Globalization In Japan Research Articles

Predicting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on globalization

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly influenced the global economy, international travel, global supply chains, and how people interact, and subsequently affect globalization in coming years. In order to understand the impact of COVID-19 on globalization and provide potential guidance to policymakers, the present study predicted the globalization level of the world average and 14 specific countries in scenarios with and without COVID-19 based on a new Composite Indicator method which contains 15 indicators. Our results revealed that the world average globalization level is expected to decrease from 2017 to 2025 under the scenario without COVID-19 by −5.99%, while the decrease of globalization under the COVID-19 scenario is predicted to reach −4.76% in 2025. This finding implies that the impact of COVID-19 on globalization will not be as severe as expected in 2025. Nevertheless, the downward trend of globalization without COVID-19 is due to the decline of the Environmental indicators, whereas the decline under the COVID-19 scenario is attributed to Economic aspects (almost −50%). The impact of COVID-19 on globalization varies across individual countries. Among the countries investigated, COVID-19 had a positive impact on the globalization of Japan, Australia, the United States, the Russian Federation, Brazil, India and Togo. In contrast, the globalization in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Qatar, Egypt, China and Gabon are expected to decrease. The variation of impact induced by COVID-19 on those countries is attributed to the weighting of economic, environmental and political aspects of globalization is different across these countries. Our results can help governments take suitable measures to balance economic, environmental and political policies, which may better support their decision-making.

Impact of renewable energy consumption, globalization, and technological innovation on environmental degradation in Japan: application of wavelet tools

With regard to environmental degradation in Japan, the world's third-largest economy, limited studies have been performed to illustrate the ecological aspects of the country's core and recent economic policies such as globalization, technological innovation, and renewable energy usage policies. Given this motivation, this research reveals a new perspective on the connection between CO2 emissions and GDP growth, renewable energy, technological innovation and globalization in Japan by employing wavelet statistical tools. The paper employs series of wavelet tools for datasets covering the period from 1990Q1 to 2015Q4. The empirical outcomes demonstrate proof of the interaction between renewable energy use, economic growth, technological innovation, globalization and CO2 emissions in both time and frequency. The empirical results of the wavelet analyses reveal that globalization, GDP growth, and technological innovation increase CO2 emissions in Japan, while renewable energy usage mitigates CO2 in the short and medium terms. The results demonstrate the significance of implementing policies effectively coordinated by the policymakers to curb the significant environmental degradation in Japan. Moreover, Japan should actively support renewable energy development and create a more competitive climate for investment in the renewable energy market.

Circles of Compensation: Economic Growth and the Globalization of Japan by Kent E. Calder

Reviewed by: Circles of Compensation: Economic Growth and the Globalization of Japan by Kent E. Calder J. A. A. Stockwin (bio) Circles of Compensation: Economic Growth and the Globalization of Ja pan. By Kent E. Calder. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2017. xvi, 297 pages. $90.00, cloth; $29.95, paper. The central issue for Japan that is addressed in this book is why, up to the early 1990s, the Japanese economy was forging ahead in so many sectors as [End Page 177] to attract the word "miracle," and yet from then on the economy has seemed unable to escape from a cycle of stagnation. Calder finds wanting—or at least inadequate—almost all previous attempts in English to explain this sudden and unexpected transition from economic "miracle" to relative economic stagnation. Few observers would have predicted, from the vantage point of 1990, that the dynamism and inventiveness that were so exciting from the 1950s to the 1980s would be replaced by the "lost decade" of the 1990s and sputtering attempts at recovery thereafter. One indicator of an apparent loss of dynamism, pointed out by Calder, is the current reluctance of young Japanese to travel or study outside Japan. In the city of Oxford and its university, for instance, the presence of Chinese tourists and students is ubiquitous. Thirty years ago East Asian tourists and students would have been largely Japanese. Calder's own focus is upon subnational institutions that he identifies as "circles of compensation." He argues that such circles operate in many parts of Japanese society, as well as in the politico-economic system, in such a way as to internalize benefits and externalize costs. They are not just interest groups, and many of them are vitally important for the functioning of the system. They have defined sets of members, which may be expanded to others: they persist over long periods; they allocate resources internally in a routine, nonconflictual fashion; they are based on both relationships and rules; and they externalize costs to nonmembers. Writing from a broadly neoliberal perspective, Calder emphasizes their negative aspects, in that they create a comfortable and economically stable environment for their members, thus reducing incentives for entrepreneurship and risk taking. They are parochial, therefore, rather than outward looking and, by shifting costs onto the backs of those outside the charmed circle, tend to raise costs to outsiders above competitive levels. At the same time, he admits that the circles can operate efficiently. One might add that in the Japanese social context a group of people working closely together over an extended period often produces dynamic outcomes based on "in-group" commitment. Nevertheless, it is certainly true that parochialism, resistance to innovation, and externalizing of costs are endemic to such circles. Calder is also right in arguing that they do not sit well with globalizing trends in the outside world. He is not arguing, however, that they are entirely peculiar to Japan. Why then does the concept of "circles of compensation" explain the sudden transition from "economic miracle" to "lost decade(s)"? His answer to this question needs to be teased out from his arguments in various parts of the book. He convincingly argues that such circles emerged in the Meiji period when the number-one priority of the regime was to avoid having Japan succumb to colonial-style control by any of the colonial powers that were circling Japan in the late nineteenth century. They were, in other words, a form of national mobilization. They performed similar functions in [End Page 178] the 1930s when the nation was preparing for war, and in the postwar period when economic recovery was the principal aim. The immediate cause of economic collapse around 1990 was the collapse of an asset "bubble" (principally land), but the really interesting question is why a convincing recovery did not follow. Calder, after examining several other writers who have addressed this question, argues that accounting for Japan's "transition … from growth to stagnation is a complex, multivariate analytical process" (p. 16). He also complains that nearly all previous authors tackling this subject (with the partial exception of Ulrike Schaede and William Grimes) have concentrated on the national level of analysis, whereas...

