In this session of the Shorenstein APARC Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellows Research Presentations, the following will be presented:

Hiroyuki Koyano, "The Strategy for Accerlation of Patent Examination - Focusing on Human Resource Management"

The number of patent application filings has increased across the world as a result of the globalization of the world economy. In addition, technology has become more complex and the demands for a quality patent has grown. Working against this trend, the period of patent examination has become longer, so patent offices have adopted plans to remedy the situation and accelerate patent examination. Hiroyuki Koyano attempts to compare the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) plans with those of JPO’s and analyze the problems focusing mainly on human resource management.

Mitsue Kurihara, "The Recent M&A Boom in Japan"

Mergers and Acquisitons in Japan have been booming since the late 1990s. What initially started as a method for industrial rehabilitation, today, M&A is put to use by many companies as part of their corporate strategy. Utilizing her experiences as an advisor for M&A, Kurihara researches the remarkable trend in the boom of Japanese M&A over the last ten years, as well as the future of Japanese M&A market in terms of where it should be headed.

Bhavna Sharma, “Polymorphisms in Breast Cancer Mutation Carriers: Comparative Studies in Caucasian and Hong Kong Population”

Breast cancer rates differ significantly in Asia compared to the United States and other western countries.  Lifestyle and genetic differences between these populations are probably causes of this variation.  Sharma presents findings from her study that hypothesized that the genetic breast cancer risk factors that differ between BRCA1/2 mutation carriers in Asia and the U.S. may result in a different magnitude of breast cancer risk among Asians versus Caucasians who carry BRCA1/2 mutations.

In this session of the Shorenstein APARC Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellows Research Presentations, the following will be presented:

Kazuhiko Ejima, "Will Japan Need a Tax Increase?"

Japan, the second largest economy in the world, is secretly facing a significant public debt problem with the worst debt-to-GDP ratio among developed countries. Despite the crisis, the country has long failed in introducing a tax increase. What obstacles are lurking in the country? Will they change in the future? Should the country try to overcome them? In Japan, it is widely believed that raising the consumption tax is the best approach to fixing the country’s finances. In contrast, based on the character of the obstacles, Ejima argues that any new budget reconstruction plan should focus more on economic growth through expenditure renovation rather than sticking to a tax increase.

Natsuki Kamiya, "Insolvent Municipalities:  Do They Need Bankruptcy?”

While municipalities can declare bankruptcy in the United States, there is no bankruptcy system for municipalities in Japan. Japanese cities in financial distress pay off all debts in full for long term, while American counterparts can seek bankruptcy protection. Kamiya examines what the differences are between the two countries. Kamiya attempts to answer the question – “Does Japan need legislation to allow municipalities to declare bankruptcy?”

Daisuke Maeda, "Long Tail Theory in Online Retail Commerce - Is It True or Not? Is It Profitable?"

The Long Tail is one of the most famous theories in online retail commerce.  Many start-ups in online commerce use this theory to justify themselves.  However, there are times when the Long Tail does not work and may have some constraints.  Maeda considers what the Long Tail is and what he would advise online retailers to do. 

Koji Toyoshima, "Quantitative Analysis and Possibility of Reduction of CO₂ Emission from Passenger Transportation in Japan and the U.S."

The U.S. and Japan are the world largest and the second largest economy.  However, the CO₂ emissions in these two countries are very different. The total U.S. CO₂ emission per capita is more than twice of that in Japan. Twenty to thirty percent of CO₂ emission comes from the transportation sector and sixty to seventy percent of them are passenger transportation in each country. The U.S. CO₂ emission per capita in the passenger transportation sector is more than three times of that in Japan.  Toyoshima analyzes and compares the breakdown of CO₂ emissions in the passenger transportation sector in Japan and the U.S. including the influences of public transportations to understand the trend and estimate the reduction possibility of CO₂ emissions in these two countries.

This event is co-sponsored by the Consulate General of Japan, San Francisco and the US-Asia Technology Management Center, Stanford University

The United States ushered in new leadership at the same time as an economic crisis swept over the globe. Responding to today’s crisis is an urgent task, but we simultaneously face the question of what kind of world order to create after the crisis. What is Japan’s core orientation as it looks to the future? Can America resume its role as moral leader once again?

About the Speaker

Yotaro Kobayashi is former Chairman of the Board, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. and serves on the boards of Callaway Golf Company, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) and Sony Corporation. He is also the Pacific Asia Chairman of the Trilateral Commission, Chairman of the Aspen Institute Japan, and Chairman of International University of Japan.

After receiving his B.A. in economics from Keio University and his M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, he joined Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., in 1958 from where he was assigned to Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. in 1963. He became President and CEO in 1978, and Chairman and CEO in 1992. He served as Chairman of the Board from 1999 till March 2006 to become Chief Corporate Advisor in April the same year, and retired from that position in March 2009.

Mr. Kobayashi was awarded the Medal with Blue Ribbon (Japan) in 1991, the Insignia of Commander First Class of the Royal Order of the Polar Star (Sweden) in 1995, and the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit (Norway) in 1997.

