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This paper analyzes the dynamics of supply chain diversification in a contested East Asia and their implications for India–South Korea cooperation in the post-COVID-19 era. Major powers have sought to restructure supply chain by designing a strategy to reduce their reliance on China-controlled supply chain. The United States–China trade and technological war, Asian regional powers' escalating conflicts with a rising China, and pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions have played key roles in driving the restructuring process. India and South Korea, Asia's two major economies, have also re-evaluated their supply chain strategies. As this paper explains, on the one hand, India has been striving to emerge as a supply chain hub for key industries by ending China's control. On the other hand, South Korea has also been aiming to diversify its supply chain beyond China under the New Southern Policy. Against that backdrop, critical developments concerning supply chain cooperation have occurred between the two countries amid the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic has not only facilitated the opening of high-level political exchanges on supply chain but also brought tangible outcomes, as Korean companies have become active participants in India's quest to build an India-centric supply chain. I conclude this study by contending that the two countries are "natural partners" in reshaping the supply chain dynamics in East Asia in the post-COVID-19 era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Decoupling of GDP from all energy sources under multiple principles are examined. • World economy achieved weak energy decoupling in most years during 2000–2011. • World economy coupled with coal use and tended to couple with cleaner energy use. • None of studied economies achieved long-term GDP-embodied energy decoupling. • Decoupling delusions occurred when only considering direct and total energy use. Decoupling indicators are widely used to understand links between economic growth and energy use. However, traditional decoupling analyses mostly focus on domestic energy consumption (i.e., the production-based principle) and neglect off-site energy use across global supply chains to satisfy an economy's final consumption (i.e., the consumption-based principle). Moreover, analyses for total primary energy conceal an economy's preference for different energy sources. Therefore, this paper evaluates decoupling states of GDP from all types of primary energy use under consumption-based principle, for world economy and eight typical economies during 2000–2011. Regarding total primary energy, world economy witnessed weak decoupling in most years, and most economies studied (e.g., USA, Japan and China) achieved decoupling initially but performed negative decoupling finally. For EU, USA, Japan, Russia and India, production-based decoupling performances were generally better than consumption-based ones. Decoupling phenomena detected under production-based principle even became coupling or negative decoupling under consumption-based principle in some cases. As for each energy source, world economy decoupled from oil use, but still coupled with coal use, and gradually showed a trend to couple with natural gas and renewables use. Different energy sources showed distinct decoupling degrees from GDP, affected by individual embodied energy requirement structure. This paper uncovers potential energy decoupling delusions to deepen the understanding of relationships between energy use and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A once-dominant family of interpretations of the beginnings of Japanese and Russian development claimed that policies adopted by the two states were inadequate to modernize agrarian property relations, and so both states were required to mediate between premodern agriculture and “hot-house” modern industry. More recent accounts have insisted that despite the limited reforms to agrarian property relations, agriculture in both countries in fact dynamically participated in economic development. This paper contends that these revised accounts’ one-sided focus on market opportunities leaves unresolved key puzzles. Why did productivity growth jump higher after the Meiji reforms in Japan? Why did only some regions participate in agricultural development in Russia? To answer these questions, this paper argues it is necessary to return attention to the ways agrarian property relations did and did not change following reforms adopted by the two states in the 1860s and 1870s. The key theoretical upshot of this analysis is that the initiation of capitalist development required a political process in which institutions that had previously guaranteed non-market access of rural households to subsistence were dismantled in favor of the domination of market relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the cultural sustainability discourse and discusses how community culture, community cultural capital and the elderly play a key role in helping communities sustain themselves over time. It argues that the elderly are resources, transmitters and multipliers of culture and a key driver in promoting ‘ageing-friendly’ cities. In particular, it investigates how creative, bottom-up urban design and place-making initiatives by the elderly take shape in diverse urban contexts. It takes two traditional shopping streets (shotengai) in Tokyo as case studies and seeks to clarify in the highly-developed, high-density, high-rise, large-scale urban context, how the two low-rise, small-scale shotengai have been sustainable and thriving over centuries; and how community culture and the elderly have played a role in developing and sustaining them. Through urban historical study, site surveys and street interviews, the paper addresses these enquiries and suggests ways to achieve a more ageing-friendly community in an Asian context aiming towards social and cultural sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, from the perspective of economic exchange between Japan and Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan), the current situation and challenge, as well as future prospects, will be described through the work of promoting trade and investment. One of the characteristics of economic exchange between Japan and Central Asia is that the forms and fields of business developed by the target countries differ significantly, and one is