Well, Thies thinks he's way more important than he actually is. Who gives a crap about Japanese government and politics? His arrogant attitude is not justified by his useless knowledge about all of Japan's prime ministers. He grades like a complete jerk with the class average for the midterm being 47% and final 63%. While he teaches the information well and you will learn a lot, this will not be reflected in your grade unless you study your butt off and read like crazy...and even then you'll get an F. That being said, he grades on a curve, but overall, the class is a very unrewarding experience. He also thinks its funny to give pop quizzes with extremely hard questions that no one can answer about trivial details in the readings. Everony hated this class and agreed it is the worst class they have taken at UCLA.

Do not take this professor. He will mess your GPA up. He does not care if you're a straight A student. He does not care that you have given your best on the midterm and final. He does not admit that he has shitty T.A.s. Most importantly, he does not admit that he has a shitty grading style. I wish he would have cared more about his students. It is such a shame for a person to enter the teaching field, yet have no positive relationship with his students. He will only bond with you if you're an Asian and are remotely linked to a Japanese culture. We are in the 21st century, yet there are inept professors like Thies who not only fail in positively impacting/influencing students but also fail at executing his course fairly. So sad.

If you do happen to be desperately stuck having to take his course for for a major requirement--then please make sure you read and anaylze every single word in the readings. He will base you understanding on the subject material as though you were a graduate student. Also, understand his grading style. The fact of the matter is: he does not grade the papers. His T.A.s grade the papers. If you want to know the specific style of grading, then you best visit him during office hours.

How can his grading style be so harsh? You would expect him to understand our (students) position since he was a student for many years. But sadly, he doesn't care. He just grades hard to make his class appear hard. Government is government. It is not physics. Yet he flatters himself into thinking that his course is hard when really his grading style is abnormal. He grades on curves only because he knows how difficult he makes his exams. Unbelievable.

I know, the subject seems interesting but you won't have a good experience taking the class and your GPA will suffer.

P.S. This is coming from a good student--with a good standing. Not a slacker.

I also had Professor Thies for Govt of Japan class. Although I did not do well at all in his class-I thought he was a good professor and I learned so much. There is a LOT of reading in this class so if you don't plan on keeping up with the reading-this isn't the class for you. I didn't find the professor arrogant at all-his lectures were funny and he has lived and studied in Japan so he really understands the culture. I went to his office for help and he was more than happy to give me some help and let me know what I needed to focus on. It isn't anyone else's fault that I didn't do well in the class-it was just a lot of new information that I was having trouble absorbing. Its funny though-now that I am out of the class, I remember so much information that was given, so I guess I learned more than I thought. I would reccomend this professor highly. As long as you are willing to put in the work, you will be rewarded with a very informative and fun class.

Political Science 160 with Professor Thies was my favorite class out of all the classes I had taken in UCLA and he is the BEST professor in UCLA. He is extremely knowledgeable, fair, helpful, and concerned about his students' learning. I had learned a great deal about Japanese Politics in his class. He is also a great lecturer-- his lectures are very interesting and I enjoyed doing the readings as well. His quizzes and exams are not easy but they will definitely motivate you to study. He is also very supportive during his office hours when you need help with understanding/ clarifying things. I highly recommend taking his class!!

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS, PLEASE, DO NOT TAKE IT. You WILL regret taking this class. Thies is EXTREMELY arrogant and excited about the fact that he has a PhD. and therefore knows more than you about everything relating to Japan. While his reading load is fairly light, he expects you to pick out and remember the tiniest, most irrelevant details. His reading quizzes are absolutely ridiculous. The first day of class, he tells students that he will only ask about very big, obvious, main points from the reading. Then, his quizzes consist of one easy question, followed by 4 almost impossible questions about obscure, irrelevant details. After trusting him to only ask about main points on the first quiz, and receiving only 1 pt out of 5, I learned that I needed to remember nonsense details from the readings. I did that, and ended up getting 4 or 5 out of 5 on almost all of the rest of the quizzes, so you have been warned. Lectures are also VERY dry and dull. Oh, also, the first day of class he tells students that he hates to use PowerPoint slides and rarely ever uses them. He then proceeds to use PowerPoint slides for every single lecture which follows. He is boring and probably won't keep your attention for more than 5 minutes.

For his exams, you MUST know every last detail about anything he possibly could have mentioned during lecture. DO NOT take this class, but ESPECIALLY do not take it if you don't plan on going to lecture. You WILL NOT PASS if you don't go, and he won't post up slides either. His exams cover EVERYTHING, and are VERY TOUGH. How he GRADES the exams is a complete joke. He grades you according to "what would be the most perfect, complete answer possible" and then curves everyone's C's and D's once he's done, but the curve isn't anything amazing. He even said that on a bad day, HE might not even get a perfect score on his exam, so good luck with getting that A.

He absolutely LOVES himself to death and clearly has some deep issues. Please, do yourself a favor and don't take this class. Not only is it boring, but he is an EXTREMELY hard grader and seems to take pleasure in handing back C's and D's.

I honestly do not understand why UCLA hires such arrogant professors. There is nothing like having a humble professor but when you get a douche like Thies, then your academic record is screwed. Please stay away. He gave me a B-. ROYALLY f-ed up my GPA. Do not try to go talk to him during office hours, since he will belittle you and make you feel small. He will justify his arrogance by making his class into some hard shiz. There is alot of reading--so pace yourself. Don't brush off the quizzes because he will purposely make them hard. Lectures are long and boring. He will not post up his powerpoint because as said before, he does not want you to do well in class. He will quickly browse through the slides and if you ask him to slow down, then he will give you an annoying glance. Do yourself a favor and DO NOT take Thies.