The Bank of Japan (BOJ) convened in late April to discuss the future of Japanese monetary policy. An outcome of that meeting was a decision to hold interest rates steady. On Bloomberg TV, Stanford economist Takeo Hoshi said the non-move is unsurprising and offered views on what to expect next from the BOJ.

Seventeen faculty members and researchers from Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies were hosted at U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) Headquarters in Hawaii for an intensive orientation on Feb. 4-5. The visit aimed to advance collaboration and to offer a deeper understanding of USPACOM’s operations to Stanford scholars who study international security and Asia.

Admiral Harry B. Harris, Jr., Commander of USPACOM, together with his commanders and staff, welcomed the delegation. Harris’s meeting with Stanford faculty is the second in recent months. The USPACOM visit and earlier speech at Stanford Center at Peking University are part of a series of activities driven by the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative. Led by Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, the Initiative seeks to provide constructive interaction between academic and governmental experts on the many and diverse security challenges facing the Asia-Pacific region.

“Engaging deeply in conversations with those who are on the frontlines is incredibly valuable,” said trip participant Coit Blacker, FSI senior fellow and professor of international studies. “This is especially true for academics who focus much of their attention thinking about the prospects for international peace and security but not necessarily considering their direct application on a military-level.”

[[{"fid":"222122","view_mode":"crop_870xauto","fields":{"format":"crop_870xauto","field_file_image_description[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_credit[und][0][value]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_related_image_aspect[und][0][value]":"","thumbnails":"crop_870xauto"},"type":"media","attributes":{"width":"870","style":"line-height: 1.538em;","class":"media-element file-crop-870xauto"}}]]

Image

Top: (Left) The Stanford delegation watches a demonstration of a 2-minute drill. / (Right) Karen Eggleston boards a UH-60 Blackhawk helpcopter enroute to the Lightning Academy with her colleagues. Bottom: The delegation takes a group photo on-site.

On the first day, FSI scholars spoke with military officers about the command’s strategies and challenges it faces, such as population aging and sovereignty disputes over the South China Sea. Discussions were followed with a tour of USS Michael Murphy, a guided missile destroyer which routinely conducts operations in the Western Pacific including the South China Sea.

Karen Eggleston, FSI senior fellow and director of the Asia Health Policy Program, was one of the discussants on the USPACOM trip. Her research focuses on health policy in Asia, specifically the effects of demographic change and urbanization.

“As a health economist, the visit yielded for me a behind-the-scenes sense of how members of the military respond to pandemics and humanitarian situations, and of the ongoing dialogue with their counterparts in Asian nations,” Eggleston said. “I think that kind of military-to-military engagement provides an area rich with questions and best practices that could in some ways be shared as a model among other nations.”

Other activities on the first day included a briefing by the U.S. Pacific Fleet command, informal presentations and dialogue between the Stanford participants and the USPACOM staff, and working with senior leaders of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces command.

On the second day, the group visited the U.S. Army’s installation at Schofield Barracks. There, they observed a command post simulation and field exercise including units of the 25^th Infantry Division. Graduates from the U.S. Army’s jungle survival training school also shared their impressions of applying lessons in the field. Researchers from the Asia-Pacific Center for Strategic Studies (APCSS) joined the Stanford delegation later in the day. Both sides discussed research outcomes and avenues for future exchanges. The day concluded with an extensive tour of USS Mississippi, a Virginia-class attack submarine. FSI has long engaged military officers through a senior military fellows program. Started in 2009 by the Center for International Security and Cooperation, the program remains active today with five fellows conducting research at Stanford.

Lt. Col. Jose Sumangil, a 2015-16 U.S. Air Force Senior Military Fellow, participated in the Stanford delegation at USPACOM.

“The trip was an excellent opportunity to showcase how the U.S. ‘rebalance to Asia’ strategy is implemented on a day-to-day basis – for example, providing a look into the decision-making process that could occur should a situation arise in the South China Sea,” Sumangil said. “It’s incredibly important to build this kind of understanding among experts studying Asia, and I think we helped do that here.”

USPACOM is one of the largest U.S. military commands with four major service components (U.S. Pacific Fleet, U.S. Pacific Air Forces, U.S. Army Pacific, U.S. Marine Forces); it is tasked with protecting U.S. people and interests, and enhancing stability in the Asia-Pacific Region.

The Japan Program held the third annual Stanford Summer Juku on Japanese Political Economy from August 10-13. Over 40 scholars from various parts of the US and Japan participated in the conference, which took place at the Bechtel Conference Center at Encina Hall. The first two days focused on political science and the second day on economics. Distinctive features of the Summer Juku are the long times allotted to each paper to allow for two in-depth discussants and discussion among participants, as well as ample time for informal discussions and interactions among participants allowing for collaborations and expansion of the network of researchers on Japan in political science and economics. Particularly notable this year was a large number of cross-disciplinary and cross-national collaborations between scholars ranging from political science, economics, management, infomatics, and medicine.

The first day included four papers in political science. Amy Catalinac from New York University presented her paper, "Positioning Under Alternative Electoral Systems: Evidence from 7,497 Japanese Candidate Election Manifestos", with discussants Gary Cox (Stanford) and Harukata Takenaka (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Japan).

