Nobuhiro Hiwatari
August 2009-February 2010

Yasunari Takada

Professor in Transcultural Studies,
Graduate School of Arts & Sciences

Research area
Classics and Modernity/Comparative Literature, Thought and Culture
 

Current research interests
• Comparative thought between US and Japan, mainly through six representative figures: Masao Maruryama, Toshihiko Izutsu, Shuichi Kato, Richard Rorty, Hayden White, and Edward Said.
•The Genealogy of De Officiis from Cicero to the 18th-century Europe.

Major Publications (in English)
Books
Transcendental Descent: Essays in Literature and Philosophy (Collection UTCP, 2007)
(Ed.) Surprised by Scenes：Essays in Honour of Professor Yasunari Takahashi (Tokyo:Kenkyusha,1994)
(Ed. with Kevin M. Doak) Overcoming Postmodernism: ‘Overcoming Modernity’ and Japan (Tokyo: Shubun-Kan, 2002)

Chapters in Books or Articles
1. “How to Do Things with ‘Fall-Out” Systems in Troilus and Cressida,” Shakespeare Studies,Vol.20,1984
2. “Hevene’ in Criseyde: Dnate’s Festa’ and Chauceｒ’s ‘Feste, in Philologia Anglica: Festschrift in Honour of Professor Y.Terasawa　(Tokyo:Kenkyusya,1988)
3. “The Brooch of Thebes and the Girdle of Venus: Country Love in an Oppositional Perspective,”　Poetica,29/39(1989)
4. “Vulcan Cuckolded by Mars: Archetypal Adultery and Its Subsequent Undercurrents,” Proceedings of the College of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo,38(1991)
5. “From The House of Fame to Politico-Cultural Histories,” in Chaucer to Shakespeare, eds. R. Beadle & T. Takamiya (Cambridge: Boydell & Brewer,1992)
6. Against the Grain of Tragedy,” Proceedings of the College of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo, 39(1992)
7. “Chaucer’s Use of Neoplatonic Traditions,” in Platonism and the English Imagination, eds. S. Hatton & A. Baldwin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1994)
8. “An Augustan Representation of Cicero,” in Enlightened Groves: Essays in Honour of Professor Zenzo Suzuki (Tokyo:Shohakusha,1996 [in Japanese]
9. “Shakespeare’s Cicero,” in Shakespeare’s Plutarch: A Special Issue of Poetica 48 (1997).
10. “Common Profit and Libidinal Dissemination in Chaucer,” in The Body and the Soul in Medieval Literature (papers from J.A.W. Bennett Memorial Lectures), (D.S. Brewer, 1999）.
11. “The Illusions of the Modern and the Pleasures of the Pre-Modern,” Overcoming Postmodernism: “Overcoming Modernity” and Japan, (eds.) Kevin Doak & Y. Takada (Tokyo: Shubun-kan, 2002), 125-139.
12. “Leonardo Bruni’s Cicero Novus,” European Studies (DESK, the University of Tokyo, 2002), pp. 65-79.
13. ”Shakespeare as Shake-Scene,” Studies in World Literature and Translation (Beijing: Peking University, 2004), pp. 9-13..
14. “Postmodern Girl,” Cultural Studies in Asia, eds. S-K. Kim & A. Gordon (Seoul: Seoul National UP, 2004), 157-184. [Korean translation in 21st Century 17 (Seoul: ISU, 2002), pp. 19-34.]
15. “A Shakespearean Distance,” Shakespeare Studies, XLIII (2005-6), pp. 1-36.
16. “Translatio and Difference: Western Classics in Modern Japan,” in The Classics and National Cultures, eds P. Vasunia and S. Stephens (Oxford UP, 2010)