North Korea’s nuclear weapon test in October 2006 and the subsequent “debate” in Japan about whether or not to ponder its own nuclear future brought renewed attention to the subject of Japan and nuclear weapons.  Pundits and policy makers in both the United States and Japan contemplated the implications of Pyongyang’s nuclear breakout, and many wondered if this marked the beginning of fundamental change in Japanese thinking on these issues.  Just as North Korea’s long-range missile test over Japanese airspace in 1998 was a major catalyst leading to Japan’s full-fledged embrace of America’s missile defense (MD) development program a few years later, might the 2006 nuclear test eventually prove to be a similar watershed moment in Japanese defense policy?  Would there be a rising tide of Japanese sentiment in favor of reexamining the three non-nuclear principles of non-possession, non-manufacture, and non-introduction? 

In pursuit of answers to these questions, the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis (IFPA) conducted an extended research effort over the past two years to examine not only Japan’s propensity and capacity to “go nuclear,” but also to explore the overarching issue of how deterrence is functioning and changing in the context of the U.S.-Japan alliance.  It is these latter questions in particular regarding deterrence and extended deterrence that proved most interesting and, we think, particularly important to U.S. policy makers, given the dramatic changes underway in the regional security environment in East Asia and relevant proposals in the areas of non-proliferation and arms control.  Mr. Schoff's presentation will describe the results of IFPA's study and offer steps that the allies can take to reshape extended deterrence for the twenty-first century in ways that strengthen and diversify the bilateral relationship, and ultimately contribute to regional stability and prosperity.

About the Speaker:

James L. Schoff is the Associate Director of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis (IFPA) in Cambridge, MA, where he specializes in East Asian security issues, U.S. alliance relations, international crisis management cooperation, and regional efforts to stem WMD proliferation. He also contributes to IFPA’s U.S. government and military contract work relating to East Asia. Some of his recent publications include Realigning Priorities: The U.S.-Japan Alliance and the Future of Extended Deterrence (IFPA 2009); Nuclear Matters in North Korea: Building a Multilateral Response for Future Stability in Northeast Asia (Potomac Books 2008) (co-author); In Times of Crisis: Global and Local Civil-Military Disaster Relief Coordination in the United States and Japan (IFPA, 2007); “Transformation of the U.S.-Japan Alliance,” in The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs (Winter 2007); Political Fences and Bad Neighbors: North Korea Policy Making in Japan and Implications for the United States (IFPA, 2006); and Tools for Trilateralism: Improving U.S.-Japan-Korea Cooperation to Manage Complex Contingencies (Potomac Books, 2005).

Mr. Schoff joined IFPA in 2003, after serving as the program officer in charge of policy studies at the United States-Japan Foundation. Prior to that he was the business manager for Bovis Japan and Bovis Asia Pacific, and international construction and project management firm. Mr. Schoff graduated from Duke University and earned an M.A. in International Relations from The Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He also studied for one year at International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo, Japan, and he lectured at Boston University in 2007.

Japan has been hit unexpectedly hard by the global economic  recession.  Although Japanese financial institutions were not  seriously damaged by the initial financial crisis in the United  States, the economy has been staggered by an unprecedented drop in  exports.  With the economy likely to shrink by five to six percent  in 2009, Japan faces the worst economic downturn in over a half  century.  Policy responses to this situation have been complicated  by the uncertain political situation, with an unpopular prime  minister and a looming election for the lower house of the national  Diet.

What does all this mean for relations with the United States?   There are several important developments.  First, one impact of the  crisis is a shrinkage of Japan's current-account surplus, implying  that (at least in 2009) Japan will be a much smaller net supplier  of capital to the United States and the rest of the world.  Second,  the government appears to be willing to respond to the crisis with  strong fiscal stimulus, which should please the Obama  administration.  Third, even with stimulus in Japan, economic  recovery will lag behind that of the United States because real  recovery will depend on an upturn in exports.  Fourth, it is China,  not Japan, that will be the key among Asian countries.  China will  continue to grow, and is also applying fiscal stimulus, so it will  likely play a significant global role in enabling an end to the  recession.
All of these factors will play into bilateral relations,  complicated by the political uncertainty in Japan.  Bilateral  relations are close, and will remain so in the Obama  administration.  But the administration is likely to view Japan as  playing only a limited role in the global effort to cope with the  consequences of the financial and economic crisis.

About the Speaker:

Edward J. Lincoln joined NYU in 2006 to be director of the Center for Japan-U.S. Business and Economic Studies and clinical professor of Economics at the Stern School of Business. Professor Lincoln teaches courses on the global economy.

Professor Lincoln’s research interests include contemporary structure and change in the Japanese economy, East Asian economic integration, and U.S. economic policy toward Japan and East Asia. His latest book, on the underappreciated importance of economic issues in international relations and American foreign policy, is Winners Without Losers: Why Americans Should Care More About Global Economic Policy, published in 2007. He is the author of eight other books and monographs, including East Asian Economic Regionalism (The Council on Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institution, 2004), Arthritic Japan: The Slow Pace of Economic Reform (Brookings, 2001), and Troubled Times: U.S.-Japan Economic Relations in the 1990s (Brookings, 1998). An earlier book, Japan Facing Economic Maturity (Brookings, 1988) received the Masayoshi Ohira Award for outstanding books on the Asia-Pacific region.

Before joining NYU, Professor Lincoln was a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and earlier a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. In the mid-1990s, he served as Special Economic Advisor to Ambassador Walter Mondale at the American Embassy in Tokyo. He has also been a professorial lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Professor Lincoln received his Bachelor’s degree from Amherst College, his M.A. in both economics and East Asian Studies at Yale University, and his Ph.D. in economics also at Yale University.