Does voter turnout affect policy outcomes? This long-standing question has been re-visited recently with close empirical scrutiny. These studies, however, commonly suffer from a problem of omitting variables correlated with both causal and outcome variables : specifically, immeasurable political...

This paper provides structural estimates of heterogeneous returns to work experience for Japanese married women. A dynamic model of labor force participation is used to account for dynamic self-selection into employment. Heterogeneity is incorporated into the model in a way that allows for the...

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi ushered in a new era in Japans international trade policy in January 2002 when he and his Singaporean counterpart, Goh Chok Tong, signed the Japan-Singapore Economic Partnership Agreement (JSEPA), the first bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed...

Since emerging as a leading industrial economy, Japan has played an important role in promoting Asia Pacific economic cooperation. Japan has been instrumental in every major initiative in economic cooperation in the region over the past three decades, including the Asia Pacific Economic...

According to simulation results, the formation of an FTA would substantially improve Koreas and Japans trade balances, while China would experience a sizeable increase in its trade deficit. This indicates that simple barriers (NTBs) within a short period of time is not a feasible approach for...

In this paper we examine the changing nature of Japans commercial policy over the last 25 years while reviewing Japans changing structure of trade, FDI and economy that underlay policy changes. We argue that until the late 1990s Japan adopted a two-track approach of relying on multilateral...

With a declining birthrate and an aging population, Japan is increasingly finding itself in deeper financial difficulties. Recognizing these conditions, the government is now examining a framework for maintaining fiscal sustainability, mainly at the Council of Economic and Fiscal Policy. The...

Given former Prime Minister Koizumis reformist zeal, agriculture might have been expected to be high on his list of targets for so-called structural reform. However, an investigation of the record of his administration on agricultural policy reveals only modest achievements in terms of policy...

The East China Sea which covers a total area of 750,000 square kilometers is a semi-closed sea lying between the eastern coast of Chinas mainland and the Pacific Ocean, bounded on the west by China, on the east by the Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, and on the north by Jichu Island of...