As Brexit day on March 29th rapidly approaches, Japanese companies based in the UK have started to prepare for a no-deal scenario. Honda has recently announced the closure of its UK production line for four-wheeled vehicles by 2021 (though it stated that Brexit was not the reason), and other companies such as Sony, Panasonic, and Hitachi have announced plans to move their European headquarters out of the UK.

The trend of shifting some operations out of the UK seems to be gaining momentum among Japanese companies, which may end up having a long-term effect on UK-Japan commercial relations. In this seminar, Professor Endo of Hokkaido University will analyse the impact of Brexit on UK-Japan relations, as well as on EU-Japan relations. In addition, Grant Lewis of Daiwa Capital Markets Europe Ltd will explain the economic impact and influence of Brexit from a UK perspective.

About the contributors

Professor Ken Endo
Professor Ken Endo is Professor of International Politics in the Department of Politics, School of Law, at Hokkaido University. He is one of the leading experts in the study of the European Union and its relations with Japan. He was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Politics from the University of Oxford in 1996. He has served as Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo; at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Institut d’études politiques de Paris, France; and at the National Chengchi University, Taiwan. He was President of the International Political Science Association Research Committee 3 on European Unification from 2006-12. In 2014, he received the prestigious Yomiuri-Yoshino Sakuzo Prize, sponsored by the Yomiuri Shimbun and Chuokoron-Shinsha, for his article The End of Integration. He is currently a member of the Policy Evaluation Committee, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan, and he regularly writes columns for the Asahi and Mainichi newspapers.

Grant Lewis
Grant Lewis is Head of Research and Business Management at Daiwa Capital Markets Europe Ltd (DCME). In addition to overseeing DCME’s research output, Grant has spent much of the past three years overseeing Daiwa’s planning for Brexit, centred on the establishment of a new subsidiary in Frankfurt. He has written extensively on the economic impact of Brexit, including articles for London’s Evening Standard where he has been a regular contributor in recent years. Prior to joining Daiwa, Grant worked for five years at the UK Treasury where he worked in a variety of policy roles, including the first assessment of whether the UK should join the euro.

Professor Paul James Cardwell
Professor Paul James Cardwell (Chair) is Professor of Law at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He was educated at the Universities of Warwick and Edinburgh, UK, and Lille and Bordeaux, France. He obtained a government scholarship to spend a year as a graduate research student at Nagoya University, Japan (1999-2000). After his studies in Nagoya, he undertook a six-month research internship at the Delegation of the European Union in Tokyo. His research area is EU Law and Politics, and from his initial interest in EU-Japan relations, he has subsequently published widely on EU External Relations and Migration. He has recently been looking at the impact of Brexit on UK/EU External Relations and is a frequently invited to comment on his areas of expertise in national and international media.

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