Sixth Annual Conference of the Japan Economy Network held at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo

The SOAS-hosted Japan Economy Network (JEN) held its Sixth Annual Conference at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo on 21-22 March 2024. The JEN2024 conference was co-hosted by Hitotsubashi University and the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo. 

The programme comprised ten sessions with 22 papers addressing a wide range of topics relating to the Japanese economy – from monetary and fiscal policies over labour markets and womenomics to climate challenges and sustainable finance.

Professor Shirakawa’s keynote addressed Japan’s demographic challenges and their implications for the economy and monetary policy. Professor Nagase’s keynote on “Women and Family in Japan” highlighted how institutional settings in Japan support a breadwinner-carer model resulting in a large gender wage gap and low fertility. 

The programme also included special policy panels on monetary policy and sustainable finance.

The SOAS Department of Economics was represented at the JEN2024 conference through Professor Jan Toporowski and Professor Ulrich Volz, both founding members of JEN, as well as PhD students Alex Dryden and Enrico Pulieri.

The JEN was established in 2015 to promote research on the Japanese economy and facilitate exchange between researchers with an active research interest in the Japanese economy. The JEN is an informal network open to researchers from academia, think tanks, international organisations, central banks, governments, NGOs and the private sector. Previous JEN conferences were hosted by the Japanese-German Center Berlin, the Asian Development Bank Institute, the University of Zurich, the Bank of Japan, and Columbia University. 

The JEN is hosted by the SOAS Department of Economics.

Header image credit: Jezael Melgoza via Unsplash.