Japan briefing: the economy, politics and innovation policy

Japan is confronted by a rapidly ageing and declining population. Can Abenomics revive the economy after two decades of mediocre growth? Productivity growth will be key to sustaining incomes: what is the state of Japanese science, energy and technology innovation policy? Under a dynamic shift in the global and regional order, how is Japan’s foreign policy changing and redefining its position in the region?

Join a panel of leading experts from Japan to hear the latest on how Japan is travelling.

The forum will be followed by a reception with refreshments.

Japan, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and regionalism

Australia and Japan are members of the recently concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership involving ten other Asia-Pacific countries including the United States. Both Australia and Japan are also part of the East Asian Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership under negotiation which includes China, India and Indonesia.

What are Japan’s priorities and strategies in international economic diplomacy? And what is the future of economic architecture in our region?

Dynamics of expected inflation in Japan

Over the last three decades Japanese economy has experienced many significant events, such as a burst of bubble economy, lost two decades, Lehman and Euro financial crises, and introduction of zero interest rate and inflation targeting monetary policies. It is quite important to examine how expected inflation rates in Japan have evolved through these events. In this paper, we analyse the dynamics of expected inflation rates in Japan based on the smooth transition Phillips curve model. We find that there is a strong connection between the expected inflation and monetary policy regimes.

Japan, Australia and regional security architecture

In this public lecture, experts from Japan and Australia will discuss opportunities and challenges around Japan-Australia bilateral cooperation within the existing regional security architecture. How can Japan and Australia revitalise and enhance open and inclusive regional security institutions, such as the ASEAN Regional Forum, ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus, and East Asia Summit? What are new areas in which both countries can further cooperate in regional security institutions? What are challenges against such cooperation?

AJRC and HIAS joint conference on recent issues in finance and macroeconomics

The Australia-Japan Research Centre (AJRC) at Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University and the Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study (HIAS) at the Hitotsubashi University co-host an academic conference bringing together Australian, Japanese, and other specialists to present papers on finance and macroeconomics with some focus on Japan.

Organisers:

Tatsuyoshi Okimoto, ANU
Toshiaki Watanabe, Hitotsubashi University

Participants (Speakers, Chairs):

Economic effects of emergency risk communication: evidence from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

A tremendous amount of radioactive products were discharged as a result of the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 2011, which resulted in radioactive contamination of the plant and surrounding areas. When describing the geographical distribution of radioactive contamination, the government, media, and other organizations largely used administrative boundaries (prefectures, municipalities etc.) or distance from the radiation source as a reference.

Strategic regionalism in Asia: coalition-building and US–China power struggles

The recent upsurge in new regionalism in Asia and the Pacific, as evident in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), and Asian Investment Infrastructure Bank (AIIB), conceivably constitutes a major box of tools in US and Chinese struggles to form new regional economic and political orders in Asia. The United States and China have exploited these regional settings as valuable resources for imposing sets of norms and rules upon regional economic and security agendas.

Local bank accessibility and corporate liquidity management

We investigate the impact of local bank branch networks on corporate liquidity management using a large panel US data of more than 1800 banks and 180,000 bank main offices for the 20 year period from 1994-2013. We find that firms hold less cash when local banking market is highly accessible. The effect is more pronounced for opaque firms.

State of the nation: Japan – The promise beyond Japan’s lost decades

Asialink Business and PwC are delighted to support the upcoming release of ‘Examining Japan’s Lost Decades’, edited by Yoichi Funabashi, Chairman, Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation and Barak Kushner, Senior University Lecturer, University of Cambridge.

Japan Update 2015

The Australia-Japan Research Centre (AJRC) and the ANU Japan Institute will once again co-host the annual Japan Update.

The annual Update is designed to give a comprehensive overview of Japan’s current economic and political landscape, and future directions. Speakers participating in the Update are at the cutting edge of politics, economics and trade and each session will focus on opportunities and challenges in these fields.