that the public and private sectors are working together unexpectedly. One can point out that neither Japan nor the target countries can be decisively important economic partners, and as a result, exchanges remain at a low level. The lack of information is at the top of the challenge in developing economic exchanges between Japan and Central Asia. Also the difficulty of logistics, the vulnerable foreign exchange circumstances and the compliance problem are major bottleneck for commercial activities for Japanese companies. Although rosy expectations for future economic exchanges are forbidden, there are several directions for efforts that can contribute to building win-win relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of selected indicators of the banking sector (M3 monetary aggregates and bank loans provided to the non-financial private sector) on economic growth (GDP) in the Eurozone, the USA and Japan. Cointegration of these selected indicators of the banking sector has been demonstrated in relation to the development of GDP using the Engle - Granger cointegration test. These tests were applied to selected statistical data from the years 2000 to 2015. The first was to determine the optimum delay using Akaike criteria for all-time series analysed. Then the presence of a unit root was analysed using the Dickey - Fuller test. Based on the test results, time series were excluded which appear to be stationary. If the conditions were met, testing then continued with the Engle - Granger test to detect cointegration relations, which would determine a relationship between selected variables. Based on these tests, it was found that at a significance level of 0.05, no cointegration relationship exists between any of the time series in the countries surveyed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with a declining birthrate and aging population, the Japanese government has been adopting policies to promote the R&D of next-generation robots (hereinafter 'NGRs') which are seen as key to solving issues of labor shortage and enhance global competitiveness of the Japanese economy. However, the legal environment surrounding NGRs is not developer-friendly, and may hamper their proliferation and use. In order to address this issue, the first section of this paper explains the legal status of NGRs in Japan, followed by a section focusing on the legal regulations in Japan which involve the developers, manufacturers, distributors, and operators of NGRs. The final section outlines the current situation of various policies adopted by the Japanese government to enhance and accelerate the development of NGRs. The aim of this paper was to show how NGRs are regarded under the laws of Japan and what legal barriers the NGR-related parties confront, and provide insight into how the Japanese government is trying to promote the development of NGRs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We use dynamic panel regression analysis for 70 countries from 1965–2009. • We find that patent rights have no effect on productivity growth. • We offer an alternative explanation, finding the ECI positive and significant. • Our results lend evidence that patent rights are insufficient for the inducement of productivity. • We argue it is not discovery that increases productivity, but the ability to adapt. Abstract Does the rigorous protection of patents advance or retard economic development? Two decades ago, a new global standard of intellectual property swept across developing and industrialized nations through the implementation of the WTO's TRIPS Agreement. Many years later, the issue of patent rights remains contentious. In this paper, we focus on the effects of patent rights systems on total factor productivity growth, using dynamic panel regression analysis for 70 countries from 1965 to 2009. We show that the effects of stronger or more rigorous patent systems are insignificant for productivity growth in both developing and industrialized countries. Why does the strength of patents appear to have no impact on productivity? Classic economic theory suggests that stronger patent systems incentive innovative output with important spill-over effects for productivity and growth. We offer an alternative explanation using data from the Economic Complexity Index. We find that while patents rights are increasingly irrelevant to productivity, the relationship between economic complexity and productivity is highly positive and significant. Our results are consistent with the contributions of the absorptive capacity theory in that they suggest it is not the discovery and ownership of novel products and processes at the innovative frontier that induces productive growth, but the ability to adapt, replicate and diffuse along the international productive chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the Second World War, Japan began paying war reparations and instituted a strategy of international positioning - based on international cooperation activities - that aimed to ensure the supply of natural resources to its production and trade. Economic security became the target of Japanese cooperation. Japan soon became a major donor, whose strategy has been permeated by its interests. Taking a critical perspective, this paper analyses the evolution of the Japanese cooperation strategy, in particular the changes promoted by the prime minister, Shinzo Abe. Its starting point is a review of the stages of Japanese cooperation (emphasising the outside interference the country has had to respond to), the underpinning of which has shifted from the principle of economic security via the principle of human security to its present greater focus on strategic security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the 1970s the new urban poverty (NUP) ballooned in Japan and the US, and it evoked policy responses that produced new, rescaled regulatory spaces to contain the poor on the fringe of social rights and the capital circuit. The paper illuminates this process through the comparison of Japanese and US trajectories, both of which, evolving through economic crises, have established unique pathways. The author first constructs a theoretical framework based on Marxian, Polanyian, and Lefebvrean traditions. Then, he compares national-scale poverty regulation in Japan and the US from the 1950s through the 2000s. Lastly, the author examines how the countries' regulation of a major aspect of the NUP--homelessness--intensified multiscalar reseating