Stanford welcomes new Japan Studies director, program poised for growth

FloatingCrane LOGO A "floating" crane at a Haneda Airport runway construction site, Tokyo, August 2008.

Stanford, with strong expertise in Japan’s economics and politics, is poised to become a U.S. leader in Japan Studies.

Takeo Hoshi, the Henri H. and Tomoye Takahashi Senior Fellow in Japanese Studies, has joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) as the director of its Japan Studies Program (JSP). He will also serve as a professor of finance (by courtesy) in Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. JSP is one of Shorenstein APARC’s five dynamic research programs.

Hoshi is no stranger to Shorenstein APARC, having taken part in a number of Center-sponsored events, including the February 2012 conference about reforming Japan’s energy industry after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. He plans to build JSP into the strongest program of its kind in the United States. “I want to make Shorenstein APARC the first place that researchers, policymakers, business practitioners, and students visit to understand more about the Japanese economy and politics,” he says. “I look forward to working with everyone at Shorenstein APARC (and beyond) to achieve this goal.”

Hoshi, who began his appointment in December 2012, comes to Stanford from the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) at the University of California, San Diego. He spent nearly twenty-five years conducting research and teaching at IR/PS, where he served as the Pacific Economic Cooperation Chair and as Associate Dean.

Hoshi’s research focuses on the financial aspects of Japan’s economy, and he has written extensively on corporate finance, banking, and monetary policy. He received the 2011 Reischauer International Education Award from the Japan Society of San Diego and Tijuana, and, among many other awards for his scholarship, his co-authored book Corporate Financing and Governance in Japan won the Nikkei Award for the Best Economics Books of 2002.

“We are honored to welcome Professor Takeo Hoshi as JSP’s new faculty director,” says Shorenstein APARC director Gi-Wook Shin. “I am confident he will take Japan Studies at Stanford in a strong, new direction, and succeed in attracting the very best research talent and students to the university.”