Weatherhead Center Names Associates for 1998-99

Founded in 1980, the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs enables scholars and practitioners to come together to conduct independent research and participate in dialogue with other members of the Harvard and greater Boston communities. Program Associates, who enjoy the status of university officers while at Harvard, take part in the seminars, colloquia, and other functions of the Program; attend classes and other activities at Harvard and M.I.T.; prepare a major research paper; and publicly present the results of their research. The roughly 16 Associates who join the Program include government officials, businesspeople, journalists, and scholars.

In 1998-99, the Program will include:

Jeffrey Bernstein, Harvard University. Bernstein earned an A.B. in economics from Amherst College in 1991, followed by a year's Fulbright scholarship at Kyushu University. At Harvard, he was awarded an A.M. and a Ph.D. in business economics in 1995 and 1998. His interests include international economics, industrial organization, business history, and the Japanese economy. Several pieces of his research, including "Toyoda Automatic Looms and Toyota Automobiles" and "7-Eleven in America and Japan," have been published as Harvard Business School case studies. Bernstein's research will address the response of Japan's consumer electronics industry to technological convergence and shifting comparative advantage.

Margarita Estevez-Abe, University of Minnesota. Estevez-Abe earned a B.A. and an M.A. in political science from Keio University in 1986 and 1988, then completed an A.M. and a Ph.D. in political science at Harvard in 1990 and 1998. Her dissertation was titled "Welfare, Growth and Democracy: The Political Economy of the Japanese Welfare Regime." Estevez has published pieces on "Internationalization and Japan" and "NTT vs. Yuseisho." She held a junior faculty (joshu) position in the Department of Policy Management at Keio University, and is currently a junior faculty member of the political science department at the University of Minnesota.

Kazuhiko Inaba, Mitsubishi Trust and Banking. Inaba earned a B.A. in economics from the University of Tokyo in 1983. After joining Mitsubishi Trust that year, he served in the international money market, investment advisory, and public fund management divisions before becoming senior economist of the investment iesearch and planning division. His research at Harvard will analyze the present economic situation, comparing U.S. and Japanese monetary and fiscal policies and evaluating the transferability of U.S. policies to Japan.

Tomoyoshi Isogawa, Asahi Shinbun. Isogawa graduated from the Chinese language course at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in 1979. Joining the Asahi Shinbun as a staff writer, he served in the Yamaguchi and Kurume bureaus and the Seibu office before entering Beijing Foreign Language College. He was subsequently assigned to the foreign news section of the Tokyo head office and to the Beijing Bureau. Returning to the Tokyo head office, he became deputy editor of the foreign news section in 1996. Isogawa's research at Harvard will investigate China's influence on relations between the United States and Japan.

Masao Kawachi,Tokyo Electric Power Company. Kawachi earned a B.A. in econometrics and economic policy from Keio University in 1984 and joined the Tokyo Electric Power Company that year. He recently served as chief officer of the accounting division before becoming deputy manager of the finance division in the accounting and treasury department at TEPCO's headquarters. Kawachi's research at Harvard will examine changes in the market and corporate finance due to advances in communications and disclosure practices.

Makoto Kawano, National Police Agency (N.P.A.). Kawano joined the National Police Agency after earning a B.A. in law from the University of Tokyo in 1989. In recent years, he served as assistant chief of the first foreign affairs section in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. As part of an exchange program between the N.P.A. and the National Taxation Administration, he then became chief of the Sakata Tax Office in 1995, after which he served as chief of the second escort section at the headquarters of the Imperial Guard. His research at Harvard will focus on the use of intelligence in American policymaking.

Masashi Kumagae, Japan Development Bank (JDB). Kumagae earned a B.A. in law from the University of Tokyo in 1989. After joining the Japan Development Bank that year, he served in the Regional Development Bureau and the Planning and Coordination Department before becoming a loan officer in the Asia and Oceania Loan Department of the Export-Import Bank of Japan and then a representative in JDB's Toyama office. Mr. Kumagae's research at Harvard will assess American and Japanese strategies to foster balanced growth in the information and communications industries.

