1) The second series of the <i>History of Japan's Trade and Industry Policy</i>, comprising 12 books (the first volume with a general overview and the remaining 11 volumes with detailed expositions on the main policy items) were published that not only record objective facts about the drafting process...

Technological progress, especially product innovation, plays an important role in generating economic growth under the conditions of low fertility and an aging population. Technological progress is typically measured by total factor productivity (TFP) and much research is done internationally....

Given the expected fundamental reform of Article 35 of the Japanese patent law, which has been governing the transfer of ownership of employee inventions to firms, the freedom of designing the incentive system for inventors would increase significantly. In order to provide basic guiding...

Thus far, globalization has caused a cross-border diffusion of cultures, which could result in a homogeneous "global culture" (i.e., Americanization of culture). As a result, concern about the loss of diversity has become increasingly strong. In the face of such sense of crisis, the United...

When one state considers an act of another state as a violation of obligations toward it, it might resort to some measures that are also illegal per se. As long as they are subject to some conditions imposed by international law, those measures are admissible as lawful countermeasures, and the...

This paper surveys theoretical and empirical research on the effects of minimum wages in Japan and overseas and provides some implication for Japan's minimum wage policy.The debate over the minimum wage policy is often judged by its disemployment effect. In Japan, literature employing large...

The Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011 severely damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, and has reminded people of the potential risk of electricity supply shortage. Japanese consumers have since also began rethinking about the source of electricity production.This paper...

There still has not been sufficient promotion of the active participation of women in the workplace in Japan. The main factors behind this situation are a uniform view of women and the failure to adopt a stance of inclusion.Accordingly, there is a need to establish the following systems and...

This paper examines the relationship between corporate disclosure of non-financial information and ownership by foreign shareholders using panel data of listed companies in 2003-2011. The results employing fixed effects model show that companies which disclosed non-financial information...

The Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Station Accident in March 2011 caused radioactive pollution problems of neighborhood area and also caused steep decrease of tourist number who visit and stay hotels, restaurants, sightseeing attractions and so on in the neighborhood area. The decrease continued...