Dr. Cha will speak on his forthcoming book (Alignment Depite Antagonism, Stanford University Press, February 1999) on the impact that historical enmity, domestic politics, and realpolitik forces have had in fostering cooperation in this critically important security relationship during the Cold War and post-Cold War eras. Victor Cha is Assistnat Professor in the Department of Government and School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. For the 1998-99 academic year, he is the Edward Teller Fellow for National Seurity at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and a recipient of the Fulbright Senior Scholar Award (Korea). Dr. Cha has published articles on topics related to international relations, East Asia, and Korea in various scholarly journals. He has also taken part in Track II dialogue on US-Japan-Korea cooperation and has consulted on various projects related to East Asia for the US government.

In the space of ten short years, Germany and Japan have gone from paragons of economic success to models of political paralysis. In both countries, reformers call for a decisive move toward the liberal market model, yet find themselves frustrated with their governments' inability to act. This deadlock reflects the normal operation of German and Japanese democracy, and not its failure, for Germany and Japan are fundamentally divided over the merits of the proposed liberal reforms. As a result, Germany and Japan proceed with reforms slowly and cautiously, they package delicate compromises, and they design reforms to preserve the core institutions of their respective economic models as much as possible. Steven K. Vogel is Associate Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley. He specializes in the political economy of the advanced industrialized nations, especially Japan. His book, Freer Markets, More Rules: Regulatory Reform in Advanced Industrial Countries (Cornell University Press, 1996), won the 1998 Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize. He has written extensively on Japanese politics, industrial policy, trade and defense policy. He has taught previously at the University of California, Irvine and Harvard University. He has a B.A. from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Political Science from UC Berkeley.

What will "post-developmental" Japan look like? In contrast to the view that Japan's political economy will converge with the U.S. system, Schaede argues that Japan is characterized by a system of cooperative capitalism. One feature of this system is the dominant role played by industry associations, which have increasingly assumed regulatory functions in the 1980s and 1990s. With the decline in ministerial power to guide industrial development, this self-regulation by industry is becoming a critical factor in understanding the workings of Japan's political economy. Ulrike Schaede is Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) at the University of California, San Diego. She has a Ph.D. from Marburg University (Germany) in Japanese Studies, and has held various visiting positions and research affiliations in Japan, including at Hitotsubashi University (Tokyo), the Bank of Japan, MITI, and the Ministry of Finance. Prior to joining IR/PS, Schaede taught at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. She specializes in Japanese government-business relations and business regulation in Japan, and Japan's financial markets.

After a brief description of historical legacies, Dr. Katahara looks at changes and continuities in the patterns and contents of civil-military relations through an exploration of the jurisdictional boundaries in the two areas: the structure of political domination; and national security policy making. This study is part of East-West Center's project on the State and the Soldier in Asia, directed by Muthiah Alagappa. Dr. Eiichi Katahara teaches Japan's diplomatic history and international relations in Asia and the Pacific in the Faculty of Law at Kobe Gakuin University, Japan (1992~). He held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (1991-1992) and at the Australian National University (1989-1991), lectured in Japanese Politics in the Department of Political Science and was a research fellow in the Australia-Japan Research Center. He has published articles on topics related to Japan's security policy, and security affairs in the Asia-Pacific region. His recent publications include "Japan's Plutonium Policy: Consequences for Nonproliferation" (The Nonproliferation Review, Vol.5, No.1, 1997); "Japan's Concept of Comprehensive Security in the Post-Cold War World" (in S. Shirk & C. Twomey eds. Power and Prosperity: Economic and Security Linkages in Asia-Pacific, 1996). He has also written background chapters on Japan for Asia Pacific Security Outlook 1998 and Asia Pacific Security Outlook 1999 (forthcoming) (edited by Charles Morrison).

