A conference that honored the life and scholarly contributions of Stanford economist Masahiko Aoki was held at Stanford. Dozens of friends, family and community members paid tribute to Aoki, the Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Professor of Japanese Studies and Professor of Economics, emeritus, who died in July at the age of 77.

Eleven renowned economists and social scientists gave talks on Aoki’s extensive fields of research in economic theory, institutional analysis, corporate governance, and the Japanese and Chinese economies at the Dec. 4 conference, which was followed by a memorial ceremony the next day.

“When we contacted people to speak at this conference, few people turned us down,” said Stanford professor Takeo Hoshi. “The reason for this is Masa. It shows how much Masa was respected and how much his work is valued.”

The events were hosted by the Japan Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), Graduate School of Business, Department of Economics and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR).

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Aoki came to Stanford in 1967 as an assistant professor, held faculty appointments at Kyoto University and Harvard, and returned to Stanford in 1984. He retired to emeritus status at Stanford in 2005.

Throughout the conference, Aoki was described as an astute professor and colleague, valuable mentor and loyal friend by the many speakers and participants who shared works, stories and multimedia featuring their interactions with Aoki.

Aoki pioneered the field of comparative institutional analysis (CIA) with a team of scholars at Stanford: Avner Greif, John Litwack, Paul Milgrom and Yingyi Qian, among others. CIA analyzes and compares different institutions that evolve to regulate different societies.

“Masa had a good background in looking at the economy as a whole, financial institutions as a whole – not just how numbers or actors economically interact – but also the people who interact within a given institutional framework,” said Koichi Hamada, a professor emeritus at Yale University. 

Aoki applied a systematic lens to everything he studied, a “take society as a total entity” approach, Hamada said.

Aoki grew up in Japan, and developed a deep interest in Japanese politics at an early age. He was actively involved in student movements in the early 1960s, at the heart of which was a campaign against a controversial U.S.-Japan security treaty. China became another great interest of his as the country began to undergo economic transformation and modernization.

Throughout his career, Aoki traveled to Japan and China often, and sought to better inform policy debates by engaging scholars, government leaders and journalists there.

He believed in sharing lessons learned from his own scholarly analyses on what constitute institutions, particularly the “people” aspects – the employees, their cognitive abilities and levels of participation.

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Top left to right: Yingyi Qian of Tsinghau University talks with Avner Greif of Stanford University and Hugh Patrick of Columbia University. / Koichi Hamada of Yale University delivers his remarks titled "Masahiko Aoki: A Social Scientist." Bottom: Reiko Aoki, the wife of Masahiko Aoki, listens in to Kenneth Arrow, a professor emeritus at Stanford University. Credit: Rod Searcey

Aoki was not only a scholar of institutions but also a builder of them.

In 2005, Aoki helped oversee the development of the Center for Industrial Development and Environmental Governance at Tsinghua University in Beijing, which held numerous roundtables in its first decade of existence, and continues to this day.

“Amid a time of diplomatic tensions between China and Japan…Masa was able to bring Japanese, Chinese and American economists together to study and do research,” said Yingyi Qian, dean and professor at the school of economics and management at Tsinghua.

At Stanford, Aoki played a leading role in the creation of the Stanford Japan Center and a multi-day conference that convened annually in Kyoto on issues of mutual concern between Asia-Pacific countries and the United States.

Earlier this year, Aoki was hospitalized for lung disease. Even at that stage, he worked tirelessly to revise a paper that examines the institutional development of China and Japan in the late 19^th to early 20^th centuries.

That paper titled, “Three-person game of institutional resilience versus transition: A model and China-Japan comparative history,” was presented at the conference by Jiahua Che, one of two scholars that Aoki asked to finish and publish the work.

Aoki was also fondly remembered for his mentorship of students at Stanford and other universities he taught at.

“He was an original and unique professor – quite different from others that I’ve met in many respects. He was generous with his time, not hierarchical,” said Miguel Angel Garcia Cestona, who studied for a doctorate at Stanford and now teaches at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona.

Garcia Cestona, among other former students, spoke of Aoki as a friend and shared memories of their former professor hosting them at his home.

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Masahiko Aoki in Northern California, 2014.

