International Trade and Investment

The growth of Japan's economy is inseparable from changes in the global economy. This program, focusing on the relationship between the globalization of firms (i.e., exports and overseas production) and growth of the Japanese economy, will study R&D and innovation of globalizing firms, international technology transfer, employment, and industrial clusters from theoretical and empirical perspectives, together with studying international trade and investment rules (i.e., the WTO and regional trade agreements) empirically and from both legal and institutional perspectives. Furthermore, it also will study the impacts on firms and industries of the external shock of the Great East Japan Earthquake, changes in production networks and the structure of trade following recovery, and the effects of restrictive energy and material supply on structural changes in the Japanese economy.