Monday 27 October 2008
6:00pm – 8:00pm
The Global Economy: Perspectives from the UK and Japan
The Great Room, RSA, 8 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6EZ
Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
As the deterioration in global economic and financial conditions takes its toll, reflections on the past and concerns about the future continue to dominate national and international headlines. The 2008 monthly seminar series, Economic Futures: Wealth and Well-Being in the UK and Japan, has viewed the state of the economy through the prism of the UK and Japan, addressing such topics as banking crises and consumer confidence, the role of capital cities as engines of wealth creation, and industrial innovation and change.
As the final event in the series, this seminar will draw on previous discussions (bringing together many of those who have presented or participated earlier in the year) to reflect on the economic implications of global interdependence and the relationship between the economy and society. In the aftermath of the Beijing Olympics and the run-up to the United States presidential election, we envisage a lively debate – involving both speakers and audience – on wealth and well-being in a global context.
About the contributors
Martin Wolf CBE
Martin Wolf CBE is Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times. He began his career at the World Bank before moving to the Trade Policy Research Centre and then the Financial Times in 1987. He has been a Forum Fellow at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos since 1999. He has won numerous prizes for his financial journalism, including the Wincott Foundation Senior Prize (1989 and 1997), the Accenture Decade of Excellence Award (2003), and the Business Journalist Commentator of the Year Award (2008). His most recent publication is ‘Why Globalization Works’ (Yale University Press).
Tomohiko Taniguchi
Tomohiko Taniguchi is Adjunct Professor (International Political Economy) at Keio University, Senior Advisor to Central Japan Railway, and Advisor to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). Previously, he was Deputy Press Secretary and Deputy Director-General for Public Diplomacy at MOFA. He started his career with Nikkei Business and worked in London as the magazine’s first European Bureau Chief (1997-2000). He has been a visiting fellow at Princeton University, Shanghai Institute of International Studies, and the Brookings Institution. He is an author of several books on topics such as international currency regime.
Joe Studwell
Joe Studwell is a freelance writer and broadcaster, and editor-in-chief of the China Economic Quarterly. His contributions have featured in The Economist, the Financial Times, the Asian Wall Street Journal, and the Far Eastern Economic Review. During the 1990s, he was based in Hong Kong and Beijing where he wrote a series of studies on China for the Economist Intelligence Unit. His books include ‘The China Dream: the Quest for the Greatest Untapped Market on Earth’ (Profile Business) and ‘Asian Godfathers: Money and Power in Hong Kong and South-East Asia’ (Atlantic Monthly Press) He is also a director of the Asian advisory firm, Dragonomics.
Louis Turner
Louis Turner (chair) is Chief Executive, Asia-Pacific Technology Network and an Associate Fellow of Chatham House. His books include ‘Industrial Collaboration with Japan’ (Routledge) and ‘The British Research of Japanese Companies’ (with David Ray and Tony Hayward; Anglo-Japanese Economic Institute). He is currently researching the history of Japanese investment in the UK since 1990, having previously worked on Anglo-American influences on the Japanese Business System.