Circles of Compensation: Economic Growth and the Globalization of Japan by Kent E. Calder

Reviewed by: Circles of Compensation: Economic Growth and the Globalization of Japan by Kent E. Calder Frances McCall Rosenbluth Circles of Compensation: Economic Growth and the Globalization of Japan. By Kent E. Calder. Stanford University Press, 2017. 320 pages. Hardcover, $90.00; softcover, $29.95. A new book by Kent Calder is always cause for cheer, and this one is no exception. Circles of Compensation puts Calder's scholarly gifts on full display: it advances a broad argument, relates the argument to relevant social science theories, anchors it historically, illustrates it with careful attention to detail across a wide range of issue domains, and, finally, proposes possible policy solutions. Japan, says Calder, has had a tendency to promulgate policies that favor insiders—or, in other words, create circles of compensation. These policies internalize benefits and externalize costs, shifting them onto others, most notably consumers and taxpayers. The banking system favors banks over savers; land policy favors the construction industry and developers over residents; food policy favors farmers over consumers; energy policy favors the energy industry over general citizens; transportation policy favors the transportation industry over users; and the media market favors media producers over the general public and foreign journalists. Why does Japan operate this way? Why are these arrangements both widespread and stable, and how is it that they have survived Japan's integration into the world economy? Calder recounts familiar explanations for Japan's persistent "iron triangle" of politicians, bureaucrats, and business insiders: late-developer "catch-up" industrialization, a strong bureaucratic apparatus capable of enforcing insider deals, a relatively homogeneous population, and politicians eager to raise campaign contributions from the benefiting industries for expensive election campaigns. Calder's emphasis is on the strength of intermediate associations of insiders that form the circles of compensation capable of defending their advantages in the face of successive would-be newcomers. Protective regulations, however they might discourage innovation or affect the Japanese economy as a whole, allow insiders to insure themselves against failure; these insiders are then able to foist the requisite "insurance premiums," so to speak, onto outsiders, most notably the general population. Calder offers by contrast the auto industry, which was never as well cartelized as many other Japanese industries, as an example of successful innovation and globalization. Circles of Compensation is far richer than this review can fully capture: the book overflows with fascinating details, interpretations, and implications. In the chapters on finance and on land and housing (chapters 4 and 5, respectively), Calder explains how during Japan's period of postwar economic expansion an attachment to real estate as the principal form of collateral favored the construction industry and real estate developers. But Japan's economy is no longer a closed system, and new laws in the 1980s allowing capital outflows (and, by extension, offering alternatives to domestic savings) pulled the rug out from under land prices in Japan. The government's [End Page 146] response, to prop up the stability of banking and real estate with easy money rather than to change collateral rules, set the stage for the asset bubble that reached vertiginous heights before bursting in 1991. Thus ended the glory days of postwar Japan. The bursting of the asset bubble also ended the illusion that Japan had invented a superior form of capitalism with an optimal allocation of risk and reward. The system that had been built on circles of compensation was not, as some had hoped, a kinder, gentler capitalism favoring all stakeholders. The primacy of insiders over the general public proved, in this case, dangerous even to the insiders themselves, at least in the short run. Decades later, thanks to the Abe administration's antideflationary monetary policy, cranes once again spike over Tokyo's skyline, and "Mori" skyscrapers count in the dozens in glitzy uptown neighborhoods. The reader is left wondering if the system has recalibrated, or if cheap money once again hides underlying rigidities. However, the US's own financial cataclysm in 2008, worse for the world than Japan's because of greater global financial integration, showed the limits of even US-style regulation, which purports to place more of the costs of financial stability on financial institutions themselves. US banks...

