The Japan Summit 2018 | The Economist | 14 November 2018 | Hotel Okura Tokyo, Ascot Hall II, B2F, 2-10-4 Toranomon, Minato-ku - Tokyo

In its 175th year, The Economist is not alone in celebrating an anniversary. For Japan, 2018 marks the 150th year since the Meiji Restoration, which sparked the subsequent period of open-ness (modernisation and Westernisation), rapid political, economic and social transformation and renewed self-awareness. Today, this ethos is as pertinent as ever as we see greater resistance to the international liberal order (e.g. open societies, globalisation, free markets).

Japan is in the midst of its longest uninterrupted economic expansion since the early 1990s, when the bursting of the country’s asset price bubble sent the country into a decade-long decline. Many predicted it would never recover. The factors that the pessimists cited at the time—including deteriorating demographics, moribund consumer spending and an inflexible labour market—are either looking likely to be overcome or not as deleterious as once expected.

However, with pessimism having prevailed for so long, many find it difficult to view Japan as anything other than a nation in decline, its recent bout of success notwithstanding. Compounding the problem is the fact that Japan has always struggled to sell itself as a nation, be it as a leader in the international community, a destination for investment and talent, or as a model in any one of the many areas where it excels, such as healthcare and longevity, urban safety, quality of services and infrastructure.

There are risks that could derail the country from its positive path. Japan has the world’s highest level of public debt relative to GDP, its national security environment is unstable at best and possibly deteriorating, and by many measures, it lacks the human capital to compete in a changing global economy. Some of these issues are beyond its control but a distinct lack of urgency on the part of the government and the business community could hold back progress.

At the 2018 Japan Summit, The Economist Events will make the case for optimism in Japan’s economy, and decipher the best course of action to ensure that this forecast materialises.

2018 Speakers

Yumiko Murakami
Head of OECD Tokyo Centre, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Sota Kato
Executive director and research director, Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research

Motoshige Itoh
Professor emeritus, University of Tokyo and professor of international social sciences, Gakushuin University

Masayoshi Amamiya
Deputy governor, Bank of Japan

Emiko Usui
Associate professor of economics, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University

Takeshi Niinami
Chief executive, Suntory Holdings

Yoshie Komuro
President, Work-Life Balance

Kentaro Aramaki
Partner, Egon Zehnder

Maiko Todoroki
Chief executive, Poppins

James Kuffner
Chief executive, Toyota Research Institute - Advanced Development

Keiichi Hida
Executive director, Japan Blockchain Association

Hideyuki Tokuda
President, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology

Yoshinori Hiroi
Professor, Kokoro Research Centre, Kyoto University

Yoichi Funabashi
Co-founder and chairman, Asia Pacific Initiative

Masatsugu Nagato
President and chief executive, Japan Post Holdings

Tomohiko Taniguchi
Special adviser, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet and professor, Keio University Graduate School of System Design and Management

Robert Guest
Foreign editor, The Economist

Sarah Birke
Tokyo bureau chief, The Economist

2018 Sponsors

• Ashton Consulting
• ANZCCJ
• ACCJ
• The British Chamber of Commerce in Japan
• The Japan HR Society
• The German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan
• The European Business Council (EBC)