July 2, 2003
Dear Reader,
Some 18 months ago, Nobuo Tanaka, the founder of the Miyakodayori, bid you farewell, saying the task of editing this newsletter would be conferred upon me (see Miyakodayori 30, special edition). Now, it is time for me to say goodbye to you.
Please do not complain about the quick turnover rate at the Japanese bureaucracy. In my predecessor's case, it was certainly true that METI called him back. As a talented negotiator, his service was vitally needed for the Government of Japan to engage seriously in the negotiations of the Doha Round.
In my case, however, my departure from RIETI was my own career choice. I will start teaching at the International Graduate School of Social Sciences, Yokohama National University this fall semester. I will maintain my affiliation with RIETI, and continue my research projects as a faculty fellow, but reluctantly I will have to step down as the editor of Miyakodayori. I am loathe to leave this truly enjoyable position, but I am also happy to report to you that my successor Masato Hisatake is a talented economist with a wide range of academic and practical interests, as is evident from the past two issues of the annual White Paper on International Trade, of which he was editor-in-chief.
In his farewell note, Mr. Tanaka said, "Among the missions I set for RIETI, one of the most important is that we create a 'policy market' in Kasumigaseki where we, an economic policy 'Team B,' offer an alternative set of policies for reform. We have been trying our best in such sectors as finance, banking, communications, social safety net, and education. Yet we still have many more sectors to examine for restructuring."
How successful RIETI has been in fulfilling the missions set by him is for you to judge. Certainly RIETI has become famous, or even notorious among some corners in the Japanese Government. Perhaps we no longer need to rely upon such eye-catching words like "policy market" or "Team B." Policy proposals by our fellows have been so controversial that at some point it seemed to me that even our academic freedom, which is a constitutionally guaranteed right, was in jeopardy. But we have survived the challenges.
The secret of our success, as often stressed by our President Masahiko Aoki, is in the quality of our research, combined with an emphasis on the individual responsibility of each fellow. Unlike other policy think tanks in Japan, we do not issue institutional policy recommendations. Each fellow is responsible for his or her policy proposal, which must be backed up by serious research. This is what makes RIETI unique in Japan.
I hope that you will continue to enjoy this unique newsletter from the unique think tank in Japan. In this regard, let me give three cheers to our managing editor Devin Stewart, who has been so instrumental in improving and maintaining the good quality of Miyakodayori.
In closing, let me repeat what Mr. Tanaka said in his farewell note. See you again soon in future BBLs or on the pages of Miyakodayori. I wish all of you a happy summer vacation.
Author and Editor-in-Chief, Ichiro Araki
Director of Research
Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI)
e-mail: araki-ichiro@rieti.go.jp
tel: 03-3501-8248 fax: 03-3501-8416
RIETI invites you to visit its English website
[http://www.rieti.go.jp/en/index.html].
The opinions expressed or implied in this paper are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), or of the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
