Mitsuhiko Okamoto is a Professor in Political Science at Tokai University in Japan and a visiting researcher at C2D for the academic year 2014-2015. He holds a Ph. D. in Political Science from Waseda University in Tokyo. His dissertation focused on urban politics and local autonomy in Switzerland. He was previously a visiting Professor at the University of Vienna, Austria. His fields of specialisation are public administration and local autonomy. He is currently interested in comparative direct democracy at the local level in Japan and other countries.