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The European Union-Japan political and international development dialogue is resurging through the Strategic Partnership Agreement recently agreed between the two actors. The current paper argues that in order for this agreement to deliver on its promises, the EU and Japan need to build on their similarities, but more importantly on their differences and lessons learnt through their distinct international experiences. While common values and norms have helped them to agree on such document, building on their differences will help both actors to make this bilateral dialogue more productive and strategic. Through the theoretical lenses of policy entrepreneurship used to consolidate knowledge for development on horizontal cooperation, the paper questions how sharing their experiences as international donors can be of strategic relevance for both the EU and Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been growing interest in open innovation by firms creating new value by combining internal and external ideas. Technology insourcing, however, has not been satisfactorily investigated compared to technology outsourcing in empirical literature. In this paper, we examine the determinants of external technology sourcing by types of the counterpart in new product development (NPD). We use a novel dataset at the product level, conducted by RIETI in 2011. We highlight cases in which a technology partner is also a business partner, such as a supplier or customer, from those where this is not the case. In contrast, in cases when a technology partner is not a business partner, patents play an important role in moderating transaction costs in partnerships. In contrast, in cases when a technology partner is also a business partner, we found a pattern of co-specialization of managerial resources with the partner firm. Abbreviations:B2B: Business to business; NPD: New product development; RBV: Resource-based view [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing India-Japan engagements are not only focused on economic issues, but also cover a wide range of interests, including regional security, political, and maritime security concerns. Both countries are consolidating strategic partnerships to address the risks and vulnerabilities posed by the evolving regional balance of power. Through their embeddedness with China, both India and Japan form an intrinsic part of the Indo-Pacific geopolitical security architecture. The key transformation of relations between these two states in the region is in response to the geopolitical change brought about by China's rapid ascension. In this regard, the article further explains how both countries are systematically strengthening a strategic partnership and gradually reinforcing economic, political, security, and strategic cooperation against China. This article seeks to address how both states would restrain rising China's strategic maneuvering in the Indo-Pacific region through an analysis of the India-Japan alignment, with the main focus of this study being on analyzing how both India and Japan are now investing in a long-term strategy to balance China's hegemonic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I argue that the asymmetric strategic partnership (ASP) between a regional great power and a small power is not necessarily based on their shared goals, but such a partnership would help them achieve their own strategic objectives. For a regional great power, an ASP helps prevent a weak partner from excessively depending on a rival state for its economy and security. For a small power, the partnership increases the legitimacy of domestic political regime while offering a strategic option to hedge against the risk of over-dependence on a particular state by diversifying political and economic assistance. In short, ASPs serve as a wedge strategy for a regional great power, while it functions as a hedging strategy for a smaller power. I apply this conceptual framework to analyze two cases, the Japan-Cambodia and Japan-Laos strategic partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers a Thai perspective on Japan's vision of an East Asian Community. It argues that Japan has so far earned positive responses from Bangkok on three major initiatives—economic partnership agreements (EPAs), capacity building and financial cooperation in the region. In particular the Japan-Thailand EPA and development partnership for capacity building in Southeast Asia have been well received in Bangkok. Such responses, however, are being pursued from Thailand's own perspective of national interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan, one of the world's largest and strongest economies, attracts a tiny level of inward direct investment. This neglect is particularly true of European multinationals. This article examines a sample of European companies which have Japanese manufacturing affiliates, to assess direct investment as a means of access to the Japanese market. It examines the objectives and strategies of entry and evaluates the outcome in terms of successful penetration of the Japanese market. The joint venture route is a preferred means of initial entry and the research allows evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of this mode of entry to the Japanese market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the effects of Japan’s economic partnership agreements (EPAs) on the Japanese import variety with respect to tariff reductions and outward foreign direct investments. The study is focused on the impact of changing tariffs and investments on the range of goods that EPA partners export to Japan for the periods 2005–10 and 2007–12. By using disaggregate tariff and trade data at the nine-digit HS level and by introducing the logit estimates with goods-specific effects, the article finds that both tariff reductions and Japan’s outward foreign direct investment help increase the likeliness of a commodity in the industrial sector to be exported to Japan from its EPA partner countries in the periods 2005–10 and 2007–12. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prospect of the United States continuing to reduce the size of its nuclear arsenal to “very low numbers” has raised questions in Japan and South Korea, where US extended deterrence guarantees are premised on the “nuclear umbrella.” In both countries, however, concerns focus less on numerical arsenal size than on the sufficiency of specific nuclear and non-nuclear capabilities to meet evolving threats and on the degree of broader US commitment to these alliances. This article assesses developments in US-Japan and US-South Korea relationships in response to the Obama administration's nuclear disarmament policies, focusing on how the evolutionary course of those relationships may in turn condition prospects for sustaining this US nuclear policy direction. The analysis finds that the challenges of deterrence credibility and allied reassurance are difficult and long-term, but also that US nuclear arsenal size is secondary to broader political, strategic, and military factors in meeting these challenges. The evaluation concludes that strong alliance relationships and strategic stability in East Asia can be maintained while the size of the US nuclear arsenal continues to decline, but also that deterioration of these relationships could imperil core US nuclear policy and nonproliferation objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This empirical note applies a simple and powerful nonlinear unit root proposed by Sollis (2009) to test the validity of long-run Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) for Japan's Real Exchange Rate (RER) vis-a-vis its eight trading partner countries. The empirical results indicate that PPP holds for Japan relative to her major trading partners, with the exception of Hong Kong and Thailand, and the adjustment towards PPP is nonlinear and in an asymmetric way. This result provides support for PPP for Japan relative to its major trading partner countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At 17 localities in Japan, 71–81% of overwintering adult females of the solitary bee Ceratina flavipes mated before hibernation. The occurrence of males with inseminated females in their natal nests suggested the possible occurrence of inbreeding. Therefore, we examined the seasonal trends of inbreeding coefficients, calculated by comparing the band patterns of microsatellite DNA between a female and her mating partners (indicated by sperm in her spermatheca). The mean coefficient of inbreeding was 0.80 on 25 August and 0.60 on 1 November versus 0.31 on 5 June and 0.38 on 28 June. These results demonstrate a tendency towards inbreeding before winter and towards outbreeding during dispersal after hibernation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both China and Japan are key players in the Asia-Pacific region and their security relations will to a significant extent determine the peace and stability of the area. Based on a wide range of Chinese-language sources, this article examines how China perceives Tokyo's regional security strategy since the end of the Cold War. It also provides a critical evaluation of Chinese perceptions of Japan and their policy implications. The article focuses on the views of the Chinese security specialists who play an important advisory role in China's foreign policy-making process. While Chinese analysts' interpretations of Japanese strategy in the Asia-Pacific are shaped largely by the consideration of great power competition and the balance of power in the region, they do appreciate the relevance of domestic politics and economic factors to Japanese strategic thinking. Thus, despite a deep suspicion among Chinese policy élites of Japan's global and regional aspirations, Beijing has basically adopted a pragmatic approach to managing Sino-Japanese relations over the past decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]