Second Annual Conference of the Japan Economy Network Tokyo, 14-15 September 2017 Overview of Chairs and Speakers The Japan Economy Network is hosted by the Department of Economics of SOAS University of London 1 Kenji Aramaki is Professor, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University, and Emeritus Professor of University of Tokyo. He was Visiting Professor at the Department of Economics of SOAS University of London in 2014-15. He served long for the Ministry of Finance, Japanese government and, meantime, worked for the IMF in the late 1980s. His research interests include international financial crises and the function of capital controls and also the Japanese economic stagnation. His publications include Asia Ts ūka Kiki to IMF (The Asian Currency Crisis and the IMF) (in Japanese, Nihon Keizai Hyoronsha, 1999) and “Capital Account Liberalization: Japan’s Experience and Implications for China” in Capital Account Liberalization in China: The Need for a Balanced Approach, ed. Kevin P. Gallagher (Boston University, 2014). 2 Naohiko Baba is the Chief Japan Economist at Goldman Sachs. He joined Goldman Sachs as a managing director in January 2011. Prior to joining the firm, Naohiko worked at the Bank of Japan (BOJ) beginning his career there in 1992. From 2006 to 2007, Naohiko was the head of Money Markets and Fixed Income. He left BOJ in late 2007 and returned in late 2009, serving as head of the Financial System Research Group in the Financial System and Bank Examination Department. Naohiko was the main author of BOJ’s semi-annual Financial System Report. From 2007 to 2009, Naohiko worked at the Bank of International Settlement (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland. As a senior economist in charge of global financial markets, he prepared inputs for high-level central bank conferences, as well as for BIS publications. Naohiko also extensively investigated the US dollar shortage and its relation to the foreign exchange swap market during the global financial crisis of 2007 to 2008. Throughout his career, Naohiko has published numerous academic and policy-oriented pieces in the field of monetary policy, yield curve, international finance, asset pricing, corporate finance, and hedge-fund behavior, among others. Naohiko earned a PhD in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1999 and an MA from Keio University in 1992. 3 Nicholas E. Benes is Representative Director of The Board Director Training Institute of Japan. Mr. Benes received his B.A. in political science from Stanford University, and a JD-MBA degree from UCLA. He then worked at JP Morgan for 11 years and went on to lead a pathbreaking M&A advisory boutique in Japan, JTP Corporation. He is an inactive member of the bar in California and New York. Currently, he serves the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) as Chair of its Growth Strategy Task Force. In the past, he served as a twice-elected Governor of the ACCJ, Chair of the ACCJ’s FDI Committee and FDI Task Force, and as a member of the Experts Committee of the Japan Investment Council, an advisory committee to the Japanese Cabinet on FDI policy. He has also served as an independent outside director at Alps Mapping, the listed company Cecile Ltd., and Livedoor Holdings (post-scandal); and currently is an independent director at Imagica Robot Holdings, Inc. (TSE6879). Mr. Benes has taught corporate governance and business ethics as an Adjunct Professor at Hitotsubashi University and the International University of Japan. In 2010, he was a member of the Financial Services Agency’s Corporate Governance Liaison Committee, which had been formed to provide private sector input to the Ministry of Justice and the Legal Affairs Advisory Council regarding amendment of Japan’s Company Law. In 2013, he proposed that the creation of a corporate governance code be included in the LDP’s growth strategy, to be implemented under the auspices of the FSA. He then advised members of the diet and the FSA regarding the content of Japan’s first corporate governance code. In 2016, he proposed changes to the Company Pension Law regulations and guidance, which resulted in a joint study group being formed by the Ministry of Healthy, Labor and Welfare, the Pension Fund Association, experts and institutional investors, and the FSA. The study group issued its report encouraging corporate pension funds to sign the Stewardship Code in March of 2017. 4 Georg D. Blind is a Lecturer at the Universities of St. Gallen and Zurich and a Research Fellow with the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies in Zurich, all Switzerland. His recent research includes works on behavioral finance, labour market developments and self-employment, and the utilization of free trade agreements. As most of George’s research comes with a distinctively interdisciplinary edge, he has published in both disciplinary journals (e.g., Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Evolutionary and Institutional Economic Review) as well as in Area Studies journals (e.g., Social Science Japan Journal, Journal of East Asian Studies). George holds Master’s Degrees in Business and Economics (HEC Paris, St. Gallen University) and in Japanese Studies (Heidelberg) as well as a PhD in Economics (Hohenheim). He has been a JSPS guest researcher at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Management (2008- 2009) and will join the University of Tokyo for another fellowship in December 2016. Besides his academic activities, George has been working as a consultant with McKinsey & Company (Frankfurt) and has variously worked on contracted research for private and public sector clients (Ernst&Young, PWC, Switzerland Global Enterprise, Japan Science and Technology Agency). 