processes. The paper concludes that regulation of the NUP represents a significant instance of uneven spatial development of capitalism mediated by the state that requires synthetic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) has long played an important role in Japan's diplomacy, contributing significantly toward stability and economic development of less developed nations of Asia. This paper analyzes Japan's ODA to Bangladesh, focusing specifically on its transformation over the past three decades in response to the changing needs and priorities of the two countries. The paper highlights the uniqueness of Japanese ODA to Bangladesh and critically examines the gaps between policy and practice that occasionally hindered effective utilization of ODA. It suggests new directions that Japan's ODA may take in the future, more compatible and mutually beneficial to the goals and interests pursued by the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines changes of the place that film has occupied in the public policy of the Japanese government, including not only cultural policy per se, but also industrial and economic policy. After describing some of the distinctive features of the Japanese film market, this paper discusses the inadequate basis of the government’s cultural policy for film. Film in recent years has received some attention as an industry with export potential, particularly with the rise of ‘Cool Japan’, the policy of promoting Japanese culture abroad as a tool for economic and diplomatic aims. In the chequered history of economic growth strategies and nation branding of recent years, the film industry has had some good news but received no serious attention either as a sector with economic significance or as a form of national culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the opportunities presented by the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to Japan to revitalize its trade policy, bolster economic growth, and increase participation in regional multilateral fora for the 21st century. Despite its strengths, Japan has continued to face problems caused by its economic, political, and strategic policies. The Japanese economy has been stagnant for the last several decades, and Japan needs to take bold steps to ameliorate this situation. Politically, domestic political paralysis has had a negative impact on Japan's alliances and partnerships and eroded Tokyo's ability to act as a major player in the increasing vital and important Indo-Pacific region. Connected to this, it is imperative for Japan to engage itself deeply in Asia in ways that increase strategic trust. This paper will also highlight the necessary reforms Japan must undertake to take full advantage of the benefits of the TPP, as well as what the TPP might mean for its relationship with both the US and other regional partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the experience of two severe disasters (the Hanshin Awaji Earthquake disaster of 1995 and the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster of 2011), I wish to consider 'subsistence' as human life, existence equaling the basic activities of life, an essential mutual act-like existence economy. In this paper, I pursue a positive development of 'disaster-time economics' as a research object under the larger framework of the formation of a 'moral economy,' as part of a critical process. In this paper, in order that a stricken area and society may aim at the realization of a new methodology about 'creative revival' for newly developing independent research involving the state of the revival fund of a wide sense is carried out. Nevertheless, there is an overall understanding of who, in what areas, and using what methodology, has conducted research in the restoration and revival process, as well as the weak points that tend to hinder the process. There is no research on the rationality and function of public finance expenditures or national sources expenditures. Therefore, in this paper, the term 'disaster-time economy' is newly prepared. From this concept, many activities of the project, service, support, self-efforts etc. of a social and private domain are grasped from a public sphere in connection with the process of maintenance/restoration under the disaster. The feature and subject point of the process are clarified. The market economy order that is going to be produced in this process does the basic work and determines the economic order for another self-subsistence over life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines a view that the traditional stem family system was one of the preconditions for Japan''s modern economic development, focusing on labour markets and skill formation practices. The paper begins with a brief look at the Japanese stem family household formation rules. Then, exploration is made, first, on the self-employed, the largest sector of the early modern economy; second, the merchant house and its employment patterns as an origin of present day large corporations'' employment system and skill formation and human capital management practices; and third, workshop industries, which formed middle and lower layers of the manufacturing sector in the period of industrialisation. Finally, women''s marriage behaviour is examined in relation to labour markets, especially changes in real wages. All this is an attempt to go some way towards a better understanding of the ways in which the family economy and corporate firms worked in economic development, rather than to suggest an alternative hypothesis on the relationship between family and household factors and subsequent economic development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Starting from the early 1980s, multiple transnational clashes have been generated by some Japanese right-wing scholars' attempts to omit or downplay Japanese war crimes during World War II in history textbooks. The most recent dispute in 2001 brought another flood of reactions from Chinese, Korean, and some Japanese scholars as well. Instead of criticism of the right-wing textbooks per se, some historians called for a more nuanced understanding of history and the necessity of compiling an alternative textbook to fit the changing international environment. A new association for progressive East Asian intellectuals was organized in 2002 with the aim of compiling a joint history textbook for promoting peace and human rights. After three years of intensive discourse involving