Japan and the Asian Economy

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

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).

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.

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.

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).

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 .

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.

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.

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.

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. He has authored many articles on empirical business cycles and on monetary policy. His current research interests have focused on cross- country monetary policy frameworks, the role of the financial cycle in monetary policy, globalisation and the inflation process, foreign exchange reserve holding motivations, central bank communication and lessons about the monetary policy challenges arising from deflation both in the current period as well as historically. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago.

Matthias Helble is a Senior Economist and Co-chair of the Research Department at the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo. His research interests include international trade, health and climate change. His work has been published in flagship reports of international organizations such as the World Trade Organization's World Trade Report, as well as in numerous books and scientific journals, including the Review of World Economics , Kyklos , Journal of World Trade , World Economy , Japan and the World Economy , Health & Place , Health Policy & Planning , and the Bulletin of the World Health Organization . His columns and policy work have been published and cited in prominent international media such as the Agence France Presse, Associate Press, BBC, Japan Times, Straits Times, Nikkei Asian Review, and VoxEU. Matthias began his professional career at the World Bank in Washington, DC, before joining the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. He then worked as an economist for the World Trade Organization in the areas of environment, climate change, and technical standards. He holds degrees in economics from the University of Tübingen (BA, MSc) in Germany, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (MA) in the United States, and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (MSc, PhD) in Geneva.

Sadayuki Horie is a senior researcher at the Nomura Research Institute (NRI) in Tokyo, the largest think tank in Japan. He has over 34 years of experience in the financial services industry. He started his career as a quantitative analyst in fixed income analytics in 1981, as a graduate from Kobe University of Commerce. Five years later, in 1986, he developed the NRI-Bond Performance Index (later renamed as the Nomura BPI), which is now considered the industry standard. Mr. Horie then worked with Professor John Cox of MIT and Professor Robert Litzenberger of Wharton for the developments of exotic option models and the term structure model of US fixed income markets in the New York office. From 1996 to 2001, he managed over $1bn through global tactical asset allocation and currency overlay funds as the head of the quantitative group of Nomura Asset Management. In addition to his research work, Mr. Horie has written many articles in publications including Security Analysts Journal, Corporate Pension, Pension & Economics, Fund Management and others. During 2001, he returned to NRI to work on pension fund consulting and advanced asset management research. Mr. Horie is also deputy chairman of Investment Advisory Committee of Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) and visiting professor of the graduate school of Osaka University of Economics. He was also a member of the council of experts concerning the Japanese version of the Stewardship Code by Japanese government, a member of the Council of Experts Concerning the Corporate Governance Code, a member of advisory panel for sophisticating the management of public/quasi-public funds by Japanese government.

Bihong Huang joined the Asian Development Bank Institute as a research fellow in February 2016. Her research interests include labor, environment, development, and financial economics. Her work has been published in books and refereed journals, including China Economic Review, Economic Modelling, Energy Economics, Global Economic Review, Journal of Banking and Finance, Review of Development Economics, and World Economy. Previously, she was on the academic staff of Renmin University of China and University of Macau. She holds degrees in economics from Xiamen University (MA and BA) in China, and Nanyang Technological University (PhD) in Singapore.

Stefania Lottanti von Mandach is a Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer with the Chair in Social Science of Japan at the University of Zurich, and a Lecturer with the University of St. Gallen. Her main research areas cover private equity, labor market and distribution system in Japan. Before entering the academic field in 2011, she worked ten years as a management consultant and was in charge of investor development & relations and investment management for Japan and Korea at private equity fund-of-funds.

Horst Melcher is a lecturer at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, teaching a course on Japanese Competitiveness at Franz Waldenbergers’ chair for Japanese Economy since 2012. Prior to that, he worked in Japan as the president/CEO of Deutsche Telekom K.K. in Tokyo from 2001 – 2011. During this tenure, cooperation with Japanese firms on telecommunication (broadband) technology and ‚complements’ were the major focus, providing some insights into the competitiveness of Japanese firms in this particular industry. Being one of a few non-Japanese members of Keidanren and Keizai Doyukai provided also a broad exposure into the corporate idiosyncrasies of Japanese industries. Before working in Japan, he spent over a decade in management functions for German multinational corporations as head of Finance in Germany, Canada and Argentina. Mr. Melcher received his doctorate in Business Administration in 1981 from the Technische University Darmstadt, where he also graduated in 1976 as a “Diplom- Wirtschaftsingenieur”. During 2015, he did a one-year fellowship at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, also focusing on drivers of corporate competitiveness, and how to more effectively teach this subject in higher education through the Harvard ‘case method’.

