Description

In November, 2020, 15 countries comprising all of ASEAN plus Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand decided to meet the economic challenge of the pandemic by signing the world’s largest regional trade agreement. What does the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership mean for Canada, for the new Biden Administration, and for leadership in Asia? The Centre for the Study of Global Japan is partnering with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and UBC’s Centre for Japan Research to talk with international experts on the implications of RCEP.

Guest Speakers:

– Wendy Cutler, Vice President and Managing Director, Washington, D.C. Office, Asia Society Policy Institute

Wendy Cutler is Vice President at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) and the managing director of the Washington D.C. office. In these roles, she focuses on expanding ASPI’s presence in Washington and on leading initiatives that address challenges related to trade and investment, as well as women’s empowerment in Asia. She joined ASPI following an illustrious career of nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), including serving as Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative. In that capacity, she worked on a range of U.S. trade negotiations and initiatives in Asia.

– Shihoko Goto, Deputy Director for Geoeconomics and Senior Associate for Northeast Asia, Asia Program, Wilson Center

Shihoko Goto is the Deputy Director for Geoeconomics and the Senior Northeast Asia Associate at the Wilson Center’s Asia Program. She is a leading expert on economics and politics in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, as well as U.S. policy in the region. A seasoned journalist and analyst, she spent ten years reporting from Tokyo and Washington for Dow Jones and UPI on the global economy, international trade, and Asian markets and politics. A contributing editor to The Globalist, Goto previously worked for the World Bank and has been awarded fellowships from the East-West Center and the Knight Foundation, among others.

– Michael Plummer, Director, School of Advanced International Studies Europe, and Eni Professor of International Economics, Johns Hopkins University

Professor Michael Plummer is Director of SAIS Europe since 2014 and the Eni Professor of Economics at Johns Hopkins University, as well as a non-resident senior fellow at the East-West Center. He was Head of the Development Division of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2010-2012), a professor at Brandeis University (1992-2001) and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Asian Economics (2007-2015). He was president of the American Committee on Asian Economic Studies (ACAES) from 2008 until 2015. A former Fulbright Chair in Economics and Pew Fellow in International Affairs at Harvard University, he has been an Asian Development Bank distinguished lecturer on several occasions and team leader of projects for various organizations including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the United Nations, the ADB, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization. He has consulted many governments in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe on issues related to economic cooperation and is co-author/editor of over two-dozen books, and author of over 100 journal articles and book chapters.

– Jeff Reeves, Vice-President of Research, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada

Dr. Jeffrey Reeves is Vice-President of Research for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Prior to joining APF Canada, Dr. Reeves was the Director of Asian Studies at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Dr. Reeves has over 15 years direct experience living and working in Asia, including as an Associate Professor with the Daniel K. Inouye Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies in the United States, as a Research Fellow with Griffith University in Australia, and as a University Instructor at Peking University in the People’s Republic of China. Dr. Reeves has worked with the United Nations Development Program and World Wildlife Foundation in Beijing and as a Research Assistant with the London School of Economics and Political Science’s (LSE) Asia Research Centre in London. Dr. Reeves served in the United States Peace Corps from 2001 to 2003 in Khovd, Mongolia.

– Yves Tiberghien, Professor of Political Science, Director Emeritus of the Institute of Asian Research, and Co-Director of the Center for Japanese Research, University of British Columbia

Yves Tiberghien (Ph.D. Stanford University, 2002; Harvard Academy Scholar 2006; Fulbright Scholar 1996) is a Professor of Political Science, Director Emeritus of the Institute of Asian Research, and Co-Director of the Center for Japanese Research. Yves is also Distinguished Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada. His current research focuses on the ongoing transition in the global economic and environmental order. Latest book:Geopolitics in East Asia: Response to COVID-19 (forthcoming 2021).