conferences and papers, the first joint textbook of modern East Asian history was released in May 2005, first in Japanese, then in Korean, and finally in Chinese. Despite a number of problems and issues, this project is an unprecedented step forward for peace and reconciliation in East Asia. As valuable as it is as a textbook, it has even more symbolic meaning as a tri-national effort for promoting peace and human rights in East Asia. This paper examines the historical background, purpose, process, and significance of this joint textbook and offers some suggestions for revision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper develops a methodology for estimating the risks and consequences of possible future increases in tropical cyclone intensities that would allow policy makers to relatively quickly evaluate the cost of different mitigation strategies. The methodology simulates future tropical cyclones by modifying the intensity of historical tropical cyclones between the years 1978 and 2007. It then uses a Monte Carlo Simulation to obtain the expected number of hours that a certain area can expect to be affected by winds of a given strength. The methodology outlined has a range of applications, and the present paper shows as an example the calculation of the expected cost of mitigation of the increased downtime for Japanese ports by 2085 for a variety of economic growth scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an analysis of the economic relationship between the two most important economies in Asia. Over the last decades, the Chinese and Japanese economies have become more economically interdependent, a development which will, in the long run, impact the countries' political relationship. The paper seeks to answer the question: How can China and Japan gain from the current economic situation, further enhance their relationship and increase their synergies for regional economic development? Data on trade and Foreign Direct Investment are used in combination with primary data from interviews with Japanese and Chinese companies on how they perceive the current business situation and future potential. The result of the data analysis shows that the countries have much to gain from their economic interdependence. The firms see great potential in their respective markets but are concerned about political turbulence. Three possible scenarios for the future economic relationship are presented, including fierce competition on all markets and a leveraging of resources for mutual development between Chinese and Japanese companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking an historical view, the paper considers how Japan has struggled to regulate development and examines the impact of land reform in the immediate post-WWII era. This is seen as a key institutional change that precipitated numerous political and policy shifts in subsequent decades and acted as a critical factor in shaping Japanese land use. The focus of the paper demonstrates how the political and economic transformation of Japan just prior to and after land reform in 1946 led to a situation where successive governments have tried but ultimately failed to intervene successfully in the development process, contributing to unsustainable outcomes derived largely from a sustained period of growth and economic development. In our view, this was supported by the legal framework reinforced under the Allied Occupation (1945-1951), alongside the outcomes of the land reform process. This has also led to a remarkably consistent set of institutional conditions. In order to highlight the impact of land reform the case of Japanese green belt policies between 1927 and 1965 are used to provide a more detailed account of the difficulties that planning and land use regulation has experienced in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of 'the rise of China' on the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and its implications for Japan. Japan has traditionally enjoyed a dominant position in the Bank, as it has enjoyed a dominant position in Asia. However, with the balance of power in the region tipping in China's favour, one might expect that this would be reflected in the ADB as well. This paper argues that despite the worsening Sino-Japanese relationship, the ADB has facilitated the development and maintenance of shared expectations between the two parties over the future direction of development assistance, representing an oasis of liberal institutionalism in a relationship increasingly characterised in realist terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study looks at the state of collaboration in scientific research between universities and industries in Japan by measuring the level of coauthorship of academic publications. The analysis is based on data retrieved from the databases of the National Citation Report for Japan, which was produced by Thomson Scientific (ISI) and included papers published from 1981 to 2003, and the Citation Database for Japanese Papers, which was produced by the National Institute of Informatics, Japan, and included papers published from 1995 to 2004. It is revealed that there is a large 'perception gap' between industries and universities concerning their collaborations. The situation, trends and characteristics of industry-university collaborations are investigated and discussed from international and national perspectives. The disciplinary and regional differences in such collaborations are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three main characteristics of Japanese-style ODA over the past 50 years and the basic principle of the support for “self-help efforts” mentioned in the Japanese ODA Charter are described in this paper. The role of ODA in generating development effectiveness is taken up and possible ways for Japanese participation in the PRSP system are examined. The paper concludes with the proposal that offering ODA benefits not only the recipient but also the one extending assistance and recommends that Japan take advantage of the opportunity to serve the public good and thereby know genuine happiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper does not deal directly with the relations between Japan and Africa; instead it looks at Malaysia and Côte d'Ivoire with the objective of portraying Japanese contribution to Malaysian economic development and identifying some lessons that can be learnt by Africa from it. Both countries had a comparable