Longer Reviews
1. “Francis A Yates, The Occult Philosophy in the　Elizabethan　Literature” (The English Literary Society of Japan), English Number 1982
2. “Helen Gardner, In Defense of Imagination,” Studies in English Literature (The English Literary Society of Japan), English Number 1984
3. “D.S. Brewer, Tradition and Innovation in Chaucer; English Gothic Literature,” Poetica 19 (1984)
4. “Alastair Fowler, Kinds of Literature：An Introduction to the Theory of Genres and Modes,” Studies in English Literature (The English Literary Society of Japan), English Number 1985.
5. The Italian World of English Renaissance Drama, Cultural Exchange and Intertextuality, eds. M. Marrapodi, Rivista di Letterature Moderne e Vomparate (Firenze), vol. LIV (2001), pp. 108-110.
6. “On Overcoming Modernity, trans. & intro. by R. Calichman,” the Journal of Japanese Studies vol. 35, no. 2, (summer 2009), pp. 380-385.

Nobuhiro Hiwatari
(PhD, Political Science, University of California, Berkeley)

Professor of political economy,
Institute of Social Sciences

Research area
Political economy/International political economy

Current research interests
• Why Reform? Global recessions, high unemployment, and the adoption of structural reforms and budgetary restraint

• Economic Interdependence and Political Rivalry: Democracies, non-democracies, and stagnant regional arrangements in East Asia
 

What kind of creature is a political economist?

The term “political economy” is probably as old as the study of economics. That fact notwithstanding, what is currently known as positive political economy, which is my field of study, is a relatively new and emerging discipline. To the best of my knowledge, graduate courses in political economy and international political economy were not commonly taught at major universities when I started out as a student as they are of late. My impression is that the field developed by amalgamating works that branched out from three different research traditions: One is the empirical study of macroeconomics (including labor economics), within which a number of students started to examine political institutions in order to explain differences among countries in their macroeconomic policy and its effectiveness. The other is a group of scholars in comparative politics who turned to labor market organizations and the partisan characteristics of government to explain differences in economic performance and economic policy, sharing a similar interest with the economists. The third branch originate in international politics, from which researchers started to stress the importance of economic conflict and cooperation among states, as well as the role of international organizations, as an inherent part of international political activities. Although of several lineages, students working in the field of political economy/ international political economy have in common their emphasis of political variables as a key factor in explaining economic policies and economic outcomes.

The advent of political economy/international political economy in the social sciences seems to owe a lot to the rapid development of events in the real world since the 1970s. To my mind, it is difficult to explain the development of the field without citing the outburst of stagflation immediately after the Oil Crises of the late 1970s and the transition of developed countries to low-growth post-industrial societies, which necessitated a recalibration of the welfare state and the implementation of structural reforms, on the one hand. On the other hand, the spread of market economic activities across the Globe, including developing nations and former Communist nations, and the emerging dominance of economic issues among states can be regarded as the other development that spurred the study of political economy and international political economy. Against this historical backdrop, current students of the field tend to have a positivist bent, meaning a strong emphasis on empirical work that explains why certain choices were made and certain outcomes occurred post facto. However, the reason for the research is hardly to shed a new light on past history but to make policy recommendations for the future, even if they are based on retrospective empirical foundations rather than prospective extrapolation. As such, political economists dwell beyond the ivory towers of the academe and a can be found in international organizations, such as the OECD, the IMF, or the World Bank, and in government organizations, such as the central bank and treasury, as well as think tanks of various sorts. The broad participation of academics based at governmental and international organizations has been a critical factor in the amassing of new and improved data on the economy and polity of nations, fueling the rapid development of the field.

As a political economist, I place Japan as the source of my research puzzles and try to answer them by mobilizing new theories in political economy and international political economy. More concretely, my current work consists of, on the one hand, a comparative analysis of OECD countries in the way they respond to economic crisis. Here, my puzzle is why some governments undertake structural reforms and maintain budgetary constraint even during the thick of a global recession at the cost of aggravating unemployment, while others, such as Japan, resort to spending-based stimulus packages. On the other hand, my other research is about cooperative institution building, or rather the lack thereof, in East Asia in spite of strong and expanding economic ties. My hypothesis here is that the variation in the degree of democratic governance, meaning the existence of democracies as well as non-democracies in the region, makes it difficult for governments to engage in enduring, contractual agreements. This idea is based on robust empirical findings that similar political regimes—democracies and democracies, non-democracies and non-democracies—are more likely to cooperate with each other than a pair of un-similar political regimes.