– Deanna Horton, Senior Fellow, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto (moderator)

As part of her Canadian foreign service career, Deanna Horton spent a total of twelve years in Japan, including as Deputy Head of Mission, and also served as Ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. She was a NAFTA negotiator and then spent seven years in Washington, most recently as Minister (Congressional, Public and Intergovernmental Affairs). As a Munk School Senior Fellow she has led a digital mapping project on Canada’s footprint in Asia https://archive.munkschool.utoronto.ca/canasiafootprint/ and related research on technology multinationals. Ms. Horton is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and a Canadian Global Affairs Institute Fellow and she writes on economic and trade policy issues with a focus on Asia. She received a Diploma in International Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies Bologna Center, a M.A. (International Affairs) from Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs and a B.A. (Hons) from McGill University. She also spent two years studying Japanese at the U.S. State Department Foreign Service Institute in Yokohama, Japan.

Description

Abe Shinzo, who stepped down in September 2020 as the longest-serving Prime Minister in Japanese history, sought to fundamentally transform Japan’s foreign relations. What is his legacy, and where is Japanese foreign policy headed under Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide? This panel will draw on a recently published book co-edited by Takeo Hoshi (University of Tokyo) and Phillip Lipscy (University of Toronto), The Political Economy of the Abe Government and Abenomics Reforms. Welcoming chapter authors Adam Liff (Indiana University) and Mary M. McCarthy (Drake University), the panelists will discuss Japan’s diplomacy, security policy, approach to issues of historical memory, economic relations, and climate change policy.

Panelists:
Takeo Hoshi (University of Tokyo)
Adam Liff (Indiana University)
Phillip Lipscy (University of Toronto)
Mary M. McCarthy (Drake University)

The Political Economy of the Abe Government and Abenomics Reforms: This volume seeks to explain the political economy of the Abe government and the so-called ‘Abenomics’ economic policies. The Abe government represents a major turning point in postwar Japanese political economy. In 2019, Abe became the longest serving Prime Minister in Japanese history. Abe’s government stood out not only for its longevity, but also for its policies. Abe came to power promising to reinvigorate Japan’s economy under the banner of Abenomics. He pursued a host of structural reforms and industrial promotions to increase Japan’s potential growth rate. Abe also achieved important legislative victories in security policy. However, the government also faced significant controversies. The book will hold appeal for scholars and students specializing in the study of Japanese politics, comparative political economy, the politics of contemporary advanced democracies, macroeconomic policy, labor market reforms, corporate governance, gender equality, agricultural reforms, energy and climate change, and East Asian security.

Panelist Bios:

– Takeo Hoshi (University of Tokyo)
Takeo Hoshi is Professor of Economics at the University of Tokyo. His research area includes corporate finance, banking, monetary policy and the Japanese economy. Hoshi is also Co-Chairman of the Academic Board of the Center for Industrial Development and Environmental Governance (Tsinghua University). He received the 2015 Japanese Bankers Academic Research Promotion Foundation Award, the 2011 Reischauer International Education Award of Japan Society of San Diego and Tijuana, the 2006 Enjoji Jiro Memorial Prize of Nihon Keizai Shimbun, and the 2005 Japan Economic Association-Nakahara Prize. His book Corporate Financing and Governance in Japan: The Road to the Future (MIT Press, 2001) co-authored with Anil Kashyap received the Nikkei Award for the Best Economics Books. He co-authored The Japanese Economy (MIT Press, 2020) with Takatoshi Ito. Hoshi received his B.A. from the University of Tokyo and Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

– Adam Liff (Indiana University)
Adam P. LIFF is associate professor of East Asian international relations at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, where he also serves as founding director of its 21st Century Japan Politics & Society Initiative. His research focuses on international security affairs and the Asia-Pacific—especially Japanese and Chinese security policy; U.S. Asia-Pacific strategy; the U.S.-Japan alliance; and the rise of China. Beyond IU, Dr. Liff is a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Associate-in-Research at Harvard University’s Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Politics from Princeton University, and a B.A. from Stanford University.

Phillip Lipscy (University of Toronto)
– Phillip Y. Lipscy is associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto. He is also Chair in Japanese Politics and Global Affairs and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Japan at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. His research addresses substantive topics such as international cooperation, international organizations, the politics of energy and climate change, international relations of East Asia, and the politics of financial crises. He has also published extensively on Japanese politics and foreign policy. Lipscy’s book from Cambridge University Press, Renegotiating the World Order: Institutional Change in International Relations, examines how countries seek greater international influence by reforming or creating international organizations.

Mary M. McCarthy (Drake University)
– Mary M. McCarthy is an associate professor of politics and international relations at Drake University. She specializes in Japan’s domestic and foreign policies, with a current focus on the legacies of the Asia-Pacific War on Japan’s foreign relations. She is editor of the Routledge Handbook of Japanese Foreign Policy (2018) and her most recent publications include “The Creation and Utilization of Opportunity Structures for Transnational Activism on WWII Sexual Slavery in Asia” in Jenny Wustenberg and Aline Sierp, ed. Agency in Transnational Memory Politics (Berghahn Books, 2020). Dr. McCarthy received her B.A. in East Asian studies and her Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.

Description

Recent years have seen a rise in attention to Nippon Kaigi, or “Japan Conference,” an unincorporated lobby association that is credited with providing ideological motivation and legislative guidance to Japan’s top elected officials and other powerholders. The group serves as a meeting-point for religious organizations, ethics training groups, political reform associations, and others that diverge in terms of teachings and practices but cooperate in efforts to return Japan to the imagined glories of its imperial past. While much ink has been spilled on the group’s history and the influence of its prominent signatories, comparatively little attention has been paid to Nippon Kaigi’s ground-level operations. In this presentation, McLaughlin will draw on his ethnographic engagements with Shinto priests, members of ethics training seminars, and other Kaigi affiliates to create a complex picture of how the group manifests through local-level activities. By paying particular attention to gender roles, ritual practices, doctrinal instruction, and other factors that are often left out of estimations of Nippon Kaigi’s political impact, McLaughlin will demonstrate how a profile of the organization that gives precedence to the quotidian lives of its participants may reorient research on nationalism in Japan today.

Levi McLaughlin is Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, North Carolina State University. He is co-author of Kōmeitō: Politics and Religion in Japan (IEAS Berkeley, 2014) and author of Soka Gakkai’s Human Revolution: The Rise of a Mimetic Nation in Modern Japan (University of Hawai`i Press, 2019).

Description

The Centre for the Study of Global Japan will be welcoming Prof. Hiroko Akiyama to present her research on the ageing society. Prof. Akiyama will be joined by Prof. Margarita Estevez-Abe and Prof. Michelle Silver for discussions following the presentation. This webinar will be moderated by Prof. Ito Peng.

Presenter:
Hiroko Akiyama
Visiting Professor, Institute of Gerontology and Institute for Future Initiatives, The University of Tokyo
Professor Emeritus, The University of Tokyo

Hiroko Akiyama, a gerontologist, is professor of emeritus at the University of Tokyo and the former vice president of Science Council of Japan.　Professor Akiyama has conducted a number of cross-national surveys and is widely recognized as an expert on issues of global aging. She is known for the long-running research on the elderly in Japan—tracking the aging patterns of approximately 6,000 Japanese elderly over 30 years. She also initiated social experiment projects that pioneer to re-design communities to meet the needs of the highly aged society, and more recently Kamakura Living Lab, a platform for open innovation by co-creation among users, industry, government and academia. She started the Institute of Gerontology at University of Tokyo in 2006. Professor Akiyama received Ph.D. in psychology from University of Illinois, the United States.

Panelists:
Margarita Estevez-Abe
Associate Professor, Political Science, Syracuse University

Margarita Estevez-Abe teaches political science at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University. She works in the sub-field of political science called comparative political economy of advanced industrial countries. She is interested in how political and economic institutions are constructed differently across countries and in their varying effects on politics and ordinary people’s lives. Her work so far has dealt with Japanese political economy, the Varieties of Capitalism, and comparative political economy of gender.

