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Kent E. Calder on his Book, Circles of Compensation: Economic Growth and the Globalization of Japan

When
03 Dec 2018
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Location
1st Floor Boardroom/Library Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy Observatory Site, 315 Bloor St. West

The Centre for the Study of Global Japan cordially invites you to attend Kent E. Calder on his Book, Circles of Compensation: Economic Growth and the Globalization of Japan

JAPAN GREW EXPLOSIVELY AND CONSISTENTLY FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY, from the Meiji Restoration until the collapse of the economic bubble in the early 1990s. Since then, it has been unable to restart its economic engine and respond to globalization. How could the same political-economic system produce such strongly contrasting outcomes?

In this talk, Kent E. Calder discusses his new book Circles of Compensation: Economic Growth and the Globalization of Japan (Stanford University Press, 2017), which identifies the crucial variables as classic Japanese forms of socio-political organization: the “circles of compensation.” These cooperative groupings of economic, political, and bureaucratic interests dictate corporate and individual responses to such critical issues as investment and innovation; at the micro level, they explain why individuals can be decidedly cautious on their own, yet prone to risk-taking as a collective. Calder examines how these circles operate in seven concrete areas, from food supply to consumer electronics, and deals in special detail with the influence of Japan’s changing financial system. The result is a comprehensive overview of Japan’s circles of compensation as they stand today, and a road map for broadening them in the future.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Kent E. Calder is Director, Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies in Washington, DC. He also currently serves as Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs and International Research Cooperation at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, in the fall of 2014. Before arriving at Johns Hopkins SAIS in 2003, he taught for twenty years at Princeton University, and previous acted as a Visiting Professor at Seoul National University and Lecturer in Government at Harvard University. Dr. Calder has also served as Special Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to Japan (1997 – 2001), Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (1989 – 1993 and 1996), and as the first Executive Director of Harvard University’s Program on U.S.-Japan Relations (1979 – 1980). He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1979, where he worked under the direction of Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer. A specialist in the political economy of East Asia, Dr. Calder has spent eleven years living and researching in Japan, and four years elsewhere in the region.

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