The first of my two research interests will be part of a joint research undertaken under the aegis of the TYI, which will host two conferences in April and August 2010 titled “Fiscal Adjustment, Structural Reform, and Government Change.” My other interest is what I plan to pursue during my stay by utilizing the rich and unique resources available at Yale.

My Plans at Yale

My main purpose at Yale is to set up an enduring arrangement that enables the two universities to organize political scientists and economists at both sides of the Pacific and collaborate in joint research projects that analyzes ongoing developments in the Japanese political economy and publishes the results in a periodical manner. Naturally, I hope to undertake research that contributes to such efforts. For this purpose, I am currently working on the following:

(1) Academic Collaboration under the Aegis of TYI

As mentioned above, in collaboration with Professor Jun Saito of the political science department and the support of Yale’s East Asia Council and the Todai Horiba International Conference Fund, we plan to hold two international conferences in April at Yale and in August at Tokyo that will put together papers addressing the question of whether structural reforms and fiscal adjustment by the Liberal Democratic government in the 2000s have led to its downfall and/or the rise of the Democratic Party of Japan, which was swept into power by a landslide this fall.

We hope to publish the papers in English and Japanese. However, beyond that we hope to develop this into a prototype case of collaborate research that will be followed by joint research organized by Yale and Todai scholars on contemporary Japanese political economy and international political economy.

(2) Research at Yale

I am also conducting individual research on the international and especially domestic political factors that explain variations among OECD countries in the foreign aid and defense efforts. I hope this research will lead to another joint research project Professor Saito and I are planning under the aegis of TYI, tentatively titled “Government Change and Foreign Policy: A comparison of Japanese and Korean responses to U.S. initiatives.” We plan to adopt a structured research design in which we compare U.S. foreign policy initiatives that affected both Japan and Korea in a very similar way, and examine whether government change has affected the responses of both countries as well as whether differences in the political systems—Japan being a cabinet system and Korea being a presidential one—has any effect on each countries responses. We hope this project will serve as a successor to the ongoing joint research described above.

Major Publications (in English)

1. “The Problem of Macroeconomic Policy Crossroads: Explaining the economic policy paradox of Switzerland and Japan in the 1990s,” The Swiss Political Science Review, 10-3 (2004), 137-178.

2. “Embedded Policy Preferences and the Formation of International Arrangement after the Asian Financial Crisis,” The Pacific Review, 16-3 (2003), pp.331-359.

3.“Disinflationary Adjustment: The link between economic globalization and challenges to Postwar social contracts,” in Olivier Zunz, Leonard Schoppa, and Nobuhiro Hiwatari (eds.), Social Contracts Under Stress: The Middle Classes of America, Europe, and Japan at the Turn of the Century (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002), pp. 281-318.

4.“The Reorganization of Japan's Financial Bureaucracy: The politics of bureaucratic structure and blame avoidance,” in Takeo Hoshi & Hugh Patrick (eds.), Crisis and Change in the Japanese Financial System (New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000), pp. 109-136
5. “Japanese Corporate Governance Reexamined,” in Margaret Blair & Mark Roe (eds.), Employees and Corporate Governance (Washington D.C., Brookings Institution, 1999), pp. 275-313
6. “Adjustment to Stagflation and Neoliberal Reform in Japan, the UK, and the US,” Comparative Political Studies, 31-5 (1998), pp. 602-632.
7. “Explaining the End of the Postwar Party System,” in Junji Banno (ed.), The Political Economy of Japanese Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998)
 

The Todai Liaison Committee was appointed by the Chair of the Council on East Asian Studies (The MacMillan Center), Professor Haun Saussy, to facilitate the ongoing work of the Todai-Yale Iniitiative participants and staff from Todai. The Committee will meet with the Todai faculty and staff group once or twice each semester to provide advice and information and to assist as needed in the planning of the Todai-Yale Initiative projects.