Daniel Smith (Harvard University) presented a paper co-authored by Yusaku Horiuchi (Dartmouth College) and Teppei Yamamoto (MIT) entitled "Identifying Multidimensional Policy Preferences of Voters in Representative Democracies: A Cojoint Field Experiment in Japan". The Discussants for the paper were Kay Shimizu (Columbia University) and Karen Jusko (Stanford).

Harukata Takenaka from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies presented his paper on “Changes in Power of Japanese Prime Minister: Still Away from a Westminster Model.” Tsuneo Akaha (Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey) and Kenji Kushida (Stanford University) were the discussants.

The fourth paper was “Territorial Issues and Support for the Prime Minister: A survey Experiment on Rally-‘Round-the Flag Effect in Japan” by Tetsuro Kobayashi (National Institute of Informatics, Japan) and Azusa Katagiri (Stanford), discussed by Tsuneo Akaha (Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey) and Daniel Smith (Harvard).

The second day focused on political economy and international relations. Gene Park (Loyola Marymount University, and former Shorenstein Fellow at APARC) presented his paper co-authored with Saori Katada (University of Southern California) and Giacomo Chiozza (Vanderbilt University) entitled “Policy ideas and monetary policy: The Bank of Japan's delayed break with the monetary orthodoxy". Discussants were Azusa Katagiri (Stanford) and Ayako Saiki (De Netherlandsche Bank).

The second paper of the day was "The Political Economy of the Trans-Pacific Partnership: Implications beyond Economics" by Hiroki Takeuchi (Southern Methodist University), discussed by Kay Shimizu (Columbia University) and Gene Park (Loyola Marymount University). 

After lunch, Llewelyn Hughes (Australian National University) presented "Lead Markets, Vertical Specialization, and Standards Competition in Electric Vehicles" with discussants Kenji Kushida (Stanford University) and Phillip Lipscy (Stanford University). The final session was "Renegotiating the World Order: Institutional Change in International Relations” which were select chapters from a book manuscript by Phillip Lipscy (Stanford University). The discussants were Amy Catalinac (New York University) and Llewelyn Hughes (Australian National University). A group dinner followed the second day.

The third day was the kick-off for economics papers, where we also saw cross-disciplinary collaborations with colleagues from the US and Japan.

Karen Eggleston (Stanford University) presented “Medical spending and health care utilization in Japan, 2010-2014: Projections from Future Elderly Model microsimulation”, which was co-authored by Hawre Jajal (Stanford University), Brian K. Chen (University of Southern California), Hideki Hashimoto (University of Tokyo), Toshiaki Iizuka (University of Tokyo), Lena Shoemaker (Stanford University), and Jay Bhattacharya (Stanford University). Yong Suk Lee (Stanford University) was the discussant.

The second paper, "The adverse effects of value-based purchasing in health care: dynamic quantile regression with endogeneity" by Galina Besstremyannaya (Visiting Scholar, Stanford University), was discussed by Jay Battacharya (Stanford University) and Takeo Hoshi (Stanford University).

The third paper was ""How Do Agricultural Markets Respond to Radiation Risk? Evidence from the 2011 Disaster in Japan" by Kayo Tajima (Rikkyo University), Masashi Yamamoto (University of Toyama), and Daisuke Ichinose (Rikkyo University). Discussants for the paper presented by Tajima were Satoshi Koibuchi (Chuo University and Visiting Scholar, Stanford University) and Yong Suk Lee (Stanford University).

The final paper for the third day was "Shocks and Shock Absorbers in Japanese Bonds and Banks During the Global Financial Crisis" by Hyonok Kim (Tokyo Keizai University), Yukihiro Yasuda (Hitotsubashi University), and James A. Wilcox (University of California, Berkeley). Discussants were Sabrina Howell (New York University) and Suparna Chakraborty (University of San Francisco).

The final day included two papers. The first was "Impact of Financial Intermediary's Information Production on Market Value of Firm: Case Studies on the DBJ's Liquidity Providing During the Financial Crisis and the Environmental Rating of Firm" by Hiroaki Suzuoka (Development Bank of Japan), Atsushi Motohashi (Development Bank of Japan), Shinya Nakamura (Development Bank of Japan), Tomoya Maruoka (Development Bank of Japan), and Takamasa Uesugi (Development Bank of Japan), presented by Takamasa Uesugi. Discussants were Jess Diamond (Hitotsubashi University) and Masami Imai (Wesleyan University). The final paper was "Selective Disclosure: The Case of Nikkei Preview Articles" by William N. Goetzmann (Yale School of Management), Yasushi Hamao (University of Southern California), and Hidenori Takahashi (Kobe University), presented by Yasushi Hamao. Eiichiro Kazumori (University of Buffalo) was the discussant.

After the completion of four days of Summer Juku, participants who had enough time before their flights held an “uchiage” (completion celebration) gathering—a tradition at the conclusion of the Summer Juku—at “The Patio” in downtown Palo Alto for further informal exchange over drinks and appetizers.