Yoshio Sugimoto

Biography

Yoshio Sugimoto grew up in Kyoto and graduated from Kyoto University. After working for a few years as a staff writer for The Mainichi Shimbun, a Japanese national daily, he pursued postgraduate studies in the United States and and achieved his PhD in sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. After moving to Australia, Professor Sugimoto taught and researched at La Trobe University’s sociology department for more than three decades. During this period, he wrote many books and articles on Japanese society, focusing on cultural diversity and class competition, and played a significant role in promoting a paradigm shift in Japanese studies from monocultural to multicultural models. A Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities since 1988, he continues to work on social stratification, civil society and ideology formation in contemporary Japan. His book, An Introduction to Japanese Society (Cambridge University Press), entered its fourth edition in 2014.