BBL Seminars

RIETI's periodic Brown Bag Lunch (BBL) seminars welcome an array of guest experts to share their research and views. The sessions encourage lively discussion that contributes to dynamic policy-related debate.
Presently, BBL Seminars are not open to the public as spaces are limited. Select transcripts are available below.

Past BBL Seminars Reports and Summaries

  • July 16, 2025

    How best to Leverage Foreign Capital for Enhancing Corporate Value: An Option for Further Growth Featured in the Guidebook Published by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry

    • Speaker: MIYAJIMA Hideaki (Faculty Fellow, RIETI / Professor, Faculty of Commerce, Waseda University / Executive Vice President, Waseda University / Adviser, Waseda Institute for Advanced Study)
    • Speaker: IWAI Takashi (Executive Manager, Professional for Industrial Policy, External Affairs Dept., Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.)
    • Speaker: NONOMIYA Ritsuko (Managing Director Head of Corporate Finance Japan, Houlihan Lokey Corporation)
    • Speaker and Moderator: AMANO Fujiko (Director for Investment Collaboration, Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau, METI)

    Japanese

  • July 14, 2025

    Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai Series

    Exploring Education of the Future: Human-technology Symbiosis in the era of digital nature

    • Speaker: OCHIAI Yoichi (Media Artist / Associate Professor, Tsukuba University / Producer, Theme Project for Japan EXPO 2025 in Osaka and Kansai)
    • Commentator: NAKAMURO Makiko (Faculty Fellow, RIETI / Professor, Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University)
    • Moderator: IKEYAMA Shigetoshi (Consulting Fellow, RIETI / Deputy Director-General, Commerce and Service Industry Policy Group, METI)

    Japanese

  • July 10, 2025

    Structural Challenges, Distribution Policies and the Direction of Growth for Japan’s Prosperous Development

    • Speaker: NIIHARA Hiroaki (Executive Fellow, Harvard Business School, U.S.A. / Former Vice-Minister, Headquarters for Realizing New Capitalism, Cabinet Secretariat)
    • Commentator: IKEDA Yoko (Consulting Fellow, RIETI / Director, Competition Enhancement Office, Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau, METI)
    • Moderator: TOMIURA Eiichi (President and Chief Research Officer (CRO), Chief EBPM Officer, RIETI)

    Japanese

  • July 2, 2025

    Japan's Response to U.S.-China High-Tech Friction: Insights from Comparing Innovation Systems in Three Countries

    • Speaker: MOTOHASHI Kazuyuki (Faculty Fellow, RIETI / Professor, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo)
    • Commentator: FUKUMOTO Takuya (Deputy Director-General for Green Transformation Policy Deputy Director-General for Innovation Policy, METI)
    • Moderator: SEKIGUCHI Yoichi (Director of Research and Senior Fellow, RIETI)

    Japanese

  • June 26, 2025

    Industrial Policy, Economic Friction and Trade Rules: A study of the “overproduction” phenomenon in China

    • Speaker: WATANABE Mariko (Professor, Department of Management, Faculty of Economics, Gakushuin University)
    • Commentator: FUKUNAGA Yoshifumi (Consulting Fellow, RIETI / Director, Northeast Asia Division, Trade Policy Bureau, METI)
    • Moderator: TOMIURA Eiichi (President and Chief Research Officer (CRO) / Dean, Faculty of Data Science, Otsuma Women's University)

    Japanese

  • June 25, 2025

    What the Disaster Victims Database (DB) Aimed to Achieve: The Noto Peninsula Earthquake Experience

    • Speaker: EGUCHI Kiyotaka (Senior Executive Director, Council for BOSAI DX Public-Private Partnership / CIO, CDO, Kanagawa Pref.)
    • Speaker: SUGANO Taku (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Literature and Human Sciences Department of Human Behavioral Sciences, Osaka Metropolitan University)
    • Speaker: MURAKAMI Keisuke (Director-General, Group of Service for Citizens, Digital Agency)
    • Speaker and Moderator: NISHIGAKI Atsuko (Consulting Fellow, RIETI)

    Japanese

  • June 19, 2025

    White Paper on Manufacturing Industries 2025

    • Speaker: KAWAMURA Miho (Director, Manufacturing Industries Strategy Office, Manufacturing Industries Bureau, METI)
    • Commentator: IWAMOTO Koichi (Research Associate, RIETI)
    • Moderator: SEKIGUCHI Yoichi (Director of Research and Senior Fellow, RIETI)

    Japanese

  • June 18, 2025

    Energy White Paper 2025

    • Speaker: UEDA Kazumasa (Director, Energy Supply and Demand Policy Office / Research and Public Relations Office, Commissioner's Secretariat, Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, METI)
    • Commentator: TERAZAWA Tatsuya (Chairman and CEO, The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan)
    • Moderator: IKEYAMA Shigetoshi (Vice Chairman, RIETI)

    Japanese

  • June 9, 2025

    Japan's Strategy: How to Respond to Tariff Policies under the Trump Administration

    • Speaker: TODO Yasuyuki (Faculty Fellow and Program Director, RIETI / Professor, Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University)
    • Commentator: HASEBE Shodai (Industrial Structure Policy Division, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry)
    • Moderator: TOMIURA Eiichi (President and Chief Research Officer (CRO), Chief EBPM Officer, RIETI)

    Japanese

  • June 6, 2025

    The Great Trade Hack: How Trump's trade war fails and global trade moves on