Postdoctoral Researcher

PhD student at Franklin Switzerland within a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) – funded project.

Email: mmatsunaga@fus.edu

Miku Matsunaga is a senior researcher at Franklin Switzerland within a SNSF-funded project. She specializes in political behavior, political economy, and political violence. Specifically, she is interested in the intersection of party competition and extremist violence, survival strategy of political institutions, and elite polarization as well as other topics. Methodologically, she draw on advanced quantitative analyses, (quasi) experimental methods, and causal inference.

Her papers are published in Comparative Political Studies, European Journal of Political Research, Political Science Research and Methods, Party Politics, and Journal of European Public Policy.  

Her research was awarded the 2024 James Caporaso Prize for the best paper published in Comparative Political Studies.

After finishing LL.B. in international legal studies, she earned Master of Public Policy (GraSPP, University of Tokyo), Master of Politics (Wilf Family Department of Politics, NYU), and Ph.D. in Government (Department of Government, University of Essex). Previously, she worked for Department of Economics at University of Tokyo and University of London for an ERC funded project.

Conference Papers and Presentations

Peer-reviewed:

Matsunaga, Miku and van Spanje, Joost. 2026. The Stigma on Right-wing Parties: Perceptions and Voting Behaviour. Journal of European Public Policy, 33(2):415-443. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2025.2490814

Matsunaga, Miku and Winzen, Thomas. 2025. Strengthening Mainstream Consensus? The effect of radical right populist parties on the defense policies of left parties. Political Science Research and Methods, 13(3):629-644. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2024.40

Matsunaga, Miku. 2025. Are Right-Wing Populists More Likely to Justify the Use of Political Violence? European Journal of Political Research, 64(1):374-388. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12668

ECPR Conference Collection 2024 (EJPR editor’s choice)

Krause, Werner and Matsunaga, Miku. 2023. Does Right-wing Violence Affect Public Support for Radical Right Parties? Evidence From Germany. Comparative Political Studies, 56(14):2269-2305. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/001041402311690

2024 James Caporaso Best Paper Award, Comparative Political Studies.

Matsunaga, Miku. 2023. The Mediation Effect of Radical Right Parties on the Nexus between Immigration and Right-wing Terrorism. Party Politics, 29(5):878-891. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13540688221107084

Other

Matsunaga, Miku and Rehmert, Jochen. 2025. Will Japan’s Sanae Takaichi follow in the footsteps of Giorgia Meloni on gender equality? EUROPP - European Politics and Policy, European Institute, London School of Economics (LSE)

Matsunaga, Miku and Krause, Werner. 2023. Right-wing violence and the persistence of far-right popularity. The Loop, European Consortium For Political Research

Award

2024/08: James Caporaso Best Paper Prize, Comparative Political Studies. (with Werner Krause)

Current Projects