The format of this presentation is each of the four speakers will have approximately 15 minutes to present their research.  This will be followed by a short period of 5-10 minutes for any questions or comments from the audience.

In this session of the Global Affiliates Research Presentations, the following will be presented:

Yosuke Hatano, Shizuoka Prefectural Government, "Digital Transformation of the Public Sector and Possibilities to Introduce to Local Government of Japan"

What is needed for local governments in Japan to succeed in the age of digitalization?  How can they adapt to survive in the rapidly changing environment?  Players of the public sector in Japan are now under pressure to find ways of transforming social conditions and new tools to offer better solutions to the people.  In his research, Hatano has searched for actual cases that have used the power of digital and information technologies in the policy-making process and in public service.  In his presentation, Hatano will share an overview of the current situation as well as offer suggestions on ways to introduce digitalization to transform Japanese local governments. 

Yusuke Matsuda, Nippon Foundation, "Social Impact Investing Trends and Best Practices in the U.S."

Social problems are becoming more complex and severe in current society.  It is crucial for non-profit organizations to involve and create a coalition with governmental organization, for-profit enterprises, and citizens together to solve various social issues.  Impact investment has been playing a crucial role to build this coalition of philanthropists and investors.  Impact investment is a practice distinguished by its aim to general social and environmental benefits alongside financial returns.  Currently, there is more than $70 billion in assets under management by major traditional investment funds such as BlackRock, Credit Suisse, and Goldman Sachs.  As more financial and professional talent engages in solving social issues, we have seen non-profit organizations accelerating their capacity and speed to have social impact.  In his presentation, Matsuda introduces Omydiar network, one of the most impactful investment fund's strategy, to help us learn how we can structure more effective financial schemes to solve social issues. 

Akira Muto, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan, "Two Revisionist Powers in Eurasia and How to Deal with Them in the 21st Century"

The world today is full of uncertainties.  During the Cold War, the containment policy worked successfully against the single adversary, the Soviet Union, and led to the victory of liberal democracies.  However, today, liberal democracies are challenged by more than one major power - first and foremost by the two revisionist powers, Russia and China, and possibly more including Iran.  Is dual containment as suggested by the US Administration's National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy a realistic and plausible policy?  In his research, Muto explores alternative policy options and makes suggestions for U.S.-Japan Alliance to build upon FOIP (Free and Open Indo-Pacific) which has been advocated by the Japanese government in recent years with a focus on the differences between adversaries for purposes of defending and reinforcing liberal institutions.  Muto prefers containment based on the balance of power tactics, as originally considered by George Kennan, rather than the "globalized" version of containment and defeating adversaries by means of war, which would be too costly.

Ramachandra Siddappa, Reliance Life Sciences, "A Scientific Visualization to Improve Biopharmaceuticals' Technical and Operational Management"

Biologics are drug products manufactured in, extracted from, or semi-synthesized from biological sources.  Demand for biologics is increasing.  The global pharmaceutical market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.4%, reaching $278 billion in revenue by the end of 2020.  This high rate of growth is driven by factors such as aging population and increased prevalence of chronic disease, especially in the western world.  However, the most important reason for such a high rate of increase in use of biopharmaceuticals is superior effectiveness in treating many diseases, including treating conditions for which there were previously few effective drug treatments available. 

Biologics have a very complex production process and are affected by a wide range of factors such as cell system, fermentation media, operation conditions, problems faced in scaleup and very long batch periods.  To meet the high demand of these lifesaving drugs and to overcome the challenges faced by biopharma industries, Siddappa has focused his research on strategic and operational decision making by applying mathematical programming techniques for production planning of biopharma manufacturing facilities for improved costs effectiveness and better capacity management.

The format of this presentation is each of the three speakers will have approximately 15 minutes to present their research.  This will be followed by a short period of 5-10 minutes for any questions or comments from the audience.

In this session of the Global Affiliates Research Presentations, the following will be presented:

Hiroto Akai, Ministry of Finance, Japan, "FinTech and Japanese Banks:  Implications for Fiscal Sustainability"

Although Japan has the world's largest government debt, the interest rate of the Japanese Government Bond (JGB) still remains lower than most major countries.  In the JGB market, Japanese banks play a key role as massive investors.  However, in recent years, many business environments surrounding Japanese banks have dramatically changed.  One of the biggest changes is FinTech.  Given the growth of FinTech, some researchers argue that it could disrupt traditional banking.  In his research, Akai provides an overview of the FinTech phenomenon, especially in the U.S., and tries to analyze the relationship between FinTech and incumbent banks.  Given the characteristics in Japan's financial market, Akai tries to clarify the impact of Fintech to the investment behavior of Japanese banks.

