With over nine years of research experience in Japan and fluency in Japanese, she is a leading international voice on Japanese business and economic transformation.