Kazuhiko Matsui, House of Councillors. Matsui earned a B.A. in humanities from Sophia University in 1983 and an M.A. in international economics from Pacific Western University in 1998. He also studied Japan's economic cooperation policy at the graduate school of Seikei University in 1995 and 1997. Having entered the secretariat of the Diet's House of Councillors in 1983, he served in the inter-parliamentary conference division of the foreign affairs department, the bills division of the proceedings department, and the first research office of the Research Committee on International Affairs, where he is a Fellow. Mr. Matsui's research will analyze the impact of the Asia-Pacific region's developing multilateral framework on the future of U.S.-Japan relations.

Kimihide Namura, Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). Namura earned a B.A. in law from Tokyo University in 1991. Upon entering MITI, he joined the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency before being posted to the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy, the International Trade Administration Bureau, and the Minister's Secretariat. After 1996, he served as deputy director of the commercial affairs office in the Industrial Policy Bureau. His research at Harvard will examine administrative reform in Japan.

Shinya Nishigata, Tokyo Gas Company. Nishigata earned a B.A. in commerce from Hitotsubashi University in 1984. After joining Tokyo Gas that year, he was engaged in personnel management and human resources development before assuming a position in the Tokyo Gas Labor Union. After 1994, he served in the company's market planning department. His research at Harvard will examine the deregulation of Japan's energy industry.

Junya Onishi, Ministry of Finance. Onishi earned a B.A. in law at Tokyo University in 1986. He joined the Ministry of Finance that year and served as deputy director of the local administrative division in the Ministry of Home Affairs and of the planning legal division in the Customs and Tariffs Bureau before becoming deputy director of the second fund planning and operation division of the Ministry's Financial Bureau in 1996. His research at Harvard will examine internationalization of the yen.

Mineko Sasaki-Smith, Credit Suisse First Boston Securities (Japan). Sasaki-Smith earned a B.A. and an M.A. in international law and international relations from International Christian University, and a Ph.D. in international political economy from Carleton University. She has served as chief economist and head of the Research Department at Credit Suisse Bank, as senior economist with Morgan Stanley Japan and, from 1996, as chief economist at Credit Suisse First Boston Securities (Japan). Her research at Harvard will analyze Japan's inability to resolve debt deflation and the resulting aggravation of its financial boom and bust in order to suggest policy prescriptions for Japan's deflation in this era of financial deregulation.

Amy Searight, Stanford University. Searight earned a B.A. in political economy from Williams College in 1988 and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1998. In 1995, she was a visiting scholar with the institute of monetary and fiscal policy of the Japanese Ministry of Finance. Her current research follows from her dissertation, "MITI and Multilateralism: GATT and the Evolution of Japanese Trade Policy." At Harvard, Searight will broaden the compass of that study to address the possibility of a "political trade cycle" resulting from the impact of the electoral cycle on the timing and resolution of U.S.-Japan trade disputes.

Yasunori Sone, Keio University. Sone earned a B.A. and an M.A. in political science from Keio University and a Ph.D. from Yale University. He is currently a professor at Keio's Graduate School of Media and Governance. His research interests include the relationship between governments and markets in the policy- making process and theories of institutional analysis. Sone's numerous publications include Zozei Muyo Ron (A Tax Reform Plan: Reinventing Japanese Government), Dai Seihen (The Great Political Change in Japan), Kaosu no Jidai no Goi Gaku (Conflict and Consensus in the Age of Chaos), and the co-edited volume Political Dynamics in Contemporary Japan.

Masatoshi Taguchi, Idemitsu Kosan. Taguchi earned a B.A. in political science from Kwansei Gakuin University in 1986. After joining Idemitsu Kosan, he served as assistant manager of the lubricant oil sales section of the Omiya Branch, of the chartering and operations section in the Planning and Operations Department of Idemitsu Tanker Company, and of the aviation and marine fuels sales section in the marketing department of Idemitsu Kosan. Taguchi's research at Harvard will compare the philanthropic attitudes of American and Japanese corporations.

Shinichi Watanabe, Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT). Watanabe earned a B.A. in economics from the University of Tokyo in 1981. Upon entering the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, he served as assistant director of the policy division in the Communications Policy Bureau and of the general affairs division in the building department. He subsequently served as director of the general affairs division in the Telecommunications Advancement Organization of Japan and of the MPT's advisory councils' secretariat in the Minister's Secretariat. At Harvard, Watanabe will compare U.S. and Japanese communications and information policies in the wake of telecommunications reform and the ensuing changes in market conditions.