Conférence / “Long-term Economic Stagnation and Social Division-Disfunction of Japan’s Welfare State” Lunch Seminar on Japanese Economy and Society de la Maison franco-japonaise (19 février 2021, 12h30-14h00 HdT)

L’Institut français de recherche sur le Japon à la Maison franco-japonaise a le plaisir de vous inviter au prochain Lunch Seminar on Japanese Economy and Society.

Long-term Economic Stagnation and Social Division-Disfunction 
of Japan’s Welfare State

IDE Eisaku (Keio University)

Friday February 19th, 2021
12:30-14:00 (Japan)
Online


    This presentation provides an overview of the post-war Japanese welfare state regime, which basis had been on the “popularized moral”, and reveals that its economic foundations have collapsed in the late 1990s. It clarifies the fact that the dismantling of the regime has accelerated the division of Japanese society in recent years.
    The Japanese welfare state was based on the principle of self-responsibility that assumed diligent labor, frugality, and savings. Miraculous economic growth in the 1960s increased average income and enabled a natural increase in tax revenue under a progressive personal income system. The government, however, did not use this revenue increase to expand social services, but instead mostly returned it to the taxpayer through personal income tax cuts. As a result, Japan’s household savings rate had reached the highest level in developed countries. The savings were accumulated both in private financial institutions and postal savings. Backed by such an ample amount of household savings, private financial institutions financed a large amount of corporate capital investment, and postal savings financed public works through the Fiscal Investment and Loan Program. This financing mechanism enabled further economic growth. I define this kind of welfare state regime characterized by low social spending, high savings rate, and dependence on economic growth as the Industrious State.
    The Industrious State resulted in creating a society in which others would not socially approve male workers unless they defend their family at their own risk through labor and savings. In other words, people regarded reliance on public services as their moral failure, which leads to their lower social status. Due to a sharp drop in household income combined with the fear of relying on public services, the number of suicides increased sharply in 1998, when the household income started to decline. Average household income has not recovered to the level of 1997 yet, and the proportion of low-income groups has increased to the standard of the early 1990s. A large number of eligible recipients for welfare programs choose not to receive the benefits, and many low-income people incorrectly classify themselves as middle class. The decline in homeownership and birth rates is also remarkable. Japan, which was once known as an egalitarian nation and had a strong social cohesion, is on a historical juncture.

The event is open to all.
Registration is required at www.mfj.gr.jp/agenda/2021/02/19/ls_ide/

Log in data will be provided after registration.

Conférence : Supporting the Supporters: Empirical Evaluation of a Multilevel Policy Collaboration for Start-up Promotion, Maison franco-japonaise (29 janvier 2021)

Date : vendredi 29 janvier 2021 / 12:30–14:00 (heure de Tokyo)
Lieu : séminaire en ligne (en anglais)
Conférencier : OKAMURO Hiroyuki (Hitotsubashi University)
Moderateur : Adrienne SALA (FRIJ-MFJ) 
Organisation : IFRJ-MFJ
Co-organisation : CCIFJ France Japon
Soutien : Ambassade de France au Japon

Inscription sur le site de la MFJ : ici
Poster de la conférence : ici

Résumé:
Promoting business start-ups has been regarded as an important policy issue in Japan since more than 20 years. Japanese government has started in 2014 a new promotion policy of acknowledging and supporting municipalities’ program proposals for local start-up support based on local public-private partnerships. When the proposals are acknowledged, municipality governments, local private agencies, and potential entrepreneurs can obtain financial support from the central government. We empirically estimate the causal effect of this new policy on local start-up ratio using regional panel data of all municipalities for five periods from 2001 to 2016, and find positive and significant (though modest) effect of this policy, especially for regions that look unfavorable for start-ups.

Profil du conférencier :
Hiroyuki Okamuro is Professor at the Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, Japan, and a consulting fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). He holds a Ph.D. in Economics (Dr. rer. pol.) from the University of Bonn, Germany. Okamuro is currently Associate Editor of the Journal of Small Business Management and Editorial Review Board Member of Small Business Economics. His major research interests are entrepreneurship, small business, innovation and policy evaluation. Among his publications, Nishimura, J. and Okamuro, H. (2018). Internal and external discipline: The effect of project leadership and government monitoring on the performance of publicly funded R&D consortia. Research Policy 47 (6), 840-853; Okamuro, H. and Nishimura, J. (2018). Whose business is your project? A comparative study of different subsidy policy schemes for collaborative R&D. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 127, 85-96.