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Conference agenda

Stanford obituary

In the wake of the recent historic meeting of the leaders of China and Taiwan, the Stanford News Service asked two of the university's Asia experts about the aftermath of that meeting and its possible effects on political relations between the two countries, the military situation and Taiwan's Jan. 16 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The first presidential meeting between the leaders of the communist mainland and the democratic island, split by civil war in 1949, was held in early November on neutral territory in Singapore.

Kharis Templeman is the Taiwan Democracy program manager at Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He recently wrote about why Taiwan's defense spending has fallen as China's has risen. Thomas Fingar is a distinguished fellow at Stanford's Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. He served as the chairman of the National Intelligence Council and in other key positions in Washington. 

Do you anticipate any lasting effects from the face-to-face meeting of Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou?

Thomas Fingar: At a minimum, the meeting appears intended by both sides to validate and lock in the much-improved cross-Taiwan Strait relationship that has evolved over the past several years.

Kharis Templeman: I do think the Ma-Xi meeting itself will have one lasting legacy: it has created a precedent for treating the directly elected president of the Republic of China as an equal and as the rightful representative of Taiwanese interests in cross-strait relations. From now on, leaders in Beijing are going to have a hard time arguing that a non-KMT (the Kuomintang, Taiwan's governing party,) president is illegitimate, as they did during the [former Taiwanese president] Chen Shui-Bian era, or to continue to insist on referring to Taiwan’s leaders as provincial-level officials. So, the next president will come into office somewhat strengthened by that precedent.   

Will the meeting have any effect on the January elections in Taiwan?

Templeman: I don’t think it will make much, if any, difference. Taiwanese public opinion is deeply divided about Ma Ying-Jeou’s meeting with Xi. Ma himself remains quite unpopular, the economy is barely growing, and the KMT presidential candidate remains at least 20 points behind in the polls. There’s little indication that this meeting has shaken up what has been a large and steady lead for DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-Wen, and I would be shocked if she didn’t win a comfortable victory in January.

Fingar: Probably not. Beijing seems to have learned that its past attempts to influence elections on Taiwan have been ineffectual or counterproductive, and the meeting is unlikely to change minds or votes on the island. 

How might the elections affect military spending on either sides, or China's aggressive island-building for military bases?

Fingar: The meeting will not have any effect on military spending or the building of artificial islands in the South China Sea, but Beijing may have hoped that agreeing to meet with Ma to demonstrate how "good" the relationship is might persuade Washington not to approve another round of arms sales to Taiwan.  Regardless of who wins the election on Taiwan, the next administration is likely to seek another round of U.S. arms sales in order to prove that it has the support of the United States.

Templeman: The meeting will have no impact on the security balance in the region. Ma reportedly raised the issue of PRC (People's Republic of China) missiles within easy range of Taiwan, but Xi claimed, implausibly, that they were not targeted at Taiwan, and that was the end of it. The broader trends are unchanged: the PRC’s military budget is growing annually by double-digit rates while Taiwan’s remains essentially flat. The consequence is that the PRC’s capacity to take coercive measures against Taiwan continues to expand, even as cross-strait cooperation has been improved and institutionalized.

Dan Stober is at the Stanford News Service.

As we look toward year 2016, the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center documents highlights from the 2014-15 academic year. The latest edition of the Center Overview, entitled "Asia in Flux," includes special research, people, events and outreach features, and is now available for download online.

South Korea must stand with the United States in the event of escalated tensions between China and the United States in the South China Sea, Stanford professor Gi-Wook Shin advised at a forum in Seoul on November 19th.

"Flexibility is necessary, but what's more important is…principle," said Shin, emphasizing the importance of South Korea’s alliance with the United States over its strategic partnership with China.

The full article (in English) may be viewed on the Yonhap News website.

Henry S. Rowen, a Stanford economist and professor emeritus of public policy and management, died in Palo Alto on Nov. 12. He was 90.

Rowen, known affectionately as “Harry” to colleagues and friends, led a long, notable career in academia and public service. Having served in three U.S. administrations, he shaped the construction of American policy on a range of issues from entrepreneurship to intelligence.

“Harry was one of the great policy analysts, defense experts, public intellectuals and government servants of his generation,” said Michael H. Armacost, a colleague and Stanford distinguished fellow. “He is one of the reasons they are referred to as ‘the greatest generation.’”