Yasuhito Ando, Kozo Keikaku Engineering, "Use of AI in Architectural Design:  Defining Comfort in Residential Design"

In the construction industry, the use of IT, AI, and robotics is advancing with many used to respond to labor shortages and reduce costs.  However, the value of using a computer is not only to improve efficiency, but to possibly create new solutions beyond the limit of human established concepts.  Computational design is expected to derive optimal solutions that humans have never imagined in complex conditions. 

In the design of buildings, there are already examples of computer-based optimization of structure, design, cost and environment.  However, there is no example of realizing comfortable planning.  This is because the comfort is vague and difficult to design.  In his research, Ando examines how to find comfort definitions from housing design data.

Takanori Tomozawa, Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry, Japan, "Innovation for Energy Policy & Companies in Japan —  Lessons Learned from Silicon Valley"

In the energy field, innovation is becoming more and more essential under the trends of decarbonization, digitaliation, decentralization, and so on.  Tomozawa's research objective is to find implications to improve the energy innovation capability of the Japanese government and companies.  To do so, Tomozawa has scrutinized the activities of other countries' energy companies, the energy innovation ecosystem especially in the Silicon Valley, and the discussion about future electricity system reform in California.  Silicon Valley is a place where high-technologies are developed before anywhere else in the world, where many emerging startups are created, and where there is a variety of opportunities to invest in innovations under the advanced legal system.  In his presentation, Tomozawa will share the lessons he has learned from Silicon Valley to achieve his objective. 

The format of this presentation is each of the five speakers will have approximately 15 minutes to present their research.  This will be followed by a short period of 5-10 minutes for any questions or comments from the audience.

In this session of the Global Affiliates Research Presentations, the following will be presented:

Jiazhong Fang, PetroChina, "Sustainable Development of the Petroleum Industry"

Climate change has become more and more critical to the survival of humans.  If there is no appropriate control of the total greenhouse gas emissions over the next 10-20 years, emissions will drive global temperatures to rise 1.5-2^oC.  Impacts related to climate change can be found in many segments of society such as human health, agriculture and food security, water supply, transportation, etc.  These same areas also impact the survival of the petroleum industry.  In his research, Fang has analyzed different scenarios about future clean energy implementation and emission reduction.  In this presentation, he shares potential solutions of the sustainable development of the petroleum industry. 

Ryoji Miyawaki, AAKEL Technologies, "Technology to Realize Decarbonization"

Decarbonization is one of the major issues of humanity.  It is, however, very difficult to solve under rapid population growth and modernization without innovation.  These days, many cleantech startups have been launched to aim to solve the issue with innovative approaches utilization cutting-edge technologies.  Miyawaki intends to share his insights into the latest trends of cleantech, the context behinds the trends, and the difference between the trends and the past Green New Deal which crashed in the late 2000s.

Hiro Nishinaka, Ishin Co., Ltd. "The State of Japanese Corporate Venture Capitals in the Silicon Valley"

Silicon Valley continues to attract attention as the center of tech startups and innovation.  A growing proportion of the most valuable companies in the U.S. are tech companies such as Silicon Valley-based tech giants Apple, Alphabet, and Facebook.  Therefore, many large Japanese enterprises have recently been organizing their own Corporate Venture Capitals (CVCs) to accelerate internal innovation, utilizing the Silicon Valley Startups' ecosystem.  However, many of these Japanese CVCs face similar common difficulties.  In his research, Nishinaka will share some insights into how large Japanese enterprises harness their CVCs to collaborate with startups to accelerate innovation effectively.

Hayato Watanabe, Hamamatsu Iwata Shinkin Bank, "The World of Japanese Manufacturing SMEs that Support Japan as a Manufacturing Powerhouse"

Japan's global market share is rapidly shrinking.  As a regional financial institution, the Hamamatsu Iwata Shinkin Bank focuses on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with a majority of their customers in the vehicle engine parts industry.  There is an increasing possibility that the pyramid of parts supply centering on automobiles will collapse in the near future.  In such an era, it will be necessary for Japanese manufacturing SMEs to change their way of business in order to survive.  In his research, Watanabe shares his experience of proof of concept in Silicon Valley and provides suggestions on how Japanese manufacturing SMEs need to progress their business to expand their market share. 

