If you’re interested in Japan’s economy and economic policy, this is the place. It’s got pieces in both English and Japanese, the latter from my on-line columns in Weekly Toyo Keizai, one of Japan’s leading business weeklies. Besides original posts for Substack, it will have links to my contributions to Foreign Affairs, the East Asia Forum, and other publications and websites.
In December 2023, Oxford University Press published my third book about Japan, entitled, “The Contest for Japan’s Economic Future: Entrepreneurs Vs. Corporate Giants.” It tells the tale of how the emergence of a new generation of innovative companies could create the potential for an economic revival, and that several positive trends in the socioeconomic sphere, in turn, create the potential for this emergence. Not surprisingly, there are also powerful obstacles. I report on the struggle between these two forces. It will also come out in Japanese from Hayakawa Press. During my years of working on the book, the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs sponsored me as a Senior Fellow.
I’ve been writing about the Japanese economy for more than four decades for a variety of publications and am best known as editor and publisher for 20 years of The Oriental Economist Report, a monthly newsletter on Japan. I’ve also written two books on Japan in the past. The first is Japan: The System That Soured (1998) in English and Japanese. The second is Japanese Phoenix (2002), also in English and Japanese.
While Japan is the main focus, I’ve also written a great deal about US and international trade policy and the impact of finance on the stability—or lack of such—in the rich economies.
I received my Master’s Degree in economics from New York University (NYU) in 1996. I’ve been an adjunct professor at NYU’s business school and State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook. I’ve also testified several times in Congress.
Takao Toshikawa is our Tokyo correspondent. The publisher of the Insideline monthly in Japan, he has the unique ability to have private conversations with the key “movers and shakers” among Japan’s leading politicians, bureaucrats, and business executives.
