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

  • 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

  • June 5, 2025

    Eurasian Maritime Geopolitics: The United States and China in an Age of Indo-Pacific Transformation

  • May 26, 2025

    How is Japan’s Economic Policy Created? Drawing from Abenomics and the New Capitalism

    • Speaker: NIIHARA Hiroaki (Executive Fellow, Harvard Business School, U.S.A. / Former Vice-Minister, Headquarters for Realizing New Capitalism, Cabinet Secretariat)
    • Interviewer: 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

  • May 23, 2025

    World Economic Outlook “A Critical Juncture amid Policy Shifts”

    • Speaker: YOSHIDA Akihiko (Director, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, International Monetary Fund (IMF))
    • Commentator: NAKAJIMA Atsushi (Consulting Fellow, RIETI)
    • Moderator: SABURI Masataka (Senior Fellow, RIETI / Special Advisor to the Minister, METI)

    Japanese

  • May 22, 2025

    Reexamining Official Statistics Utilization: An insider perspective

    • Speaker: SAKAMOTO Katsuhiko (Director-General for Human Resources Policy, Cabinet Bureau of Personnel Affairs / Former Director-General for Policy Planning (Statistical Policy), Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications)
    • Commentator: KAWAGUCHI Daiji (RIETI Program Director and Faculty Fellow / Dean and Professor, Graduate School of Public Policy and Professor, Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo)
    • Moderator: IKEYAMA Shigetoshi (Vice Chairman, RIETI)

    Japanese