Japan stands apart. In the rest of the world, countries seeking to boost growth encourage foreign companies to set up new facilities on their soil or buy domestic companies, ventures known as inward foreign direct investment (FDI).

A failure to realize that this is not your father’s economy

How could Japan have come in 196th out of 196 countries, just behind North Korea? That’s what the 2019 data show for the ratio of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) to GDP despite years of efforts by Tokyo.

Eleanor Shiori Hughes, an MA Candidate in Asian Studies at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS),  reported on a recent CSIS webinar entitled "Japan After Abe: Legacy and Next Moves", where the panelists discussed PM Abe's announcement to resign from his premiership and what Japan's domestic and foreign policy imperatives will look like once his successor has been determined. 

Last month on April 10th, the Korea Society and the Japan Society hosted a virtual talk titled “Geopolitics of Coronavirus: Japan and Korea,” moderated by Dr. Joshua Walker from the Japan Society. The two main speakers, Dr. Sheila Smith, Senior Fellow for Japan Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations; and Dr. Stephen Noerper, Senior Director at The Korea Society, outlined how these two democratic nations in Northeast Asia have tackled the coronavirus pandemic to date, and the regional implications it may pose in the foreseeable future.

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This report is written by Eleanor Hughes, Writer & Commentator, East Asian Affairs.

Written By Eleanor Shiori Hughes -  November 14, 2019

Our subject is health - both the health of the global economy, and the health of its global citizens. Each is dependent on the other, especially in a world where healthcare expenditures continue to rise. According to the World Bank, they average ten percent of GDP and are nearly double that in the US.