Rowen was the Edward B. Rust Professor of Public Policy and Management, emeritus, at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a senior fellow, emeritus, at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and a director emeritus of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC).

Arriving at Stanford in 1972, Rowen studied economic development and high-tech industries in the United States and Asia, and contributed numerous publications on innovation, as well as international security and energy policy. He assumed emeritus status in 1995.

Public servant, scholar

Born in Boston, he earned a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a master’s degree from Oxford University, in 1949 and 1955, respectively.

Over the course of his career Rowen twice held positions at the RAND Corporation, first as an economist, and later as its president for five years from 1967 to 1972.

In Washington, he held several prominent positions in the Kennedy, Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations. From 1981 to 1983, he was the chairman of the U.S. National Intelligence Council (NIC), and the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs from 1989 to 1991.

Thomas Fingar, an FSI distinguished fellow, described Rowen as “an institution” and a “very productive scholar as well as an effective and imaginative leader and manager.”

“My own career intersected with Harry’s several times, both at Stanford and Washington. Every time that it did, he was generous with his time and genuinely interested in whatever topic I brought to him,” said Fingar, who was one of Rowen’s successors as chairman of the NIC.

Rowen also served on the policy advisory board for the Secretary of Defense from 2001-04, and in 2004, was appointed to the yearlong U.S. commission charged with assessing the intelligence community’s readiness to respond to a proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

He returned to the Stanford campus in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Rowen’s versatility supported and expanded the research aims of Shorenstein APARC and FSI, and the greater Stanford community.

“His name pops up in virtually every book written about U.S. national security policy during that period,” remarked Fingar, referring to Rowen’s influence in Washington in the early 1960s.

A collection of Rowen’s government papers was recently made available by the Hoover Institution Archives.

Rowen’s interdisciplinary experiences yielded a deep knowledge of the social and political factors in nations struggling with a sustainable peace, weighing nuclear proliferation issues, and considering new forms of governance.

In a 1996 issue of the National Interest, Rowen predicted that China would become a democracy by 2015. Although the forecast was seemingly incorrect, he suggested earlier this year that the transition was still a question of “when, not if.”

Rowen’s latest book Greater China’s Quest for Innovation was published in 2008. The co-edited book examines the talent, resources and research and development (R&D) environments in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and suggests institutions needed to create a successful innovation-based economy.

A comprehensive set of Rowen’s works can be found on his bio.

Leadership, innovation

Rowen became the director of Shorenstein APARC in 1997. He served in that role until 2001, and as co-director from 2000 to 2001, with Stanford professor Andrew Walder.

“Harry was a core member of our center’s past and present,” said Takeo Hoshi, a Stanford economist and acting director of Shorenstein APARC. “He pioneered research on entrepreneurship and innovations throughout Asia. The importance of such research has only continued to grow over time.”

Rowen also led the Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE). Active for fifteen years, until 2013, its mission was to hold collaborative research and colloquia on the dynamics and sustainability of high-tech areas around the world.

William F. Miller, SPRIE faculty co-director and a Stanford professor emeritus of management and computer science, spoke of him as a man of great principle.

“Harry brought to bear his vast research experience, extensive government experience, and his international experiences on everything we did. He will be greatly missed by his many friends and colleagues,” Miller said.

SPRIE inspired other Stanford initiatives aiming to build bridges between Silicon Valley and Asia, such as China 2.0 and the still-present Centers and Initiatives for Research, Curriculum and Learning Experiences.

Rowen never retired. This year, he was advising a Fulbright visiting scholar and coordinating a conference on technology interaction between Singapore and Silicon Valley. He often attended seminars across campus and was known to pose insightful, straightforward questions.

Rowen is survived by his wife, Beverly, of Palo Alto, six children and nine grandchildren. Information about any memorial activities will be published when available.

Additional coverage:

Los Angeles Times: Henry 'Harry' Rowen, Rand leader at time of Pentagon Papers, dies at 90

San Jose Mercury News: Think tank leader at time of Pentagon Papers dies at 90

Stanford News Service: Henry S. Rowen, Stanford business professor and U.S. policymaker, dies at 90