(Professor Ishigami (Todai) with Curator Hammond and Professor Kamens)

The members of the "Todai Liaison Committee" of the Council on East Asian Studies:

To The Council on East Asian Studies Website:

In concrete terms, targeting all fields of Japanese Studies and Japan-related research in the social sciences and humanities, we are sending graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and assistant and associate professors to Yale University. Doctoral and higher level graduate students will be sent on the “Visiting Assistant in Research (VAR)” program, while the “Yale Summer Session” will accept principally first year Master’s students. Assistant professors and postdoctoral researchers will be accepted to Yale University as “Research Affiliates at the MacMillan Center.” The Initiative aims to nurture academics capable of carrying out research activities on the global stage, including producing papers and research presentations in English, taking part in events organized by The Todai-Yale Initiative, and creating opportunities for academics, researchers and students in the United States to meet and exchange ideas. Further, by publishing research results obtained through academic activities centered on Yale University, from this research center at Yale we hope to encourage the revitalization of Japanese Studies in the United States.

To JSPS International Training Program Homepage：

In the charter of The University of Tokyo, the university's mission is defined as becoming the "world's University of Tokyo" with the purpose of serving the common good of global society. In order to realise this goal, The University of Tokyo is putting its efforts into promoting internationalisation, which we are implementing by strengthening relations with other top class global universities and research institutions and by proceeding with the establishment of overseas centers.

Overseas centers are divided into two types: Liaison Offices, the aims of which include carrying out activities to acquire talented students from host countries, promoting relations with educational and research institutions, and strengthening alumni organisations; and Overseas Laboratories, which carry out research activities. Overseas Laboratories are research facilities established abroad by The University of Tokyo, at which faculty from this university engage in education and research. To date, there have been examples of such facilities at the faculty level, but the purpose of this center is to act as a university-wide overseas laboratory, constantly engaging in educational and research activities with the cooperation of multiple departments, contributing to academic exchange and the construction of networks of researchers and improving the international scholarly presence of this university.

The Todai-Yale Initiative, established by The University of Tokyo as our first overseas laboratory, was created as a laboratory of the social sciences and humanities for research on or related to Japan in Yale University, to host researchers dispatched on rotation from various departments of The University of Tokyo to provide lectures, symposia and seminars on Japan Studies in the fields of social science and the humanities, and is structured to support collaborative research with Yale researchers. While providing a stimulus to Japanese Studies in America and also to the many University of Tokyo faculty in Japan engaged in research in Japanese Studies and research related to Japan generally, I sincerely hope that in the future this will prove to be an important center for the internationalisation of The University of Tokyo and the spread of Japanese Studies.

Vice President,
The University of Tokyo
Makoto Asashima

Englargement

The University of Tokyo aims to realize the following two objectives through the activities of The Todai-Yale Initiative.

1. The strengthening of the international promotion of Japanese Studies and Japan-related research in the humanities and social sciences is urgently required. Through cooperation with researchers at Yale University and at other institutions, work to ensure the resolution of this issue.
2. Equip researchers, and particularly young researchers, with the skills to promote the results of their research to international society.

Japanese Studies in the United States has produced many splendid achievements, including the introduction of Japanese Art to the United States and research into Japan by Ernest Fenollosa, the historical research of Yale University’s Asakawa Kan'ichi and Harvard University’s Edwin Reischauer, and Donald Keene’s research into Japanese classical literature. In recent years, however, the number of centers and researchers focusing on Japanese Studies in the United States has declined, and in particular signs of reduced research on Japan in the humanities and social sciences have become a source of considerable concern.