Globalization and the Politics of Institutional Reform in Japan by Motoshi Suzuki

Reviewed by: Globalization and the Politics of Institutional Reform in Japan by Motoshi Suzuki Eiji Kawabata (bio) Globalization and the Politics of Institutional Reform in Japan. By Motoshi Suzuki. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, 2016. xii, 252 pages. $125.00. Motoshi Suzuki's book provides an analysis of government reform in Japan, in connection with changes in the international environment, especially globalization; the analysis consists of three components. The first is a theoretical discussion. In chapter 1 the author offers an overview of approaches to institutional change, particularly those based on rational choice, and presents the main framework that is used to examine Japanese government leaders' role in adjusting Japan's economic system to changes in the international environment in order to pursue economic development. The author also incorporates theoretical discussions in other chapters, in particular developing his analysis in conjunction with various discussions of Japanese politics and policymaking. The second component is historical studies. Suzuki uses the framework he has outlined to analyze government reform in Japan in case studies of reforms stimulated by changes in international relations before World War II. The third and final component is the application of his framework to case studies of contemporary government reforms under the influence of globalization in Japan. Each of these cases is very important, but they have rarely been examined by scholars outside Japan and the book's concise overview provides a basic understanding of each. The book thus covers a wide variety of relevant aspects of the issue, including theoretical approaches, historical overview, and case studies on recent government reform. This breadth of coverage is the book's strongest point. Nonetheless, the analysis includes some significant problems, among which I would include the following. First, the model the author sets up is in need of clarification. Suzuki's model is straightforward, if not simple. He posits "the extent and process of policy change" as dependent variables [End Page 485] and "change in the international order" as the independent variable, adding "policy authority allocation and related political strategies" as intervening variables (p. 8). However, methodologically, the last two variables are not intervening variables. An intervening variable is caused by an independent variable(s), but in this case neither of these two variables is caused by the independent variable. I would instead suggest that they are independent variables; it is plausible to argue that either policy authority allocation or related political strategies, or the combination of these two variables, determines the mode of policy change. The author needs to address this possibility or at least clarify his special use of the term. Second, the author's analytical framework has an epistemological problem in that it does not clearly distinguish between normative and positive theories. In general, normative theories incorporate value-based argument, for example, "what ought to happen," as an essential component, and normative theorists elucidate their position on a given subject. In contrast, theories based on positivism (try to) detach subjective value judgments in constructing theories. The author acknowledges that his "analytical framework has both normative and positive elements" (p. 8) and presents a normative analysis in chapter 1. However, none of the theoretical frameworks that are used in developing the author's "normative" theory belongs to the tradition of normative theories. Each of the cited theories may provide prescriptive propositions, but these propositions derive not from normative discussions of value but from empirical analysis, thus generally placing these theories in the positivist tradition. Suzuki also notes in this chapter, "I develop a normative analysis that sets the stage for the positive and empirical analysis" (p. 16). This implies that he combines normative and positive theories, but this is hardly a conventional approach in political science. Where theories such as critical theories do this, they explicitly state their epistemological stance. Unfortunately, since the author here does not explain his epistemological framework, his use of the term "normative theory" is confusing at best. Third, the book lacks consistency in its use of analytical models and theories. In chapter 1, the author discusses theories of institutional change along with the international relations theories of transgovernmentalism and intergovernmentalism. In chapter 2, based on existing studies, he presents four models of the relationship between...