Kosuke Yokota, Future Corporation, "Success Factors of FinTech in Japan"

The last decade has seen a disruption of the traditional banking industry, especially in the areas of payments, lending, wealth management, and retail banking.  This disruption is FinTech and includes 39 unicorns in the world, although not one Japanese company.  FinTech trends change every year.  In 2019, with Japan's shrinking millennial population, the battle for millennial deposits will become more aggressive as FinTech account products hit the market.  In his research, Yokota will share some insights into how Japan, which is an aging society, will proceed ahead of the world to accelerate FinTech innovation effectively. 

The format of this presentation is each of the four speakers will have approximately 15 minutes to present their research.  This will be followed by a short period of 5-10 minutes for any questions or comments from the audience.

In this session of the Global Affiliates Research Presentations, the following will be presented:

Tetsuji Ito, Development Bank of Japan, "Major League Baseball Team Management and Their Contribution to Regional Economy — with Comparison and Suggestions to Japanese Professional Baseball"

The average annual salary of an MLB player has more than quadrupled since 1995 reaching the current high of over $4 million.  Since 1995, the highest annual salary went from $10 million to now well over $30 million and is expected to continue to rise.  This has been made possible by the growth of the MLB's market size itself - currently at $100 billion which is more than seven times higher than the 1995 levels.  However, the average attendance per MLB game is decreasing and the average age of the MLB fan is increasing which could be a problem.  On the other hand, the Japanese professional baseball market has grown by only 1.5 times over the same period. In his research, Ito analyzes MLB's growth factors and studies their contribution to the regional economy, as well as their implications for the Japanese professional baseball market and regional economy.

Yangming Li, PetroChina, "The Potential Uses of AI for China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)"

Similar to other international oil and gas companies, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is facing big challenges.  At the same time, Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has been adopted everywhere and will be applied widely to the oil and gas industry.  These big companies, such as Shell and BP, are trying to rapidly scale and replicate AI technologies to improve their operational performances.  In his research, Li analyzes CNPC's current situation and its corporate strategy.  Li explains AI's application directions and benefits for CNPC's major business units such as enterprise management, oil exploration, refinery and gas stations, etc.  In his presentation, he will provide suggestions that CNPC may take AI as a new kernel of corporate strategy and outlines some considerations when implementing AI. 

Yuki Sakai, Mitsubishi Electric, "Software Quality Assurance for Collaboration with Startups"

Advanced technology, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, accelerates the cycle of business innovation.  Recently, many startups have developed AI-based software products.  Automotive makers, their suppliers and others collaborate on software development with startups as partners for their new products.  However, the gap of software requirements between the startups' products and automotive products can cause quality issues.  What can firms do for the startups to ensure software quality?  In his research, Sakai investigates software engineering for quality assurance for AI-based software products. 

Col. Masahiro Shizu, Japan Air Self Defense Force, "Relation in Cross Domain Operations Between Japan and the U.S."

The security environment surrounding the world is constantly changing.  Under these circumstances, Japan has been continuously implementing various efforts to achieve peace, independence, and the stability of the region.  However, with limited resources, it is difficult to respond to the current environment.  Therefore, it is time for Japan to adopt and practice a new strategy rather than conventional strategy.  This is the concept of the so-called "Cross Domain Operation" and is becoming more widely used around the world.  In his research, Shizu will consider possible roles and ways of cooperation between Japan and the United States under the strong Japan-U.S. alliance. 

This seminar features two scholars discussing their research on health, retirement, and long-term care in China and Singapore. First Dr. Zhou discusses her co-authored study “Health Care Utilization at Retirement: Evidence from Urban China,” which explores the causal effect of retirement on health care utilization among urban workers using medical claims data and employing a regression discontinuity design based on mandatory retirement ages. The results show that retirement significantly increases outpatient care utilization, in part because of lower patient cost sharing and reduced opportunity cost of time after retirement.

