Nishimura Gota, Columnist, Toyo Keizai Inc.   Foreign observers have begun to point out similarities between the Japanese and Chinese economies. How should we understand the current state of the Chinese economy? What is the issue of “Japanification” that is ongoing in China? China in a state of intoxication There was a time when it was said that selling the land on the inside of the Yamanote Line that circles central Tokyo would earn you enough to buy the whole of the United States. This tends to come up as an illustration of what the bubble economy was like in the late 1980s. In retrospect, it makes little sense, and even at the time, there were many who felt it strange. Even so, it is hard to resist when there is some kind of inertia at work in society as a whole. Nearly ... ... [Read more]

  Suzuki Wataru, Professor, Gakushuin University   Key points The effects of cash payments and in-kind assistance are unclear Re-examining preferences towards stay-at-home mothers and Japanese employment practices All residents should pay for child insurance to secure financial resources   According to the flash report on Vital Statistics released at the end of February 2023, the number of births in 2022 was 799,000, the first time it has ever dropped below 800,000. This includes foreign nationals living in Japan and Japanese nationals living abroad, with an estimated 770,000 or so births among Japanese nationals living in Japan in confirmed reports. (see graph) In the last 50 years, the decline in the number of births has been pretty consistent, but there was a further rapid decline caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is concerning that even the recovered total fertility rate has started to decline. ... ... [Read more]

  Kohno Masaru (Professor, Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University) and Washio Takumi (19th-class student of the Kohno Masaru Seminar, School of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University)   “Online campaigns” became allowed in 2013, but how has politicians’ use of social networking services affected elections? If politicians can communicate effectively with voters through social networking services, it will lead to a healthy development of democracy. The relationship between use of social media and vote share Since the 2013 amendment of the Public Offices Election Law to allow “online campaigns,” many politicians in Japan have, belatedly, begun to utilize social networking services (hereinafter “social media”) for electoral purposes. But no study has yet to show clearly whether and how social media benefit politicians in important elections at the national level. As such, we have surveyed the activities of politicians who ran as candidates ... ... [Read more]

  Matsuzaki Teruaki, Representative of Japan Architectural Design Institute   Chiisaki mono wa mina utsukushi (all small things, are most adorable) This is a passage from The Pillow Book (The Pillow Book, 99, from “Adorable Things,” translated by Ivan Morris). Here, “utsukushi” means adorable, but this sensibility became the seed of the Japanese delicate grace, with utsukushi coming to be used in the sense of “beautiful” in the Muromachi period (1336–1573). Unlike the culture of the Eurasian Continent that ranges from grand concepts to details, Japanese culture is characterized by an accumulation of concrete sensibilities in the things around us. This can be clearly seen by looking at the design methods of Japanese architecture. For example, in addition to the distance between column centers being defined as one ken (six feet) and buildings being designed as integer multiples of that (hashira-wari, column spacing), which ... ... [Read more]

  Kawase Tsuyoshi, Faculty Fellow, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI), Professor, Sophia University   The fragmentation of the international trade and investment system is proceeding in the name of national security. In particular, since the years of the Trump administration, the United States has implemented many trade measures for national security reasons. Specific examples include: (1) aggressive application of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR); (2) the imposition of other restrictions on trade in goods and services; (3) the imposition of restrictions on foreign direct investment; and (4) the application of trade regulations from the viewpoint of human rights as a national security matter (see table). On the other hand, the trend of decoupling in terms of trade and investment, which is occurring mainly between the United States and China, is making headway through the recent friendshoring movement, which refers to the ... ... [Read more]

  Shimada-Logie Hiroko, Professor, School of Government, Kyoto University   In many countries since the 19th century, success stories have been sought from other countries whenever dissatisfaction with their own bureaucracy grows. During the Heisei reforms of the civil service system in Japan, which ended in the centralization of executive personnel affairs, there were frequent references to models in other countries to be emulated, like “In the United States, you can come and go freely through the revolving door between the public and private sectors” and “Politicians can freely replace executive bureaucrats in Germany and France.” However, if we are to design a bureaucracy that functions in our society, it is necessary, before importing pieces from other countries, to delve into questions like “What role do we want bureaucrats to play in relation to politics?” and “Can we secure the desired human resources in ... ... [Read more]

  Otsuki Nana, Senior Fellow at Pictet Japan   The international credit unease that has spread rapidly since the beginning of March is showing signs of quieting down, the last instance being the Credit Suisse bailout by UBS. There has been some praise for the response from the relevant national authorities, which successfully checked the spread of further unease, but on the other hand, many issues pertaining to the state of financial regulations for liquidity and capital, as well as the handling of banking bailouts, have been exposed. Once again, there is need for a debate on how best to stabilize the financial system. If the supply of liquidity from banks stagnates going forward, the possibility of a new financial crisis with its epicenter in nonbanks, or other entities that are not covered by bailout measures, is not zero. Unprecedented turmoil around the credit ... ... [Read more]