Postpartum depressive symptoms and their association with social support among foreign mothers in Japan at 3 to 4 months postpartum

With Japan's globalization, maternal-child health care for foreign mothers is highly necessary. We examined postpartum depressive symptoms in foreign mothers in Japan and the factors associated with such symptoms, particularly social support. A cross-sectional study was conducted for Japanese and foreign mothers at 3 to 4months postpartum. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale was used to evaluate postpartum depression symptom, and social support was evaluated by support type and provider. Multiple regression analyses was used. Data from 97 Japanese mothers and 68 foreign mothers were analyzed. The average score of Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale for foreign mothers was 7.5, significantly higher than that for Japanese mothers (4.2). Financial circumstances, spouse-partners' emotional support, and families' informational support were significantly related to foreign mothers' postpartum depressive symptoms. Postpartum depression symptoms were more common among foreign mothers than among Japanese mothers. Medical personnel should encourage such mothers to obtain more social support from their spouse-partners and family.

Globalization of Japan as “the Far East” from the Viewpoint of Transportation and Telecommunication Infrastructure

本稿では，国際交通・通信インフラの変遷を検討することによって，近代日本のグローバル化の過程を論じた．日本のグローバル化は19世紀末に最初の国際定期航路・電信線が整備された段階で，英国の植民地統治を支える交通・通信システム（「英国グローバルシステム」）に組み込まれる形で始まった．産業革命後の英国はインドや中国への交通・通信ルートを拡大していったが，「極東」日本はその延長上に位置し，日本から見た西廻りルートが成立した．一方，太平洋を渡る東廻りルートは米国主導で整備され，日本は新興の「米国グローバルシステム」に否応なく組み込まれた．日本は，国策として定期航路や通信網を維持し，両ルートを確保し続けたが，第二次大戦後は航空輸送や衛星通信の発達，さらには20世紀末のインターネットと光ケーブル網の発達によって米国のプレゼンスが拡大すると，「米国グローバルシステム」へ急速に傾斜することになった．

Japan's Global Health Strategy: Connecting Development and Security

Japan has made its presence felt in the realm of power politics by focusing on the promotion of “human security” and sustainable development. At the core of both concepts lies the issue of health. As Japan prepares for the upcoming G7 Summit, Keizo Takemi examines the question of what sort of leadership role Japan should play in the critical field of health.

1206 Do participants in the phase I trials need to be hospitalized? Domestic but outstanding issues for globalization in Japan

1206 Do participants in the phase I trials need to be hospitalized? Domestic but outstanding issues for globalization in Japan

Sex in Japan's Globalization, 1870-1930: Prostitutes, Emigration and Nation-Building

Sex in Japan's Globalization, 1870-1930: Prostitutes, Emigration and Nation-Building

Politics of education for Japanese returnee children

Business expansion in the 1960s and its associated international strategies have meant that many Japanese company employees and their families were sent abroad on long‐term assignments. The children who accompanied their parents on such assignments and then returned to Japan were first described as ‘educational refugees’ and were regarded as culturally ambiguous, socially marginalized and academically disadvantaged. The Japanese government considered that special measures were needed for these children, as they had missed out on the standard education that they would otherwise have received. Consequently, it introduced various educational options so that they could reintegrate smoothly into Japanese society and its educational system. Later, in the 1980s, when ‘globalization’ became vital to Japan, the attributes associated with such children were recast and they began to be regarded as ‘valuable national assets’ for their supposed rich cross‐cultural awareness and bilingual abilities, the very qualities the government sought in the new generations of Japanese. They were now seen as a barometer of Japan's globalization and, with their new high‐flying, global image, universities and companies began to actively enrol them. However, were these variously ascribed attributes based on fact? My research in the UK into their English and Japanese abilities has demonstrated that the claims, whether of disadvantage or of ability, were exaggerated or misleading. Furthermore, with the rapid increase in people's mobility, information and technology and with the multicultural orientation that many host communities, including the UK, now adopt their sojourn lifestyle has become increasingly Japanese, making the gap between assumption and reality even greater.

Developments of Television Technology along the Stream to Globalization in Japan

Developments of Television Technology along the Stream to Globalization in Japan

Globalization Theory from the Bottom Up: Japan's Contribution

Received theories of globalization are mostly spun out of armchair speculation without hard empirical data. They also tend to be Western centered. Based on a considerable amount of empirical, ethnographic data made available by fellow Japan specialists, several concepts have been identified to help account for Japan's globalization. For example, some cultural products tend to maintain their authenticity while others are easily creolized . At times, claimants of 'authenticity' fight a tug of war with creolizers. Cultural similarity is an important but incomplete explanation for the heavier density of Japanization in Northeast Asia, but Japanization, as synonym for Japan's globalization, is going on throughout the world. As Japan 'Japanizes', that is, 'creolizes' the West, this Japanized West is diffused to the rest of Asia in the Asianization process. Most of these and other concepts discussed in this paper are applicable without, or with slight, obvious modifications to an analysis of globalization from other centers such as the United States, Great Britain, or China. The study of Japan's globalization can offer useful ways of understanding globalization elsewhere and thus contribute to the general theory of globalization. An earlier version of this paper was presented as a Keynote Address at the Biennial Conference of the Japanese Studies Association of Australia, Sydney, July 2001.