macroeconomic outlook until 1980, with economics based on similar primary goods such as cocoa, coffee, palm oil, timber etc., which are typical of tropical climates. However, following the sharp decline in international prices since 1980, Malaysia registered a high economic growth and became successfully industrialized. Côte d'Ivoire suffered an economic crisis and a balance of payment deficit. Moreover, the latter is not a special case among African countries. The paper also seeks to advance some hypotheses in order to explain the phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the development potential of rural and highly peripheral areas of Japan, focusing on local factors of development, together with local identity and cultural commodities, as these are incorporated into what has been called the culture economy. Based on a survey of informed local residents and another of local cultural commodities producers, the paper alludes to what constitutes a culture economy for rural settings and identifies several key aspects related to the process of such a cultural commodities-based approach to development. While confirming the importance of identity and cultural commodities in the local development profile of rural settings, the paper sets the groundwork for further research concerning the complex process for how such development can be achieved. The main themes identified for further research include both the nature and role of residents’ solidarity together with the combinative nature of government support and local entrepreneurship in the local culture economy on the one hand, and the character of the advertising and media representation by which cultural commodities are created and maintained on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the historical literature on the forms of industrialization has assumed that agriculture and industry must develop along separate and specialized lines, linked only at the macro level through inter-sectoral resource transfers. This paper uses the Japanese historical case, combined with the recognition, in much work on contemporary developing and developed countries, of the significance of diversification as a rural household strategy, to argue that a pattern of industrialization based on micro-level complementarity between agricultural and non-agricultural activities is possible. After summarizing the changing characteristics of the diversification pursued by Japanese rural households since the nineteenth century, the paper seeks to demonstrate that technical and organizational change in agriculture and rural industry can be seen as conditioning each other to produce the inter-connected structure of flexible manufacturing and small-scale, ‘part-time’ farming on which the significant role of the rural sector in Japan's economic growth has been based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is hard to imagine that after Japan's miracle post-war growth it would go on to suffer more than two decades of stagnation. Although there have been some short-lived periods of recovery, such as in 1995-96, the average growth rate over the period of 1991-2014 was a mere 1%. Despite historically low interest rates and a series of fiscal stimuli, the growth has not revived. Despite the long economic stagnation, Japan still retains its strength in many areas. Its human and physical capital formations are among the highest in the world. The volume it spends on research and development is equally impressive. It still has worldleading firms and modern technologies. The methodology to be followed here is derived from the aims of the study and comparisons of international statistics provide the main means of addressing the research questions and the objectives of this paper. The study concludes that the neoliberal 'market-centred' policies have brought inequality, stagnation, and fiscal crisis to the state. Therefore, a radical critical political economy is required to analyse the situation more objectively, one which would mean increased levels of welfare and people-led measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No other country on earth has no evolved in the past half-century as Japan. Physically and morally defeated in World War II, Japan has shown the world what mean an economy and a banking system that is based on ancestral traditions and customs. The beginning of notable affirmation of the Asian continent, economic and financial, was made by Japan in the second half of the last century and now continued in present by China. Even if Japan gave with honor the second place among world economies and finances continue to play an important role in the geopolitics of planet. The paper tries to certify the axiom: Japan, important financial growth pole of the planet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary concerns about the difficulties faced by the Japanese economy following the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 soon appeared to be unfounded as the economy recovered relatively quickly. This paper suggests that despite its limited impact on Japan's longer-term economic trajectory this disaster can tell us a great deal about the ways in which individuals, organizations, and officialdom respond to a devastating event, and help us better understand the process of transition from immediate relief to longer-term recovery, not just in Japan, but more broadly. It analyzes the impact of the disaster on market transactions, showing that the scale and nature of market disruption went far beyond direct physical destruction; that the collective and individual responses of government, producers, traders, and consumers had the potential to make matters worse, rather than better; and that the existence of integrated markets spread the effects of the disaster across the Japanese archipelago. It also suggests that reestablishing market stability following the crisis was one of the keys to longer-term recovery, and that further research will help us understand the causal factors in that process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As in the last years there has been observed a relative growth in the levels of inward FDI inflows in Japan, the aim of the present paper is to analyze the beneficial role of the Japanese inward investment for the country's sustainable economic development. In our research, we will focus on revealing the main determinants that have contributed towards this increment in inward FDI, pointing out the comparative