Satoshi Miyamura is a Senior Lecturer in the Economy of Japan at the Department of Economics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. His research interests are in the political economy of development in India and Japan; economics of labour and institutions. He is a co-editor of Class Dynamics of Development (Routledge, 2017). His recent publications include: ‘Rethinking Labour Market Institutions in Indian Industry: Forms, Functions and Socio-historical Contexts,’ Journal of Peasant Studies , Vol. 43, No. 6 (2016); ‘Diverse trajectories of industrial restructuring and labour organising in India,’ and (with Liam Campling, Jonathan Pattenden, and Benjamin Selwyn) ‘Class Dynamics of Development: A Methodological Note,’ both in Third World Quarterly , Vol. 37 No. 10 (2016).

Gudrun Monika Moede is Head of Deutsche Bundesbank’s Representative Office Tokyo since autumn 2015. She joined the German central bank in 1986 and has served the Bank in various positions, starting at a branch office in the North of Germany, but then mainly in the central office in Frankfurt. For several years she worked in the IT department, inter alia being in charge of IT security management, a member of various ESCB working groups and task forces and the chairwoman of the Working Party on Security Issues at the BIS. She was also in charge of the planning and construction of a high-availability computer center for the Bundesbank. During her career she was seconded to the European Central Bank and to the Council of Europa in Strasbourg. Her first stay in Tokyo was in 1993 during an internship at the Meiji Life Insurance.

Peter Morgan is Senior Consulting Economist and Co-chair of the Research Department at the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) in Tokyo. He joined the ADBI in December 2008. Previously he served in Hong Kong as Chief Asia Economist for HSBC, responsible for macroeconomic analysis and forecasting for Asia. Before that, he was Chief Japan Economist for HSBC, and earlier held similar positions at Merrill Lynch, Barclays de Zoete Wedd, and Jardine Fleming. Prior to entering the financial industry, he worked as a consultant for Meta Systems Inc in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, specializing in energy and environmental areas, including energy policy issues in Asian countries, and at International Business Information KK in Tokyo, specializing in financial sector consulting. Peter's research areas are macroeconomic policy and financial sector regulation and reform. He earned his MA and PhD degrees in economics from Yale University.

Mamoru Nagano is a Professor of Finance at Seikei University where he studies and works with multinational and local domestic firms on their financial strategies. He joined Seikei University in 2012 and teaches at both undergraduate and graduate levels. In 2016, Prof. Nagano won the Best Paper Award from Pacific-Basin Finance Journal for his article titled “ Sukuk Issuance and Information Asymmetry: Why Do Firms Issue Sukuk ?”. Before joining Seikei University, Prof. Nagano was Senior Economist at Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. (1992–2007) and Economist at Asian Development Bank (2000–2001). Born in Osaka, Japan, he holds Ph.D. from Osaka University (2004) and M.A. from Waseda University (1992). Married and enjoys collecting and tasting Rheingau Riesling wines.

Jouchi Nakajima is a Visiting Senior Economist at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Before joining the BIS in 2016, Jouchi Nakajima worked at the Bank of Japan, where he was an economist in the Monetary Affairs Department, the International Department and the Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies. Jouchi holds a PhD in statistical science from Duke University. Jouchi's research covers various econometric and empirical issues including monetary policy, financial markets and Bayesian methods.