However, for Japan to contribute to the development of international society and cooperate with other countries around the world, it is essential to ensure an understanding of Japanese society and culture in other countries and, as the principal representative of international society on many levels, in the United States in particular.

To this end The University of Tokyo, by establishing The Todai-Yale Initiative in Yale University, the center of Japanese Studies in the United States, and by sending academic and administrative staff through this initiative, aims to realize exchange with United States academics and students. Further, by organizing events under the auspices of the Initiative, The University of Tokyo intends to energize Japanese Studies and Japan-related research in the United States. At the same time, by encouraging University of Tokyo students to take part in programs offered by Yale University, the university aims to nurture the development of individuals with the ability to be active on the world stage.

Activities

Exchange Activities

Within the framework of The Todai-Yale Initiative, each year The University of Tokyo shall send several Professors, Associate and Assistant Professors and researchers having completed graduate studies working in fields related to Japanese Studies or Japan-related research to Yale University as visiting fellows for the purpose of promoting academic exchange with Yale. Further, The University of Tokyo shall also promote cooperation in the administration of international exchange by sending administrative staff to the Office of International Affairs. At the same time, The University of Tokyo shall promote the development of young researchers by sending several individuals to the Yale University Visiting Assistants in Research (VAR) and Yale Summer Session programs.

Events

The Todai-Yale Initiative, with the cooperation of the Council on East Asian Studies of the Yale University the MacMillan Center, will hold several workshop series, seminars and symposiums within Yale University.

The Todai-Yale Initiative office is located at 55 Whitney Avenue on the 4th floor.

• Yale Campus Map: http://business.yale.edu/map/

Driving directions to 55 Whitney Avenue

From New York by way of I-95 Northbound:

1. From I-95 bear left onto I-91 North.
2. Take I-91 North to Exit 3 (Trumbull Street exit).
3. At end of ramp turn left onto Orange Street and go two blocks to traffic light.
4. At light turn right onto Grove Street.
5. Continue one block and turn right on to Whitney Avenue. The office is on the right-hand side of Whitney Avenue, across from Dunkin Donuts.

From New York by way of the Merritt Parkway (Rt 15):

1. Take Exit 54 from the Merrit Parkway to I-95 North
2. From I-95 bear left onto I-91 North.
3. Take I-91 North to Exit 3 (Trumbull Street exit).
4. At end of ramp turn left onto Orange Street and go two blocks to traffic light.
5. At light turn right onto Grove Street.
6. Continue one block and turn right on to Whitney Avenue. The office is on the right-hand side of Whitney Avenue, across from Dunkin Donuts.

From western Connecticut Route 34 (Derby Ave.)

1. Take Route 34 east toward New Haven
2. From Route 34 turn right onto CT-10/CT-34/Ella T Grasso Blvd.
3. Turn left onto Legion Ave/CT-34 E. Continue to follow CT-34 E. which becomes S Frontage Rd.
4. Turn Left onto Church St South.
5. Follow Church Street until it becomes Whitney Avenue. The office is on the right-hand side of Whitney Avenue, across from Dunkin Donuts.

From Tweed New Haven Airport, New London and points east:

1. Take I-95 South and cross the Pearl Harbor Bridge (Quinnipiac River Bridge).
2. Take Exit 48 onto I-91 North and continue north to Exit 3 (Trumbull Street exit).
3. At end of ramp turn left onto Orange Street and go two blocks to traffic light.
4. At light turn right onto Grove Street.
5. Continue one block and turn right on to Whitney Avenue. The office is on the right-hand side of Whitney Avenue, across from Dunkin Donuts.

From Hartford and points north:

1. Take I-91 South to Exit 3 (Trumbull Street exit).
2. At end of ramp turn left onto Orange Street and go two blocks to traffic light.
3. At light turn right onto Grove Street.
4. Continue one block and turn right on to Whitney Avenue. The office is on the right-hand side of Whitney Avenue, across from Dunkin Donuts.

