ANU Australia–Japan Research Centre (AJRC)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1885/142830

The Australia-Japan Research Centre (AJRC) is the centre of research, teaching and outreach on the Japanese economy in Australia. AJRC also conducts research to better understand the Australia-Japan relationship and both countries’ strategic interests in the Asia Pacific economy. Established in 1980 with support from the governments and business communities in both Australian and Japan, the research encompasses trade, finance, macroeconomics, structural and regulatory reform, as well as international economic relations. Dr Shiro Armstrong and Professor Ippei Fujiwara were appointed Co-Directors in April 2014 and Associate Professor Tatsuyoshi Okimoto joined the Centre as Research Director. The AJRC was initiated in 1973 as the Australia, Japan and Western Pacific Economic Relations Research Committee which later became the Australia-Japan Research Centre in 1980 when it was endowed by the Japanese government, Australian government, and Japanese and Australian business. Former directors include Professor Jenny Corbett and Founding Director, Emeritus Professor Peter Drysdale. The AJRC is a founding member of the East Asia Bureau of Economic Research (EABER) through which it maintains links with a network of research institutions throughout the region. The AJRC is also a founding member of the ANU Japan Institute, which brings together ANU’s extensive range of Japan expertise across the disciplines, and provides a focus for Australia-wide collaboration with universities and public institutions to promote knowledge of Japan. In addition to individual researcher publications, AJRC publishes the AJRC Working Paper Series, the Australia and Japan in the Region Forum and a Biannual Report.

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
  • ItemOpen Access
    Asia Pacific regionalism: the issues
    (HarperEducation in association with the Australia-Japan Research Centre, the Australian National University) Drysdale, Peter; Garnaut, Ross
  • ItemOpen Access
    International economic pluralism: economic policy in East Asia and the Pacific
    (Allen & Unwin in association with the Australian-Japan Research Centre, Australian National University) Drysdale, Peter
  • ItemOpen Access
    Japan's approach to Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
    (Canberra, ACT: Australia–Japan Research Centre, Asia Pacific School of Economics and Management, The Australian National University, 1998) Drysdale, Peter
    Since emerging as a leading industrial economy, Japan has played an important role in promoting Asia Pacific economic cooperation. Japan has been instrumental in every major initiative in economic cooperation in the region over the past three decades, including the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum launched in 1989. Japan’s commitment to free trade, reinforced by its own experience of discriminatory trade policies in the immediate postwar period, has made it a strong advocate of the principle of ‘open regionalism’ on which APEC is founded. Commitment to this principle has provided the basis for a process of unilateral liberalisation of trade, including agreed time frames, which allows the developing economies of the Asia Pacific region to progress towards free trade in a flexible manner and provides some protection against ‘free riders’. The strength of this commitment will assist member economies to counter pressure for preferential trading arrangements and facilitate the extension of free trade to sectors which involve cooperation with economies outside the Asia Pacific region.
  • ItemOpen Access
    The Japanese origins of PAFTAD: the beginning of an Asian Pacific economic community
    (Canberra, ACT: Australia–Japan Research Centre, Asia Pacific School of Economics and Management, The Australian National University, 1999) Terada, Takashi
    The Pacific Trade and Development (PAFTAD) forum owes much of its existence to the enthusiasm and vision of three Japanese – Kiyoshi Kojima, Saburo Okita and Takeo Miki – an academic, a bureaucrat and a politician. This paper outlines the evolution of PAFTAD and shows how Japan’s thinking on regional cooperation was driven by two main forces – the formation of the EEC, which was seen as excluding trade from the region, and a desire to boost growth in developing Asian countries. There had been very little regional collaboration on Pacific economic policy before PAFTAD was established in 1968 and academics tended to know more about Europe or the Atlantic than each other’s countries. The forum proved to be an important and durable means of exchanging ideas and helped lay the foundations for the establishment of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
  • ItemOpen Access
    The genesis of APEC: Australian-Japan political initiatives
    (Canberra, ACT: Australia–Japan Research Centre, Asia Pacific School of Economics and Management, The Australian National University, 1999) Terada, Takashi
    An intergovernmental regional economic institution was a common goal of Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, his Office, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Japanese Ministry of International Trade Industry (MITI) in the late 1980s. Bob Hawke publicly announced the idea in Seoul in January 1989, but his initiative was backed by a solid foundation of cooperation with Japan. In mid-1988 MITI had floated a proposal for regional meetings of economic ministers and DFAT’s strong interest in the idea urged coordination between the two countries. In March 1989 a MITI delegation visited the region to sound out reactions to its proposal and the Hawke initiative, and this laid the groundwork for the Hawke proposal’s relatively easy acceptance on the Australian delegation’s later visit in April and May. Both countries continued to coordinate their approaches toward the organisation of the first Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Canberra in November 1989. MITI’s proposal was eventually subsumed into the Hawke initiative, but MITI believed the successful establishment of APEC amounted to the success of its own proposal. This paper concludes that APEC was a joint enterprise between Japanese and Australian leaders, as had been the case in the establishment of the previous three regional institutions: the Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBEC), the Pacific Trade and Development (PAFTAD) forum and the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC).
  • ItemOpen Access
    Regional economic integration in East Asia
    (Canberra, ACT: Australia–Japan Research Centre, Asia Pacific School of Economics and Management, The Australian National University, 2002) Drake-Brockman, Jane; Drysdale, Peter
    There has been a proliferation of proposals for bilateral free trade areas (FTAs) in East Asia in recent times. These initiatives fly in the face of the long-standing support of key players in the region such as Japan for the MFN-based non-discriminatory trading system and the commitment to non-discriminatory trade liberalisation and reform within APEC. As China establishes its role in the WTO, its interests are very much in an open global trading system. The paper argues that the core interests of East Asian economies remain in non-discriminatory global trading arrangements and prosecuting those interests within the Doha Round of trade negotiations. It suggests that a way forward in sorting out the trade-distorting and protectionist effects of FTAs would be for East Asian economies to take a lead in negotiations on strengthening the WTO rules on preferential trade arrangements. In terms of global economic welfare, the only good preferential arrangement is one that disappears in time. The paper makes specific recommendations for re-vamping the rules on preferential trade arrangements with that objective in mind.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Impact of APEC trade liberalisation on Sino-Australian Bilateral Trade
    (Canberra, ACT: Australia–Japan Research Centre, Asia Pacific School of Economics and Management, The Australian National University, 2002) Sheng, Yu
    This paper uses the global trade analysis project (GTAP) model to simulate the effect of APEC trade liberalisation on Sino-Australian bilateral trade. By comparing the development of Sino-Australian bilateral trade in the short run and the long run, the analysis depicts a whole set of bilateral trade determination mechanisms. The results indicate that, as economic cooperation within APEC increases, trade between Australia and China will increase, especially in agriculture and textiles. The bilateral trade pattern may follow the principle of comparative advantage and the terms of trade may improve for both countries. The results for the short term are very different from those for the long term, indicating that bilateral trade in open economies is more than just an ‘external sector’ affair.
Author/s retain copyright