Machiko Nissanke is Emeritus Professor of Economics at SOAS University of London. She received MSc and PhD degrees in Economics from the University of London. She previously worked at University of Oxford, Birkbeck College and University College London. She was Research Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford (1985-90) and the Overseas Development Institute, UK (1992-5) as well as Senior Associate Member of St Antony’s College, Oxford (1985-92). Her research interests include finance and development, international economics (trade and finance), macroeconomic adjustments in developing and transitional economies, institutional economics, comparative economic development in Asia and Africa, North-South and South-South economic relations. She published 11 authored and edited books, Her articles appeared in many international academic journals, including , American Economic Review, World Development, Journal of Development Studies, Economia, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Eastern Economic Journal , Cambridge Review of International Affairs , World Bank Economic Review , Journal of African Economies, African Development Review as well as in numerous edited books, conference volumes and reports by World Bank and UN institutions and agencies. She has served as consultant/advisor to various international organisations (UNCTAD, UNIDO, UNDP, UNECA, UNU, World Bank, African Development Bank, OAU, EU/EEC, African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), Commonwealth Secretariat, UK, UN Common Fund for Commodities and Japanese government agencies (MITI, MOFA, JBIC, JICA). She advises many international development communities and serves, as a funding member/advisor, a number of international research programmes and global research networks. She has coordinated and directed several major international research programmes for many international research organisations.

Yoko Oguro is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Economics at Meikai University. From April 2016 to August 2017 she was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Economics, SOAS University of London.

Saumik Paul is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University. He previously worked at University of Nottingham (Malaysia campus), Osaka University and the World Bank. He is primarily interested in conducting policy relevant research on topics related to the role of reforms in structural transformation and de-industrialization. His current projects examine land disputes and the process of industrialization in India, Indonesia and Vietnam, and also the role of structural transformation in regional growth and convergence in Japan and other Asian countries. Saumik has published in World Development , Journal of Development Studies , Oxford Development Studies, Journal of African Economies , Economics of Transition , among others.

Andrew Rozanov is an independent expert with a long track record of advising central banks and governments on portfolio management. He is a non-resident fellow in the Sovereign Investment Lab at Bocconi University, and he serves as an Independent Non-Executive Chairman of the Board at the National Investment Corporation of the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NIC NBK). From October 2014 until June 2017, Andrew was Associate Fellow in the International Economics programme at Chatham House, where he researched Abenomics and the Japanese economy. Prior to that, Andrew worked at Permal Group, where he was responsible for advising institutional investors on asset allocation, portfolio construction, risk management and alternative investments, focusing in particular on global macro and tail risk strategies. Before that, he worked at State Street Corporation and UBS Investment Bank, in Tokyo and in London. Andrew is known in the industry for having introduced the term 'sovereign wealth funds' in an article in Central Banking Journal in 2005. Subsequently, he published extensively on SWF-related matters, and also edited two highly acclaimed books – Global Macro and Tail Risk Hedging. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst, a Financial Risk Manager, and a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, and holds a Master's equivalent degree in Japanese Studies from Moscow State University.

Ayako Saiki is Associate Professor at Tokyo International University since 2006, and prior to that, she was a visiting scholar at SOAS (2016-2017) as well as an Economist at De Nederlandsche Bank in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2005-2016). She received a Ph.D. in International Economics and Finance from Brandeis University in the US and was a Visiting Instructor at Wellesley College. She is originally from Japan, and previously held a position at Mizuho Bank and Goldman Sachs in Tokyo. Her research focuses on the exchange rate, monetary policy, Japanese and Chinese economy, and commodity prices.

Martin Schulz is Senior Research Fellow at Fujitsu Research Institute (FRI), a private think tank and consultancy that focuses on economic analysis and corporate strategy in Japan. He is in charge of research and consultation on macroeconomics, international finance, and global corporate strategies. Additionally, Martin is a consultant to institutions like Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Keidanren, and a number of embassies. His work is widely quoted in international media – with regular interviews at Bloomberg, CNBC, the BBC. Previously, Martin was a visiting researcher at the Bank of Japan and University of Tokyo, Assistant Professor of Economic Policy and Monetary Integration at Free University Berlin in Germany, and guest professor at a number of universities in Europe and Japan.

Toshitaka Sekine is the Director General for the Research and Statistics Department at the Bank of Japan. Dr. Sekine is responsible for reporting staff’s conjectural analyses and the outlook for Japan’s economy to the Monetary Policy Meeting. He is also responsible for the compilation and development of various statistics created by the Bank. Prior to taking up the current position, he spent many years as an economist at the Bank of Japan as well as at the BIS and the IMF. His research includes inflation dynamics, exchange-rate pass- through, corporate investment and bank lending behaviour. He received a BA from the University of Tokyo and a DPhil from Oxford University.