advantages of Japan over the other developed countries (national investmentfriendly policies, political stability, technological infrastructure, etc.). Furthermore, the analysis will underline the potential political measures that Japanese government may undertake in order to further increase the FDI inflows in the country, highlighting also the potential risks for the sustainable growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines A. G. Frank's views about 15th-19th Korea (Joseon Dynasty) in his Reorient. A. G. Frank recognized that Korea might have played a great role in the international relations of East Asia, but he did not write systematically about it and he did not treat Korea as an independent player in the history of East Asia. I think the greatest limitation to his reinterpretation of East Asia is in that he depends too much on China's and Japan's perspective. In order to overcome Frank's shortcomings regarding the history of Korea, first I examine what Frank recognized about the Joseon dynasty between 1400 and 1800. Next I compare Joseon's development to that of China and Japan between 1400 and 1800. Frank compared Europe and East Asia (mainly China and Japan) from three aspects of quantities (population, production, productivity, and trade), qualities (science and technology), and mechanism (economic and financial institutions). With this research we insist that Joseon should not be dismissed in 15th-19th East Asia. The reasons are as follows. First, Joseon between 1400 and 1800 had developed economically as much as China and Japan. Second, Joseon had played a great role in connecting China and Japan and had a positive influence on the development of Japan. So we need to reappraise Reorient's view about East Asia. Only when role of Joseon can be correctly estimated, the dynamics and diversity of East Asia can be properly understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural hazards have a potentially large impact on economic growth, but measuring their economic impact is subject to a great deal of uncertainty. The central objective of this paper is to demonstrate a model--the natural disasters vulnerability evaluation (NDVE) model--that can be used to evaluate the impact of natural hazards on gross national product growth. The model is based on five basic indicators--natural hazards growth rates (αi), the national natural hazards vulnerability rate (ΩT), the natural disaster devastation magnitude rate (π), the economic desgrowth rate (i.e. shrinkage of the economy) (δ), and the NHV surface. In addition, we apply the NDVE model to the north-east Japan earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 to evaluate its impact on the Japanese economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As in the last years there has been observed a relative growth in the levels of inward FDI inflows in Japan, the aim of the present paper is to analyze the beneficial role of the Japanese inward investment for the country's sustainable economic development. In our research, we will focus on revealing the main determinants that have contributed towards this increment in inward FDI, pointing out the comparative advantages of Japan over the other developed countries (national investment-friendly policies, political stability, technological infrastructure etc.). Furthermore, the analysis will underline the potential political measures that Japanese government may undertake in order to further increase the FDI inflows in the country, highlighting also the potential risks for the sustainable growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan suffered a catastrophic disaster on March 11, 2011. The earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear radiation leakage from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant devastated the northeastern part of the country and threatened the entire country and beyond with the risk of radiation. Nowadays, movements against nuclear power plants are emerging across the country. The crisis indeed provides a chance for Japan to forge a new energy policy. However, the activists' claims are not narrowly limited to such energy issues. They call for a fundamentally fairer society and propose alternative ways of life, regarding nuclear power plants as symbols supporting the economic development that Japan enjoyed over the post-Second World War period. As an ethnography, this paper documents the 60,000-citizen Goodbye Nuclear Power Plants (Sayonara Genpatsu) rally that mobilized in central Tokyo on September 19, 2011, as well as the Occupy Tokyo action on October 15, 2011, presenting the real voices of the rally participants against nuclear power. In particular, I will focus on the voices of youngprecariatparticipants, the major actors in the anti-nuclear rally who were generated from and revealed as the negative result of Japan's neoliberal economic policy, held since the 2000s. Further, I argue that their mounting anger might be a trigger for new post-neoliberal politics in post-Fukushima Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Taking dioxin emissions from incineration and the recycling of home electric appliances in Japan as two case studies, this paper aims to clarify the impact of environmental policy on technological innovation. For our case studies, relevant Japanese patent data were gathered and analyzed for the period 1990–2008. To demonstrate that environmental regulations induce technology innovation, we conducted statistical analysis to compare the number of patents related to each regulation between the period under regulation and period outside the regulation. The results show that after the regulations were introduced, new technological developments occurred for most technological types and the total number of related patent applications was larger even when controlling for other exogenous and endogenous factors such as business cycles and expenditures in Research and Development (R&D). We finally argue that while a possible weakness in these types of direct regulations is the lack of incentives for further innovations, they can still induce innovation if they are flexible and with specific targets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Japan is well-known for its small number of lawyers. In the late 1990s, there was a justice system reform movement. This resulted in a governmental agenda to substantially increase the lawyers' number. The profession's population then rapidly increases. The pace of the