Professor Chia will then discuss innovative policy responses in Singapore to finance the retirement and healthcare needs of its aging population. One component of her research uses actuarial modelling and simulations to explore the adequacy of the long-term care (LTC) insurance program in Singapore, also known as ElderShield, for reducing LTC cost. Dr. Chia will also discuss retirement adequacy, taking into consideration the unique housing finance mechanisms in Singapore and other social measures. Singapore also introduced healthcare policies targeted at specific cohorts and trust funds to enhance social protection.  The Pioneer Generation Fund of S$8 billion was earmarked to subsidize healthcare costs for the pioneer generation (cohorts aged 65 and above in 2014).  Simulation studies show that the adequacy of the pioneer generation fund depends on healthcare cost inflation and market performance of funds.  Most recently, a trust fund of S$6.1bn will be set up to prefund healthcare subsidies for the Merdeka Generation (those born in the 1950s).  Besides, a total of S$5.1 billion will go to a new LTC Support Fund that will help fund subsidies for long term care support measures.  This measure will improve the adequacy of the LTC Insurance.   Financing healthcare needs by setting aside funds, while innovative, is sustainable.  However, pre-funding social protection for subsequent cohorts can be challenging amidst an ageing populace and economic challenges.

Dr Ngee-Choon Chia is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the National University of Singapore (NUS).  She is concurrently Director of the Singapore Centre of Applied and Policy Research (SCAPE) and Co-director of the Next Age Institute at NUS.  She is the Co-editor of the Singapore Economic Review. Her research interests include pension economics, health economics and the fiscal impacts of ageing.  She has consulted for major international agencies such ADB, ADBI, IDRC and the World Bank.  She has also conducted collaborative research on social security with government agencies in Singapore.

 

Dr. Qin Zhou is currently a visiting scholar in Stanford University. She serves as an Associate Professor in the University of International Business and Economics in Peking, China. Her research interests include Health Economics, Public Health, and Applied Econometrics. She is mainly focused on the study of Chinese health insurance and policy evaluation. She was awarded the "Australia-APEC Women in Research" fellowship and conducted a project entitled "Social Security Systems in Relation to Healthcare Utilization and Health Behaviors in Australia" in 2017. Her work at Stanford is to collaborate with Prof. Karen Eggleston to study the integration of urban-rural health insurance systems in China and other relative topics.

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Experts talk about a new Cold War between China and the United States. The world’s two largest economies are in open trade conflict, engaged in technological competition and stoking geopolitical uncertainty. The Oksenberg Conference will explore the causes that underlie today’s intensified conflict between the United States and China. We ask: What has precipitated the confrontational approach that currently unites U.S. policy towards China? What is the future of our strategic competition in the technological, economic and security realms? If U.S.-China rivalry is allowed to escalate, what might its implications be for our international liberal order? If a “new” Cold War is forming, how might it follow or diverge from the “old” Soviet-era Cold War?

 

Michael McFaul is the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies in Political Science; Director and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI); and the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, all at Stanford University.  He was also the Distinguished Mingde Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Center at Peking University from June to August of 2015.  He joined the Stanford faculty in 1995.  Professor McFaul is also an analyst for NBC News and a contributing columnist to The Washington Post.  

Dr. McFaul served for five years in the Obama administration, first as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House (2009-2012), and then as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2012-2014).  He has authored several books, most recently TheNew York Timesbestseller, From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia.  Earlier books include Advancing Democracy Abroad: Why We Should, How We Can; Transitions to Democracy: A Comparative Perspective(eds. with Kathryn Stoner); Power and Purpose: American Policy toward Russia after the Cold War (with James Goldgeier); and Russia’s Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin.  

 

Jean C. Oi is the William Haas Professor of Chinese Politics in the Department of Political Science and a Senior Fellow of FSI at Stanford University.  She is the founding director of the Stanford China Program at Shorenstein APARC and is the founding Lee Shau Kee Director of the Stanford Center at Peking University.  Professor Oi has published extensively on political economy and the process of reform in China.  Her books include Zouping Revisited:  Adaptive Governance in a Chinese County, co-edited with Steven Goldstein (2018); and Challenges in the Process of China’s Urbanization, co-edited with Karen Eggleston and Wang Yiming (2017); Rural China Takes Off (1999); Property Rights and Economic Reform in China (1999), co-edited with Andrew Walder; and State and Peasant in Contemporary China (1989).  Professor Oi also has an edited volume, China’s Path to the Future: Challenges, Constraints, and Choices, co-edited with Dr. Thomas Fingar (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).  Her recent articles include “Unpacking the Patterns of Corporate Restructuring during China’s SOE Reform,” co-authored with Xiaojun Li in Economic and Political Studies (2018); and “Reflections on 40 Years of Rural Reform,” in Jacques deLisle and Avery Goldstein, eds., Reform and Opening:  40 Years and Counting, forthcoming.  Her current research centers on fiscal reform and local government debt as well as continuing SOE reforms in China.