5 Amon Chizema is a Professor of Strategy and Corporate Governance at Birmingham Business School. Previously he held a Professorship at Loughborough University, where he was also Head of the International Business, Strategy and Innovation Group. Amon’s research explores corporate governance issues including executive compensation, adoption and diffusion of governance practices across countries and dynamics of the board of directors. His research has been published in leading journals such as the Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, The Leadership Quarterly, Journal of World Business , and Corporate Governance: An International Review . Amon serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Management Studies and Corporate Governance: An International Review . He is also an Associate Editor of the newly established Africa Journal of Management . 6 Angelo Cicogna is a Senior Manager with the Bank of Italy (Italy’s Central Bank), which he joined in 1987. Since October 2013, he has been the Head of the Bank’s Tokyo Representative Office, whose responsibilities include liaising with Monetary and Financial Authorities of Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore, as well as conducting analyses and reporting to the Bank’s Headquarters on the main economic and financial developments in those countries. From 2007 to 2013, he was at the Bank’s International Economic Analysis and Relations Department, in charge of its International Technical Cooperation and EU Neighbourhood Economies Division. From 1996 to 2001 he was seconded as Financial Attaché with the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C. (U.S.A.). From 2001 to 2007 he held the same position with the Italian Embassy in Cairo (Egypt), also acting as Coordinator, between 2005 and 2007, of a Eurosystem Technical Cooperation Programme with the Central Bank of Egypt. Mr. Cicogna holds a Bachelor’s degree (summa cum laude) in Business Economics from Bocconi University (Milan, Italy), and a Master of Science’s degree (with distinction) in Economics from the London School of Economics. He is the author of several publications on the economic and financial systems of emerging countries, and has lectured on the same topics, as well as on the European Union’s economic and financial governance. 7 Harald Conrad is tenured Sasakawa Lecturer in Japan’s Economy and Management at the University of Sheffield’s School of East Asian Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Cologne University, Germany. From 2000 to 2008 he worked in Japan as Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies and Associate Professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University. His research focuses on Japanese human resource management, social policy, the organization of markets and intercultural business negotiations. His latest journal articles have appeared in the International Journal of Human Resource Management , Journal of Social Policy, The Japanese Economy, Social Science Japan Journal , Japan Forum, and Japanese Studies. 8 Wenti Du is an assistant professor in Akita International University’s Global Business Program. She completed her B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from Hollins University in 2010 and Ph.D. in Economics at Claremont Graduate University in 2016 in the United States. Du’s research interests lie primarily in the area of open economy macroeconomics, in particular the market impact of monetary and fiscal policies and contagion in financial crises. 9 Andrew Filardo is the Head of Monetary Policy at the Bank for International Settlements. He joined the BIS in 2002 as a Senior Economist in the Monetary Policy and Exchange Rate Unit of the Research and Policy Analysis Department. In July 2007, he transferred to the BIS Hong Kong office to focus on monetary policy and exchange rate issues in the Asia-Pacific region, and took up the role of Head of Economics for Asia and the Pacific in October 2008. After 5 years in the region, he returned to the headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. Prior to joining the BIS, he served on the staff of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers during 2001-2002 and was an Assistant Vice President and Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. During his nine years in the Federal Reserve System, he taught Money and Banking as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and was a visiting scholar at the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada.