In this session of the Shorenstein APARC Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellows Research Presentations, the following will be presented:

Kazuhiko Ejima, "Will Japan Need a Tax Increase?"

Japan, the second largest economy in the world, is secretly facing a significant public debt problem with the worst debt-to-GDP ratio among developed countries. Despite the crisis, the country has long failed in introducing a tax increase. What obstacles are lurking in the country? Will they change in the future? Should the country try to overcome them? In Japan, it is widely believed that raising the consumption tax is the best approach to fixing the country’s finances. In contrast, based on the character of the obstacles, Ejima argues that any new budget reconstruction plan should focus more on economic growth through expenditure renovation rather than sticking to a tax increase.

Natsuki Kamiya, "Insolvent Municipalities:  Do They Need Bankruptcy?”

While municipalities can declare bankruptcy in the United States, there is no bankruptcy system for municipalities in Japan. Japanese cities in financial distress pay off all debts in full for long term, while American counterparts can seek bankruptcy protection. Kamiya examines what the differences are between the two countries. Kamiya attempts to answer the question – “Does Japan need legislation to allow municipalities to declare bankruptcy?”

Daisuke Maeda, "Long Tail Theory in Online Retail Commerce - Is It True or Not? Is It Profitable?"

The Long Tail is one of the most famous theories in online retail commerce.  Many start-ups in online commerce use this theory to justify themselves.  However, there are times when the Long Tail does not work and may have some constraints.  Maeda considers what the Long Tail is and what he would advise online retailers to do. 

Koji Toyoshima, "Quantitative Analysis and Possibility of Reduction of CO₂ Emission from Passenger Transportation in Japan and the U.S."

The U.S. and Japan are the world largest and the second largest economy.  However, the CO₂ emissions in these two countries are very different. The total U.S. CO₂ emission per capita is more than twice of that in Japan. Twenty to thirty percent of CO₂ emission comes from the transportation sector and sixty to seventy percent of them are passenger transportation in each country. The U.S. CO₂ emission per capita in the passenger transportation sector is more than three times of that in Japan.  Toyoshima analyzes and compares the breakdown of CO₂ emissions in the passenger transportation sector in Japan and the U.S. including the influences of public transportations to understand the trend and estimate the reduction possibility of CO₂ emissions in these two countries.

With what now seem like almost weekly product scandals, recalls, and supply chain exposes, the public increasingly wants to know more about the products they are putting in, on, and around their families. Until recently, consumers had no way to find out the full impacts of the products they consumed. However, with advances in information technologies, product assessment methodologies, and web and mobile platforms, there is now a real potential to radically increase transparency in consumer markets and global supply chains. Dara O'Rourke, Associate Professor at UC Berkeley, will discuss an experiment in providing information to the public about the environmental, social, and health impacts of products and companies: GoodGuide. GoodGuide's award-winning web and iPhone apps have been featured recently in the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, and even Oprah's Magazine! Dara will discuss GoodGuide's long-term vision, current strategies, and the information technologies they are applying to this challenge.

Dara O’Rourke is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and the co-founder of GoodGuide. Dara’s research focuses on systems for monitoring the environmental, labor, and health impacts of global production systems. His research has been featured in The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The Economist, Business Week, Newsweek, Time, and TechCrunch. Dara has served as a consultant to international organizations such as the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and a wide range of domestic and international non-governmental organizations. He has degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Political Science, and Energy and Resources, and he previously taught at MIT.

GoodGuide seeks to revolutionize how consumers see and interact with products and companies. GoodGuide provides a suite of tools that offer information about the environmental, social, and health performance of products and companies to consumers at the point of purchase (through web and mobile apps), and that empower people to screen and compare products based on their personal values and concerns. GoodGuide's tools seek to empower millions of consumers to buy products that better match their values, to avoid products that are detrimental to their health, the environment, or issues they care about, and to participate in a more transparent marketplace.