International Symposium of the European and Asia-Pacific Social Science Network “Economic Revitalization in the Asia-Pacific Region and Europe” was held

Hitotsubashi University, co-sponsored by the EUSI, held the International Symposium of the European and Asia-Pacific Social Science Network “Economic Revitalization in the Asia-Pacific Region and Europe” at Hitotsubashi Hall on October 29, 2013.

In this symposium our aim was to form a network of ten world-famous universities including the London School of Economics. A lively discussion took place about the world-wide efforts toward regional economic cooperation and revitalization, which is gathering momentum in Japan under Abenomics. There were about 240 people at the morning session and about 100 at the afternoon session.

In the morning session, the program started with an opening address by Susumu Yamauchi, president of Hitotsubashi University, followed by guest speeches by Yukihiko Nunomura, director-general of the Higher Education Bureau at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and Dr. Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, ambassador of the European Union to Japan. Following these speeches Mr. Hiroshi Mikitani, chairman and CEO of Rakuten Inc. and a graduate of Hitotsubashi University, gave a keynote address on the theme of 　“How to enhance global competitiveness in Japan ? innovation is the driver for economic growth of Japan.”

In the afternoon session, in addition to a presentation by Professor Kyoji Fukao, Director of the Institute of Economic Research at Hitotsubashi University, there were presentations from academic representatives of the University of Pompeu Fabra, Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, the University of Auckland and Copenhagen Business School. Representatives of the University of Economics, Prague, the London School of Economics, Seoul National University, the University of Coimbra and The Australian National University also participated in the panel discussion that followed, moderated by Professor Sadao Nagaoka from the Innovation Research Center at our university.

At the representatives meeting of the network held on the following day, general agreement was reached that a variety of meetings including this kind of international symposium should continue to be held in the future. The next symposium is planned to be held in Europe next year.