Koschmann is interested in the nexus between political thought and action, primarily but not exclusively in twentieth-century Japan.
In his most recent work he explored new perspectives on thought and action during Japan’s war years (1931–45), in the context of themes such as pan-Asianism, the discourse on economic ethics, colonialism, and left-wing movements.
The Mito Ideology: Discourse, Reform and Insurrection in Late Tokugawa Japan, 1790-1864 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: The University of California Press, 1987).
“Modernization and Democratic Values: The ‘Japanese Model’ in the 1960s,” in Staging Growth: Modernization, Development, and the Global Cold War, edited by David C. Engerman, Nils Gilman, Mark Haefele, and Michael E. Latham (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2003), 225-249.
“Tekunorojii no shihai, shihai no tekunorojii” [Rule by technology, technologies of rule], translated by Kasai Hirotaka, in Sôryokusen no chi to seido, 1935-55 [Knowledge and Institutions of Total War, 1935–55), edited by Sakai Naoki [Kindai Nihon bunkashi 7] (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2002), 139-71.