Yoshikatsu Shinozawa is a Senior Lecturer in Financial Studies in the School of Finance and Management of SOAS University of Lodnon. Yoshikatsu received his Ph.D. with specialisations in financial institutions and organisational form from the University of Nottingham. He also holds an M.B.A from the London Business School. He was formerly a lecturer in corporate finance in Loughborough University and taught various undergraduate and post-graduate modules in the area of finance. Prior to academia, Yoshikatsu lived and worked in Tokyo and London for nine years where he was a fund manager in a Japanese asset management firm. His main research interests lie in asset management firms and their products. Recently he has developed a special interest in the areas of corporate governance, and the banking industry in Japan. His research topics in these areas have attracted grants from the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee (UK) and the British Academy. His works resulted in publications in journals such as Corporate Governance: An International Review, Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, and Journal of Management Studies.

Sayuri SHIRAI is currently a professor of Keio University and is also a visiting scholar at the Asian Development Bank Institute. From April 2011 to March 2016, she was a Member of the Policy Board of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), which is responsible for making policy decisions. She supported the BOJ’s Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing (QQE) in 2013 and QQE expansion in 2014, but voted against the negative interest rate policy in January 2016. She also taught at Sciences Po in Paris in 2007–2008 and was an economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 1993 to 1998. She is the author of numerous books and papers on a variety of subjects including the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy, monetary policies in the United States and Europe, global financial centers and financial market developments, China’s exchange rate system, Japan’s macroeconomic policy, IMF policy and international architecture, the European debt crisis and European economy. Her most recent book in English is Mission Incomplete: Reflating Japan’s Economy , published by the Asian Development Bank Institute in 2017. It is a complete analysis of BOJ’s unconventional monetary easing from the late 1990s to the present. (Free download is available at https://www.adb.org/publications/mission-incomplete-reflating-japan- economy.) A new book (in Japanese) was just published in September 2017 entitled “Japanese Economy after the 2020 Olympic Game”. She regularly appears on CNBC, Bloomberg, TV Tokyo, and BS TV programs as a commentator on Japanese economy, unconventional monetary policy, and global economy. She also features in BBC, Channel Asia, and other Japanese TV programs. She writes opinions for the Japan Times and Wall Street Journal and write articles for central banking website. She also visits many foreign countries to give talks to central banks, universities/think tank, conferences, and investors/bankers.

Alexis Stenfors is a Senior Lecturer in Economics and Finance at the University of Portsmouth and a Guest Scholar at Meiji University, Tokyo during the autumn of 2017. He studied at the Stockholm School of Economics (Civilekonom, M.Sc., CEMS-Master) and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from SOAS, University of London. Before returning to academia in 2009, Alexis spent 15 years as a foreign exchange and interest rate derivatives trader at HSBC, Citi, Crédit Agricole and Merrill Lynch. His research projects include the Eurozone crisis, financialisation in Sweden, Abenomics, money market risk premia, manipulation and anti-competitive behaviour in OTC markets and high- frequency trading. Alexis’ recent research has been published in journals such as the Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money and the Review of Political Economy . He is also the author of ‘ Barometer of Fear: An Insider’s Account of Rogue Trading and the Greatest Banking Scandal in History’ (Zed Books, 2017).

Nao Sudo is Deputy Head of Policy Studies Division of Monetary Affairs Department of the Bank of Japan. He earned a Master’s Degree in Economics at Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan, and a PhD in Economics at Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. His publications have appeared in Journal of Monetary Economics, Review of Economic Dynamics, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking and other international journals. He has served for some working groups under Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and Financial Stability Board (FSB), including the Macroeconomic Assessment Group on Derivatives (MAGD) and Risk Measurement Working Group and Joint Working Group on CCPs.

Norihiro Takahashi is President of Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) since April 2016. Prior to his role at GPIF, he was Representative Director and President of JA Mitsui Leasing, Ltd. Previously from 1980 to 2015, Mr. Takahashi was Senior Managing Director at The Norinchukin Bank, where he held various leadership positions in the areas of investment and management including General Manager of Credit & Alternative Investment Division, General Manager of Fixed Income Investment Division, Deputy General Manager of Corporate Planning Division and Deputy General Manager of Financial Planning & Control Division. He also served as General Manager at Nagasaki Branch of the Bank. He receives his Bachelor of Arts degree in Law from the University of Tokyo.

