Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation/Japan Society Joint Seminar:Uncertain Futures: The Individual, Society and the State in the UK and Japan. Managing Public Debt and Social Challenges

Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation Book Launch Series 2010

 

This first seminar in the 2011 series, ‘Uncertain Futures: The Individual, Society and the State in the UK and Japan’, will explore the challenges facing Britain and Japan as government spending reviews address fiscal deficits and seek to determine priorities for the future. As the opening event of the series, this seminar will look ahead to some of the themes to be covered during the year from healthcare and education provision to work and pension arrangements, opportunities for youth and the burden of ageing societies. In focusing upon managing public debt whilst meeting the needs of society, the speakers will offer a comparative perspective on the financial, political and social considerations informing public policy debates in uncertain times.

 

Contributors:

 

Yosuke Kawakami was appointed Minister (Finance) at the Embassy of Japan in July 2010, on secondment from the Ministry of Finance where he has served as Directors in the Financial, Customs Bureaus and the Minister’s Secretariat, as well as Deputies in the International Finance and Banking Bureaus. He was most recently Executive Director at the Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan, where he took part in many discussions, including with the UK authorities, to repair the global financial safety-net in response to the ongoing financial crisis. He also has extensive overseas experience, having served at the IMF, OECD, and at the Embassy of Japan in Moscow, and visiting the UK on many occasions, such as the establishment of the EBRD and the Wilton Park Conference.

 

Frances Cairncross became Rector of Exeter College, Oxford University, in October 2004. She is also Executive Committee Chair of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Previously, she was on the staff of ‘The Economist’ for 20 years, most recently as management editor. She was on the staff of ‘The Guardian’ from 1973 to 1984, and prior to that spent periods on the financial staff of ‘The Times’, ‘The Banker’ and ‘The Observer’. She chaired the Economic and Social Research Council for six years until 2007 and was President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (2005-06). Her latest book, ‘The Company of the Future’, was published in 2002 by Harvard Business School Press. In March 2003 she won the Institute of Internal Auditors’ annual award for business and management journalism. She is also the author of ‘The Death of Distance’, a study of the economic and social effects of the global communications revolution, first published in 1997 and re-published in a completely new edition in 2001.

 

Professor Paul Webley has been Professor of Economic Psychology and Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, since August 2006 and is currently also Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of London. He was elected an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2010. Professor Webley’s general academic aim has been to explore the contribution that psychology can make to our understanding of problems that have traditionally been seen as the concern solely of economics. He has written a number of books (notably ‘Tax evasion: an experimental approach’ and ‘Children’s saving’, and most recently ‘The Economic Psychology of Everyday Life’ which has been translated into Italian and Korean). His current research focuses on children’s economic behaviour and tax compliance.

 

Free Admission, book here