Civil society in Japan: the growing role of NGOs in Tokyo's aid and development policy

Civil Society and NGOs in Japan Globalization and Pluralism Domestic Crises and Pluralism NGO Advocacy NGO-MOFA Cooperation and Contention in Aid

都市再生元年, 2003年

In terms of quantity it may be said that today's supply of office space (in Tokyo) is almost meeting the demand.We, however, recognize the necessity of renovating the functions of office buildings because the per capita office space and outdated earthquake-proof systems are not meeting today's market needs. In fact major office buildings completed in 2003 already obtained high occupancy rates, and this fact proves the end of so-called the Year 2003 Problem.Considering the furthering globalization in Japan's socio-economic activities, arising market demand is anticipated not only for office buildings but also for buildings for diverse uses.To revitalize Japanese economy, it is inevitable to create attractive multi-functional cities that meet the needs of the new era. The mass supply of office floors in 2003 should be seen as the beginning of urban revitalization for the realization of an attractive city.

Globalization of Japan: Japanese Sakoku Mentality and U.S. Efforts to Open Japan. By Mayumi Itoh. New York: St. Martin's, 1998. 256p. $45.00.

The tide of globalization that has swept the world political economy over the past two decades is clearly a development of epic importance. Given Japan's economic scale—one-seventh of global GNP and more than one-quarter of world savings—its ability and inclination to respond is likewise a subject of broad international concern. Yet, the debate on Japan's evolving political-economic course has so far yielded far more heat than light.

Globalization of Japan: Japanese Sakoku mentality and U.S. efforts to open Japan

Figures and Tables - Acronyms and Abbreviations - PART I: INTRODUCTION - Historical Background - PART II: JAPANESE SAKOKU MENTALITY - Sakoku Mentality and Japanese Perceptions of Kokusaika - Japanese Perceptions of the United States - Japanese Perceptions of Asia - PART III: JAPAN'S SAKOKU POLICY: CASE-STUDIES - Kome Kaikoku: Japan's Rice Market Liberalization - Japanese Constitution and Kokusaikoken - Japan and the UN: Peacekeeping Operations and Security Council Permanent Seat - Japan's Immigration and Foreign Labour Policies - PART IV: CONCLUSION - Prospects for Japan's Kokusaika - Bibliography

BOOK REVIEW: Globalization of Japan: Japanese Sakoku Mentality and U.S. Efforts to Open Japan, by Mayumi Itoh.

BOOK REVIEW: Globalization of Japan: Japanese Sakoku Mentality and U.S. Efforts to Open Japan, by Mayumi Itoh.

Globalization of Japan: Japanese Sakoku Mentality and U.S. Efforts to Open Japan

Globalization of Japan: Japanese Sakoku Mentality and U.S. Efforts to Open Japan

Japanese Cities in the World Economy

Acknowledgments Part I: Introduction 1. Japanese Cities in the World Economy Richard Child Hill and Kuniko Fujita 2. Urban Growth in Prewar Japan Hachiro Nakamura Part II: World City Formation 3. Japan's World Cities: Osaka and Tokyo Compared Kenichi Miyamoto 4. The New Tokyo Story: Restructuring Space and the Struggle for Place in a World City Mike Douglass 5. Kanagawa: Japan's Brain Center Mamoru Obayashi 6. Restructuring Urban-Industrial Links in Greater Tokyo: Small Producers' Responses to Changing World Markets Tadao Kiyonari Part III: Global-Local Links 7. Nagoya: The Core of Japan's Global Manufacturing Industries Yasuo Miyakawa 8. Toyota City: Industrial Organization and the Local State in Japan Kuniko Fujita and Richard Child Hill Part IV: Declining Industrial Cities and Policy Responses 9. The Declining Steel Town and Its Renaissance: The Case of Kamaishi Masatoshi Yorimitsu 10. Steel Town to Space World: Restructuring and Adjustment in Kitakyushu City Philip Shapira Part V: Japan and the World 11. Reshaping Western Pacific Rim Cities: Exporting Japanese Planning Ideas Peter J. Rimmer 12. Global Interdependence and Urban Restructuring in Japan Richard Child Hill and Kuniko Fujita About the Contributors Index