reform has however recently been slowed down, although the full implementation of the reform and its target has not yet been achieved. Why had the number of lawyers remained small for five decades after the World War II despite Japan's economic development? Why was there a justice system reform movement in the late 1990s? Why has the pace of reform been slowed down recently? Who controlled/controls the size of the legal profession in Japan? This paper will analyse these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: This paper explores national identity in trust and reciprocity at the intra- and international levels by adopting a modified trust game played among groups from Austria and Japan, wherein subjects play the roles of trustor and trustee consecutively without any information feedback. Although the intranational trust levels in both countries are identical, the international trust for Japanese groups is less than that of Austrian groups. On the other hand, the international reciprocity for Japanese groups is greater than that of Austrian groups. Additionally, the Japanese reciprocation level toward Austrians is higher than that toward Japanese. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A semi-empirical endogenous growth theory was proposed by the authors in 2005. It is based on a model of the economy as a two-stage materials/energy processing system. Growth is simulated by a two-parameter production function with two traditional factors, labor and capital, and a non-traditional factor, namely ‘useful work’. The non-traditional factor is calculated from primary energy inputs multiplied by an empirically estimated average energy conversion efficiency, which is a function of changing technology over time. This model ‘explains’ past US growth from 1900 through 1973–74 with satisfactory accuracy but it slightly underestimates subsequent growth (i.e. it leaves a small unexplained but increasing residual) for the period after 1975. However, by subdividing capital stock into traditional and ICT components, we are able to extend the theory to explain US economic growth accurately. In this paper we also extend the results to Japan. The revised production function has only three independent parameters. The new model also has implications for future economic growth, energy and environmental policy that differ significantly from the traditional growth theory. These implications are discussed briefly. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

It appears that Japanese employment practices, once hailed as one of the secrets to Japan's 'miracle' of rapid economic development after World War II, are not keeping up with important changes in Japan's economy and society under deceleration of economic growth and aging of the population. Nevertheless, the current regulations protect the practices of lifetime employment security and seniority-based wages as a desirable work style. However, these practices not only deter labor market flexibility, but also entail social costs by creating a 'wall' that divides insiders and outsiders of firm-specific labor markets, and this leads to large wage disparities. Furthermore, these practices create an 'implicit packaged contract' between firms and their employees, allowing the firm wide discretion over employees' work style, including working hours and job placement. As more women pursue full-time careers, they are being forced into the difficult position of having to choose between their careers outside the home or their children. The difficulty of this decision has resulted in a rapidly declining fertility rate. This paper argues that Japanese employment practices need to be revolutionized to allow better work-life balance and an alternative lifestyle for an increasing number of dual-income families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modernization theories contrast traditional and advanced societies. In the former, religion and group identification -- the identification with the ethnicity or the nation in particular -- are means of integration and sources of happiness. Technological and economic developments undermine this base of mechanical solidarity and bring out individualism, self-expression and autonomy as new values. Happiness is now reached, if the autonomous citizen can successfully realize her/his goals. As theories of individualism and collectivism typically regard independence and autonomy as values of the individualistic cultural frame, it should be lower in those societies where collectivism is still prevalent. This would explain why happiness is relatively low in Japan. The first sections of the paper show that the key variable of these theories -- i.e., the sense of autonomy -- is not only logically distinct from independence and individualism but also empirically uncorrelated with indicators of the latter concepts. Furthermore, autonomy increases at best weakly with modernization. Though it does not meet the assumptions of modernization theories, autonomy is nevertheless a strong predictor of life satisfaction. The positive influence of religion and national identification, by contrast, is relatively weak. The low sense of autonomy can explain the level of life satisfaction in Japan fairly well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, the productivities of Japanese airports over the period of 1987–2005 are analyzed using the Malmquist index, and technological bias is investigated. During this period, airports on average became less efficient and experienced technological regress. Our results indicate that the traditional growth accounting method, which assumes Hicks neutral technological change, is not appropriate for analyzing changes in productivity for Japanese airports. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In the sector of information and communication technologies (ICT), whether in the USA, Japan, or Europe, innovative services are already in use, based on large-scale space-based infrastructure investments. Such systems are e.g. earth observation, telecommunication, and navigation, timing and positioning satellites. In combination with the advent of powerful handheld terminals and the demand for ubiquitous services, it is expected that info-mobility applications will reveal new sources of business in the years ahead, using in particular the Earth observation and future GALILEO systems to position any feature or user anywhere in the world within a few meter accuracy. Hence, satellite-based capabilities provide new and unique opportunities for economic stimulation and development. Many incubators and innovation centers in Europe have already grasped this growth potential. Yet, for many European players business growth appears below expectations compared to developments in the USA following the launch of GPS (Global Positioning System). Europe still has to overcome intrinsic barriers to seize these new business opportunities faster and with more visible economic impact by leveraging on SMEs and regional innovation centers to expand the commercial utilization of satellite capabilities and mobilization of appropriate financial resources. The paper elaborates on the INVESat project (funded by the EuropeInnova—European Commission), which aims at bridging the gap between Innovative enterprises and financial InVEstors in the emerging markets of SaTellite applications. The critical success factors required to stimulate and support more efficiently investments in this bread of innovative services will also be highlighted. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

For all countries analyzed so far, Material Flow Analysis/Accounting (MFA) studies indicate that the overall stock of materials within the economy is growing. Most are construction minerals such as asphalt, cement, sand and gravel, crushed stone, and other aggregates. In the analyses described in this paper, flows and stocks of construction minerals were estimated for Japan from the past to the future to elucidate: (1) the mechanisms by which construction minerals become waste, and (2) the future supply of and demand for recycled crushed stone. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) The amounts of waste construction minerals generated have been and will be at much lower levels than the domestic demand for construction minerals. These differences might indicate consistent growth of the stock of construction minerals, which will become waste in the future. However, certain amounts of materials that we account for as stock can be interpreted already in the environment as dead stock or dissipated waste; such materials can be called “missing stock” or “dissipated stock”. Capturing that missing or dissipated stock is very important because it provides information that clarifies the environmental impacts and loss of resources that these materials cause; it allows estimation of appropriate future waste generation. (2) The amount of construction minerals that are recognized as waste was estimated to increase in the future. An imbalance in the supply of and demand for recycled crushed stone will likely occur in the near future if an expected decline in future road construction is considered. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Over the last decade, essentially since the Asian crisis of 1997-98, the economic integration of Northeast Asia has been marked by three overarching trends. Economic relations have become: 1) more institutionalized; 2) more "Asian;" and 3) more China-centric. These macro-trends are demonstrated and analyzed in the paper. But by way of anticipation, numerous counter-cutting facts need also to be kept in mind. In essence, recent trends, notable as they are, have by no means reversed three counter-realities: 1) economic ties are still largely driven, less by governments and formal arrangements, than by corporations in search of profits and production efficiencies; 2) despite growing economic interdependence across Northeast Asia and between that sub-region and Southeast Asia, Japan, China and South Korea remain heavily linked to global, and particularly US, markets; and 3) though China is an ever important hub in Northeast Asian trade and investment, Japan remains by far the most powerful economic player in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines if the effects of agglomeration economies are manifested in technical efficiency and generate faster economic growth and higher (lower) levels of employment (unemployment). Using the prefecture level data for each of the two-digit groups of industries in Japan, it estimates a region-specific technical efficiency index based on the stochastic frontier production function framework. The factor analysis shows that in most of the industry-groups, efficiency has a positive association with external scale variable(s). Though the relationship is not very strong, it would be erroneous to ignore the effect of agglomeration economies on efficiency. For some light goods industries, the agglomeration effect is relatively stronger. Economic growth varies positively with external scale variable(s) and the unemployment rate tends to fall with respect to growth and concentration. This suggests that measures against industrial concentration may be counter-productive, particularly in the context of globalization when countries greatly need to raise productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is hypothesized in this paper that the way by which a ruling elite extracts its resources significantly influences the evolution of state-related institutions. Specifically, if the ruling elite must construct a penetrating set of institutions to extract revenue and in order to encourage payment of taxes must also provide services in return (reciprocity), then states are likely to have institutions conducive to economic growth. Institutions restraining arbitrary decision making are likely to evolve and are likely to be effective. The process of economic and political development in Japan in the prewar period is used to illustrate this process. Specifically, the evolution of limited parliamentary democracy during this time period was the result of the process by which the ruling elite sought to extract revenue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper uses a modified Harrodian model to understand both the long period of rapid Japanese growth and the recent period of stagnation. The model has multiple steady-growth solutions when the labour supply is highly elastic, and government intervention, we argue, took the Japanese economy onto a high-growth trajectory. Labour constraints began to appear around 1970, and a combination of high saving rates and slow population growth account for the stagnation of the 1990s. This combination produces a structural liquidity trap and threatens the sustainability of attempts to ensure near full employment through fiscal policy or by running a persistent trade surplus. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]