Dr. Nakai will talk about his research plan for the next year in China. A broad and open-ended question he has in mind is, "What is happening in the Chinese countryside these days?" He is interested in analyzing the roles of the county leaders in the pursuit of economic development. Despite its historical role as the most coherent subprovincial administrative unit, the county in China has not received much academic attention until recently. First, Dr. Nakai would like to add a case or two to the pioneering works by Jean Oi and Andrew Walder, and Marc Blecher and Vivienne Shue. Second, he would like to look into the county leaders' response to market economy. How do they respond to foreign trade, special economic zones, and private enterprises? Third, he hopes to bring some comparative perspectives to the study of the county. Would county leaders in Heilongjiang province, for example, behave like their colleagues in Guangdong or in Zhejiang? Are those county leaders different from local administrators in Japan? Dr. Nakai will discuss the implications of the preliminary analysis of a few counties in Heilongjiang province. Yoshi Nakai has been Senior Researcher at the Institute of Developing Economies since 1997. He graduated from Tohoku University (BL) and from Indiana University (MA). He studied Chinese language at Beijing University in 1981. He just completed his Ph.D. in comparative politics at the University of Michigan. His dissertation is about politics in Manchuria and is chaired by Mike Oksenberg. Dr. Nakai was lecturer at University of Michigan; researcher at the Japanese Consulate in Hong Kong from 1991 to1994; and senior researcher at the Japan Institute of International Affairs from 1994 to 1997. He is going to Beijing next year.

Japan represents a quintessential "network society" -- permeated by dense webs of formal and informal relationships across all areas of daily life, from the political to the economic. Yet as industrial activity continues to languish along many indicators in the 1990s, what was once considered a source of competitive strength is now viewed as an underlying weakness. Critics of "crony capitalism" in Japan (and the rest of Asia) charge that mutual backscratching has replaced the kind of hard-nosed business decisions needed to make economically efficient decisions about how to allocate capital, weed out poorly performing companies, and shift resources into more productive uses. Based on the forthcoming volume, "The Organization of Japanese Business Networks" (Cambridge University Press), this presentation evaluates these criticisms theoretically and empirically. It also considers efforts now underway in Japan in the area of keiretsu reform. Michael L. Gerlach received his Ph.D. in organizational behavior from Yale University and is currently associate professor at UC Berkeley's business school. His research is focused on cross-national studies of business organizations; entry strategies in foreign markets; strategic alliances, joint ventures, and new organizational forms; interfirm relationships and corporate strategies in Japanese business; business and public policies concerning international competitiveness; the comparative analysis of the institutions of modern market economies as they reflect social and cultural contexts.

Regulations on new drugs, drug prices, and other aspects of the Japan's pharmaceutical industry had in effect protected domestic manufacturers and kept them from inventing a truly innovative new drug. As the deregulation and the international harmonization of the drug market proceed, disintegrated Japanese drug makers will need to ally or integrate with partners in and out of the industry.

M&A will have a positive effect on the marketing, but not necessarily on the research. Possible increase of university TLO and spinouts in Japan can improve the access to the information in Japanese universities, but the access is open to both domestic and international companies. Alliances between drug makers and the local parties with an international competitive edge, such as electronics and precision mechanics, may produce a unique synthesis.

Atsuomi Obayashi is currently a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Asia/Pacific Research Center and associate professor at the Keio University Graduate School of Business Administration. His research topics include application of the game theory, the contract theory and economics of the R&D. He received his Ph. D. in public policy from the University of Chicago in 1996 and an LL.B. from Kyoto University, Japan, in 1983.

Throughout the 1990s, Japan muddled through restructuring its economic vitality and social flexibility to cope with an advent of a new era. Represented by the IT Revolution, the new era has changed existing legal frameworks, business practices, and socioeconomic traditions worldwide. Against this backdrop, Japan has embarked, though belatedly, on various reforms, including administrative reform. Can these efforts succeed? Can Japanese bureaucrats change Japan? Or who else will change Japan and what will be an agenda for the newly born Japan? Takeshi Isayama is a former Japanese government official with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). While at MITI, he was responsible for drafting and implementing international trade policy including intellectual property policy serving as the Commissioner of the Japanese Patent Office and the Director-General of several bureaus including the International Trade Policy bureau during the Hashimoto and Obuchi administrations (1995-1999). He graduated from Tokyo University in 1967 with a Bachelor of Law degree and received his MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1971. After graduating from Tokyo University, he joined MITI in 1967.

Author Liza Dalby will discuss the extraordinary life and times of Lady Murasaki Shikibu, the writer of the world's first novel, The Tale of Genji. Ms. Dalby, an anthropologist and renowned scholar of Japanese history, will apply "literary archaeology" to explore the life of Lady Murasaki Shikubu and the Japanese Imperial Court, and will introduce her new book, The Tale of Murasaki. Liza Dalby is an anthropologist specializing in Japanese culture. As the only Westerner to have become a geisha, Ms. Dalby was able to obtain previously undisclosed material for her Ph.D. and her books Geisha and Kimono. Presently, she is a consultant for Steven Spielberg's upcoming film adaptation of Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha. She lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband and three children.