Wataru Takahashi is a Professor at Osaka University of Economics and a Research Fellow at Research Institute of Economics and Business Administration [RIEB] at Kobe University. He obtained an MPhil in economics from University of Oxford in 1984. Previously, he worked at the Bank of Japan for 35years, including an advisor to Governor on international finance responsible for G20, EMEAP (Executives' Meeting of East Asia and Pacific Central Banks). He was also Director General of the Bank of Japan academic think tank, the Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies. His publication covers Monetary Policy, Financial System, Asian Financial Integration and Central Bank Independence focusing Constitutional Framework.

Peter Tasker is a Tokyo-based investor and writer. A graduate of Oxford University, he is a founding partner of Arcus Investment, a fund management company specializing in Japanese securities. Peter’s Japan experience began in the late 1970s in the six-mat room of a company dormitory in the industrial outskirts of Osaka. After some years working as a stockbroker in the City, he returned to Japan in 1983 as a financial analyst and was in the right place to make a full contribution to the Japanese bubble economy. After several years as the top-ranked market strategist in Japan, in 1998 he joined Mark Pearson and Robert Macrae in setting up Arcus Investment. Peter has written several Japan-themed books, both fiction and non-fiction, and innumerable articles. He has appeared on several Japanese current affairs programs and in a TV commercial and has served as a non-executive director of a listed Japanese retailer. You can find his blog at www.petertasker.asia.

Willem Thorbecke is a Senior Fellow at Japan’s Research Institute of Economy, Trade, and Industry. Prior to this he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Asian Development Bank Institute and an Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University. His recent research has focused on global value chains, exchange rates, and trade.

Jan Toporowski is Professor of Economics and Finance at SOAS University of London. His research is concentrated on monetary theory and policy, finance, and the work of Michał Kalecki, whose biography he has just completed writing. Jan Toporowski’s most recent book is Michał Kalecki. An Intellectual Biography Volume 1: Rendezvous in Cambridge 1899-1939 (Palgrave 2013). He is the author of The End of Finance: The Theory of Capital Market Inflation, Financial Derivatives and Pension Fund Capitalism (Routledge 2000), Theories of Financial Disturbance. Critical Theories of Finance from Adam Smith to the Present Day (Elgar 2005), and ‘Why the World Economy Needs a Financial Crash' and Other Critical Essays on Finance and Financial Economics (Anthem Press 2010). Together with Łukasz Mamica he has edited Michał Kalecki in the 21st Century (Palgrave 2015). With Riccardo Bellofiore and Ewa Karwowski he edited The Legacy of Rosa Luxemburg, Oskar Lange and Michał Kalecki (Palgrave 2014). Jan Toporowski has worked in fund management, international banking, and central banking. He has been a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and the Economist Intelligence Unit. Jan Toporowski studied economics at Birkbeck College, University of London, and the University of Birmingham, UK.

Ulrich Volz is Head of the Department of Economics and Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Economics at SOAS University of London. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the German Development Institute, Chaire de Recherche Banque de France at EHESS in Paris, and Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Leipzig. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo and co-editor-in-chief of the Asia Europe Journal . Ulrich has taught at Peking University, Kobe University, Hertie School of Governance, Freie Universität Berlin, Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, and the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO) in Tokyo. He spent stints working at the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and held visiting research positions at the University of Oxford, University of Birmingham, ECB, Bank Indonesia, and Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. He was also a Fox International Fellow and Max Kade Scholar at Yale University. Ulrich has served as an adviser/consultant to a number of central banks, international organisations and development agencies. His areas of expertise include money, banking and finance; green finance; open economy macroeconomics; international economic interdependencies; and global economic governance. Ulrich has published numerous journal and book articles in these areas and is the author, editor or co-editor of several books, including Prospects for Monetary Cooperation and Integration in East Asia (MIT Press), Towards Monetary and Financial Integration in East Asia (Edward Elgar), Regional and Global Liquidity Arrangements (DIE), Regional Integration, Economic Development and Global Governance (Edward Elgar), Financial Stability in Emerging Markets: Dealing with Global Liquidity (DIE), and Financing the Green Transformation – How to Make Green Finance Work in Indonesia (Palgrave). Together with Naoyuki Yoshino he is currently co-editing the Routledge Handbook of Banking and Finance in Asia.