Michelle Silver
Acting Chair, Department of Health and Society and Associate Professor, University of Toronto Scarborough

Michelle Silver is an Associate Professor of Gerontology at the University of Toronto where she holds appointments in the Department of Health and Society, Sociology, and Public Health. Her book, Retirement and Its Discontents, was published in 2018 by Columbia University Press. Her work has been featured in Forbes, the Times Literary Supplement, Zoomer, Next Avenue, The Globe and Mail, Global News, and other popular media sources. She received a BA, BS, and MPP from the University of California, Berkeley and a PhD from the University of Chicago. She is currently chair of the Department of Health and Society at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

Ito Peng
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Social Policy and Director, Centre for Global Social Policy, Department of Sociology, and Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto (Moderator)

Professor Ito Peng is a Canada Research Chair in Global Social Policy at the Department of Sociology, University of Toronto. She is an expert in global social policy, specializing in gender, migration and care policies. She has written extensively on social policies and political economy of care in Asia Pacific. Her teaching and research focus on comparative social policy, and family, gender, employment and migration policies. She just completed an international partnership research project entitled Gender, Migration, and the Work of Care (http://cgsp.ca/), and is now engaged in two research projects: The Care Economy: Gender-sensitive Macroeconomic Models for Policy Analysis, and Care Economies in Context: Towards Sustainable Social and Economic Development.

Description

Why has Japan’s immigration policy remained so restrictive, especially in light of economic, demographic, and international political forces that are pushing Japan to admit more immigrants? Michael Strausz will answer this question by drawing on insights from nearly two years of intensive field research in Japan. In addition to answering this question by outlining the central argument of his 2019 book, Help (Not) Wanted: Immigration Politics in Japan, this presentation provide context to recent developments in Japanese immigration policy – particularly the December 2018 decision to admit more than 300,000 low skilled foreign laborers as well as the immigration policy response to the COVID pandemic.

Speaker Bio:
Michael Strausz is an Associate Professor of Political Science and the Director of Asian Studies at Texas Christian University. He earned his PhD from the University of Washington. He is currently editing a collection of essays by an interdisciplinary group of scholars tentatively titled _The Past and Future of Immigration in Japan_ which aims to put recent immigration reforms into context. His book _Help (Not) Wanted: Immigration Politics in Japan_ was published in 2019 with SUNY Press.

Description

Over the past 20 years, Japan’s leading companies have seen their former competitiveness in the mass-manufacturing of high-quality consumer products competed away, first by Korea and Taiwan, and the China. A complete pivot has become necessary to compete not through size and output volume of consumer gadgets, but nimble specialization and technology leadership in input components. The goal is to anchor Asian supply chains and stay ahead of China by occupying critical deep-tech niches. As Japanese companies have gone on a refocusing diet, they have attracted foreign capital and reorganized internal processes of innovation. This conversation will lay out these changes and show why we should pay attention to what they mean for global business and politics.

Speaker Bio:
Ulrike Schaede is Professor of Japanese Business at the University of California, San Diego, School of Global Policy and Strategy. She is the Director of JFIT (Japan Forum for Innovation and Technology) where she organizes a weekly “Japan Zoominar” on current issues on Japan. Schaede works on Japan’s changing corporate strategies, including business culture, change management, employment practices, the rise of private equity, corporate governance, and manufacturing and innovation under the digital transformation. She has written extensively on Japanese business organization, and is the author of The Business Reinvention of Japan: How to Make Sense of the New Japan (Stanford University Press, 2020) as well as Choose and Focus: Japanese Business Strategies for the 21st Century (Cornell UP, 2008). She holds a PhD in Japan Studies and Economics from Marburg University, Germany, and has been invited to visiting professor and scholar positions at UC Berkeley, Harvard Business School, Stanford University in the U.S., as well as Hitotsubashi University and the research institutes of The Bank of Japan, various Ministries, and the Development Bank of Japan. All told, Schaede has spent over nine years of research in Tokyo and is an advisor to two startup incubators in Japan. See more at www.TheJapanologist.com.