Parking

A parking garage is located on Audubon Street. Turn left at the Trumbull Street exit onto Orange Street. Proceed one block to Audubon. The garage entrance is located on the right hand side just after Audubon Street. Look for the Public Parking sign at the base of the driveway. Exit the garage on to Audubon and walk to Whitney Avenue. Our office is located on the corner of Whitney and Audubon.

Additionally, there are two garages near the corner of Grove and Orange Streets, just two blocks from our office. Exit the garage on to Grove Street, turn right onto Whitney Avenue, proceed two blocks to 55 Whitney.

Address:

The Todai-Yale Initiative
55 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06510-1300 USA
International Alliance of Research Universities
Room #403

Fax: 1-203-436-4631

Email: intpl[at]adm.u-tokyo.ac.jp
 

Haruki vs. Karamazov: Contemporary Japanese Literature

under the Shadow of the Great Russian
 

 Mitsuyoshi NUMANO -Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology

Room 312, Hall of Graduate Studies, 320 York Street

The lecture was attended by many students and academic staff members of East Asian

Studies, Slavic Languages and Literatures, and Comparative Literature, although it was

the busy time near the end of the semester. The lecture was so popular that the

classroom could not accommodate all of them, and thus the classroom had to be

changed. After Professor Yasunari Takada said greetings, representing the Todai-Yale

Initiative, Christopher Hill, Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures,

introduced the lecturer. The lecture was given by Professor Mitsuyoshi Numano for

one and a half hour. As the lecture topics were timely, the comparative theory of Japan

and Russia was interesting, and he was eloquent, the lecture was followed

by an active and lively question-and-answer session.

 September 23, 2009

 The Impact of Audit Failure in Japan

 Fumiko TAKEDA -Associate Professor, Graduate School of Engineering

< Abstract >

‘An international symposium on the Tea Culture of Japan was held during the exhibition 'The Journey of Chanoyu' in the Yale University Art Gallery. Professor Fujimori of the Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo, who is famous for his architectural work on teahouses, gave a speech and discussed the international content and aesthetics of Japanese tea culture with world famous tea practitioners, curators, and art dealers.

For more information:
http://artgallery.yale.edu/pages/info/teaculture.html

Photo: Prof.Fujimori (Teahouse Tetsu, Yamanashi, 2005)

 

The Decline of Particularism in Japanese Politics

Gregory W. Noble - Professor,  Institute of Social Science

< Summary >

Despite the storied role of particularistic spending in postwar Japanese politics, expenditures on roads, bridges, agricultural projects and the like have steadily lost ground to more programmatic outlays on social welfare, education, science and technology, and public safety (but not defense or foreign aid). Former Prime Minister Koizumi played an important role in this shift, but the trends preceded him and have continued under his much weaker successors. The shift away from particularism reflects the interaction of three loose policy coalitions: neo-liberals, social democrats, and fiscal conservatives. The three groups differ on ultimate goals, but agree on the need to cut particularistic spending first. The predominance of these policy coalitions, in turn, reflects the changing environment surrounding Japanese economic policy: weak economic growth that has hardened the constraints on Japanese budgets; increasing dependence on international financial markets; demands for social welfare from a rapidly aging society; electoral and administrative reforms; and, largely as a result, mass and elite opinion increasingly intolerant of wasteful spending. Programmatic politics now dominates Japanese politics, and may motivate partisan reshuffling.