Franz Waldenberger is Director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) in Tokyo. He is on leave from Munich University where he holds the professorship for Japanese Economy at the Munich School of Management. His research focuses on the Japanese Economy, Corporate Governance and International Management. He has published numerous articles and books on the Japanese economy and is member of the editorial board of Japan and Asia related social science and economics Journals. Mr. Waldenberger was visiting professor at Osaka City University, Hitotsubashi University, Tsukuba University, the University of Tokyo and Shimomura Fellow at the Research Institute of Capital Formation of the Development Bank of Japan. He is member of the German Japan Forum and of the board of the Japanese German Business Association (DJW).

Nobu Yamashita is a Senior Lecturer at School of Economics, Finance and Marketing at RMIT University and is also affiliated with Department of Economics, Keio University. His main policy-oriented research covers the broad topic of empirical international economics including globalisation of production and multinational firms, the globalisation impact on the labour market and innovation, and exchange rates and firm responses for countries in Asia-Pacific (Japan, China, India and ASEAN countries). His outreach research activities include research consulting for several projects for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UN-ESCAP) in Bangkok, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila, ADB Institute (ADBI) in Tokyo, and the Economics Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asian countries (ERIA) in Jakarta. His expert opinions on the Japanese economy have been solicited by ABC Australian Networks, ABC Radio Australia. In addition, Nobu has obtained several research awards, including the J.G. Crawford Award, ANU in 2008, the Dean’s Research Award at La Trobe University in 2012, and the Japan Foundation Fellowship in 2014.

Mari Yamauchi is a Visiting Professor at Institute for Technology, Enterprise and Competitiveness, Doshisha University, Kyoto. Her publications include ‘Employment Systems in Japan’s Financial Industry: Globalization, Growing Divergence and Institutional Change’, British Journal of Industrial Relations (2015), Changing ‘Japanese’ Corporate Strategy: Analysis In the light of Complementarity between Management Strategy and HRM Strategy (co- author, Tōyō Keizai Shinp ōsha, 2015), Japanese Employment Systems: Growing Divergence and Globalization (Keio University Press, 2013), which received best book awards from the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training (JILPT)/Yomiuri Newspaper, the Japan Society of Human Resource Management (JSHRM), and was a finalist for the Economist Award (Mainichi Newspaper).She is currently a visiting scholar at Laboratorie d’Economie et de Sociologie du Travail (LEST) in Aix en Provence and during 2012-2013at the Institute of East Asian Studies at University of California, Berkeley. She also worked for US, European and Japanese MNCs for about 20 years, and from 2005 till 2011 she was a Managing Director at UBS Japan. She holds a Ph.D. in Business and Commerce from Keio University and MSc in Comparative HRM and Employment Relations from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Naoyuki Yoshino is Dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADB Institute); Professor Emeritus of Keio University, in Tokyo, Japan; and Senior Adviser at the Japan Financial Services Agency’s (FSA) Financial Research Center (FSA Institute). He obtained his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1979, where his thesis supervisor was Sir Alan Walters (who was Margaret Thatcher’s economic adviser). He was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States) and has been a visiting professor at various universities including the University of New South Wales (Australia), Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (France), and University of Gothenburg (Sweden). He was an Assistant Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and a Professor of Economics at Keio University from 1991 to 2014. He was appointed chair of the Financial Planning Standards Board in 2007, and also served as chairperson of the Japanese Ministry of Finance’s Council on Foreign Exchange and its Fiscal System Council (Fiscal Investment and Loan Program Section). He was also a board member of the Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan, chairperson of the Meeting of Japanese Government Bond Investors (Ministry of Finance), and was president of the Financial System Council of the Government of Japan. He was conferred honorary doctorates by the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) in 2004 and by Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (Germany) in 2013; he also received the Fukuzawa Award for his contribution to academic research in 2013.