Description

In his book, In the Dragon’s Shadow, The Diplomat editor Sebastian Strangio talks about the challenges for Southeast Asia in managing the rise of China. Do Japan’s longstanding ties to the region—including as its largest infrastructure investor– stand it in good stead to provide a counterweight to China? And what can Canada learn from Japan in its approach to this important region? Join Strangio and a panel of international experts to discuss the roles of Japan, Canada, the USA and China in Southeast Asia.

Speaker Bios:
Sebastian Strangio is Southeast Asia Editor at The Diplomat. In 2008, he began his career as a reporter at The Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia, and has since traveled and reported extensively across Southeast Asia, paying special attention to the impact of China’s growing power. Sebastian’s writing has appeared in leading publications including Foreign Affairs, the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. He is also the author of Hun Sen’s Cambodia (Yale, 2014), a path-breaking examination of Cambodia since the fall of the Khmer Rouge, and In the Dragon’s Shadow: Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century (Yale, 2020).
*More information: http://www.sebastianstrangio.com

Nobuhiro Aizawa is Associate Professor of Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies, Kyushu University. He is the author of ‘Beyond the Non-Interference Dilemma: The Indonesian Initiative on ASEAN Charter, Nargis Crisis and Regionalism’, Australian Journal of Politics and History: Volume 65, Number 3, 2019. The Ethnic Chinese and the State: Indonesia’s China/Chinese Problem (in Japanese) (Shoseki Kobo- Hayama, 2010). He has been a Wilson Center Japan Scholar, a Visiting Scholar at Thammasat University, Chulalongkorn University and Cornell University. He is a former Research Associate at the Institution of Development Economies-JETRO, National Graduate Institute of Policy Studies and a member of Project 2045: A Joint Project of Two Maritime Democracies Indonesia-Japan.

Stewart Beck is the President and CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Prior to joining APF Canada, Mr. Beck served as the Canadian High Commissioner to the Republic of India with concurrent accreditation to the Kingdom of Bhutan and to Nepal. He joined Canada’s Department of External Affairs and International Trade (now Global Affairs Canada) in 1982 and served abroad in the United States, Taiwan, and the People’s Republic of China. In Ottawa, he held a number of progressively more senior positions, including Director General of the North Asia Bureau, Director General Responsible for Senior Management and Rotational Assignments, and Assistant Deputy Minister for International Business Development, Investment, and Innovation. He was Consul General in Shanghai and prior to his posting to India, he was Consul General in San Francisco.

Elina Noor is Director, Political-Security Affairs and Deputy Director, Washington, D.C. Office at the Asia Society Policy Institute. A native of Malaysia, Elina’s work focuses on security developments in Southeast Asia, global governance and technology, and preventing/countering violent extremism. Previously, Elina was Associate Professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. Prior to that, she was Director, Foreign Policy and Security Studies at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia. While there, she also served as the Secretary of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific, a 21-member Track Two regional security network. Between 2017 and 2019, Elina was a member of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace. She is also on the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs’ roster of experts, supporting efforts to build member states’ cyber-related capacity.
*More information: https://asiasociety.org/policy-institute/elina-noor

Deanna Horton is Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto. As part of her Canadian foreign service career, Deanna Horton spent a total of twelve years in Japan, including as Deputy Head of Mission, and also served as Ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. She was a NAFTA negotiator, followed by two postings in Washington, most recently as Minister (Congressional, Public and Intergovernmental Affairs). As a Munk School Senior Fellow she has led a digital mapping project on Canada’s footprint in Asia (https://archive.munkschool.utoronto.ca/canasiafootprint/) and related research on Canadian technology multinationals. Ms. Horton is also affiliated with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, and the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, commenting on economic and trade policy issues with a focus on Asia.