March 13, 2009

Customer Lifetime Value and RFM Data:　ACCOUNTING YOUR CUSTOMERS: ONE BY ONE

Makoto Abe - Professor ,   Graduate School of Economics

< Summary >

A customer behavior model that permits the estimation of customer lifetime value (CLV) from standard RFM data in “non-contractual” setting is developed by extending the hierarchical Bayes (HB) framework of the Pareto/NBD model (Abe 2008). The model relates customer characteristics to frequency, dropout and spending behavior, which, in turn, is linked to CLV to provide useful insight into acquisition. The proposed model (1) relaxes the assumption of independently distributed parameters for frequency, dropout and spending processes across customers, (2) accommodates the inclusion of covariates through hierarchical modeling, (3) allows easy estimation of latent variables at the individual level, which could be useful for CRM, and (4) provides the correct measure of errors. The proposed model was evaluated against the benchmark Pareto/NBD-based model on actual RFM data. Several substantive issues are uncovered. First, both of our datasets exhibit correlation between frequency and spending parameters, violating the assumption of the existing Pareto/NBD-based CLV models. Second, useful insight into acquisition is gained by decomposing the effect of change in covariates on CLV into three components: frequency, dropout and spending. Third, not accounting for uncertainty in parameter estimate can cause large bias in measures, such as CLV and elasticity.

February 23, 2009

Asian way of life seen through AsiaBarometer

Daesong Hyun - Associate Professor ,  Institute of Oriental Culture

< Summary >

In this lecture, based on the AsiaBarometer 2006 which surveyed seven Confucian countries( China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam), several aspects of Asian way of life will be examined. Focusing on the legacy of Confucian virtues in the industrialized and modernized Asian countries, the findings and implications of the comparative analysis about the perceptions of identify, national pride, satisfaction of life, their attitudes in terms of their delight, anger, sorrow and pleasure etcetera will be introduced.

Todai sent four students to Yale Summer Session B (July 6,2009- August 7,2009).

Useful Link

• Yale Summer Session official website

October 20, 2008

Education for 21st Century Japan: Political Economy of Reform Initiatives

Motohisa Kaneko -Dean and Professor, Graduate School of Education

< Summary >

Educational reform has always been a significant social issue in Japan as Japanese feel that a substantial part of their rapid economic development can be attributed to education. As Japan enters a new stage of development where the past pattern of development starts losing its effectiveness, educational reform has again assumed a critical importance.
Discussion will center around previous models of the relationship between education and economics in Japan, reforms to the education system, responses to reform efforts in the contemporary setting, and recommendations for how Japan can deal with this crisis in the future.

October 30, 2008

On the Role of Policy Interventions in Structural Change and Economic Development: The Case of Japan's Postwar

Esteban-Pretel Julen -Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Economics

< Summary >

In this paper, we study the structural change occurred in Japan's post World War II rapid economic growth era. We use a two-sector neoclassical growth model with government policies to analyze the evolution of the Japanese economy in the postwar period, and to assess the role of such policies. Our model is able to replicate the behavior in the data of the main macroeconomic variables for the postwar Japanese economy. Three findings emerge when we use our framework to analyze government policy interventions. First, price and investment subsidies to the agricultural sector and industrial policy, in the form of the Fiscal Investment and Loan Program, do not play a crucial role in the postwar rapid growth. Second, while a government subsidy to help families in the urban areas could have facilitated migration from agriculture to non-agricultural sector in the rapid growth era, such a policy does not improve the overall performance of the Japanese economy. Finally, with the counter-factual labor migration barrier, Japan's postwar GNP growth would have been lower and the negative long-run level effect would be substantial.

November 7, 2008

On Slow Motion -‐An Approach to the Art of Painting, Cartoon and Poetry

Masahiko Abe -Associate Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology

< Summary >

Slow Motion is a technique in film-making by which the action appears slower than it actually is. Its primary purpose is demarcation; it helps highlight a particular scene by revealing its details and showing it as 'different'. But, interestingly, slow motion also seems to be colored by some sentiment, akin to what we may call pathos or sorrow. Why is slow motion sad? To address this issue, we look into the mechanism of the slow in poems and paintings, and consider how our reception of images is related to the sense of speed.
1) Ezra Pound, 'In a Station of the Metro'
- The apparition of these faces in the crowd
- Petals on a wet, black bough
2) Hagiwara Sakutaro, 'The Death of a Frog' (to be circulated)
3) A painting by Patrick Heron (to be circulated)

Poster