TPP and Japan’s Economic Recovery

April 28, 2016 6:30 PM (finished)


Shujiro URATA

(Waseda University)

Date/Time April 28, 2016 6:30 PM
Location Room 549 5th floor, Akamon Sogo Kenkyuto Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo　 [map]
Abstract The Japanese economy has been performing badly since the collapse of the economic bubble in the early 1990s. Although mismanagement of macroeconomic policy has been blamed for sluggish economic performance, the more serious obstacles may be structural problems such as the shrinking and aging population and the closed nature of the Japanese economy. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a free trade agreement with a high level of trade and foreign direct investment liberalization and a comprehensive set of rules. The speaker argues that the TPP offers a good opportunity for the Japanese economy to recover from the long recession and to get back on the growth trajectory.
Bio Shujiro Urata is Professor of Economics at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University, Research Fellow at the Japanese Centre for Economic Research, Faculty Fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI), and Senior Research Advisor, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA). Professor Urata received his Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University. He is a former Research Associate at the Brookings Institution and an Economist at the World Bank. He specializes in international economics. He has held numerous research and advisory positions, including senior advisor to the Government of Indonesia. He has published and edited a number of books on international economic issues and is author and co-author of numerous articles in professional journals. His recent books include Multinationals and Economic Growth in East Asia, co-editor, Routledge, 2006, Free Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific, co-editor, World Scientific, 2010, Economic Consequences of Globalization: Evidence from East Asia, co-editor, Routledge, 2012