Building a New Economy: Japan’s digital and green transformation

Is Japan a laggard or potential leader in digital and green transformation?

Japan is attempting to build a new economy. It goes by various names, such as 'Society 5.0', 'sustainable capitalism', and 'new form of capitalism'. It is to be constructed through digital and green transformation, and a 'virtuous cycle of growth and distribution'. The effort faces strong headwinds, including demographic decline and ageing, Japan's external energy dependence and geopolitical turbulence, and the legacies of Japan's 'lost decades'. 

Nonetheless, since 2015 a path has been identified that steers between Big Tech market oligopoly on the one hand, and an overbearing state on the other. For others facing the same post-neoliberal, sustainability transformation challenges as Japan, this public-private coordinated building effort is noteworthy.  The presentation is based on a new book with the same title, published this month by Oxford University Press.

About the speaker

Hugh Whittaker is Professor in the Economy and Business of Japan and Director of the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, Oxford. His research encompasses Japanese and comparative corporate governance, innovation management, employment, entrepreneurship and economic development.  A recent co-authored book is Compressed Development: Time and Timing in Economic and Social Development (Oxford University Press, 2020).

Registration

This event free, open to the public, and held both in person and online. If you would like to attend, please register using the available links.

• Organiser: SOAS Japan Research Centre
• Contact email: centres@soas.ac.uk