Nobuhiro Hiwatari (PhD, University of California, Berkeley) is a professor of political economy/international political economy at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Tokyo. He has also taught at Columbia University and at the University of California, Berkeley and has conducted research at Harvard, Yale, and Cambridge Universities. His research interests are the party politics of “neo-liberal” reforms in OECD countries, and the impact of political regime heterogeneity on economic cooperation in the Asian-Pacific region; his works on these topics have appeared in academic journals as well as edited volumes. Currently, he is finishing a project examining how party competition during international recessions shapes the adoption of fiscal and structural reforms at OECD countries.
Award Information
The purpose of this project it to determine the institutional characters of US.Japan economic relations. By comparing the consolidation of US-Japan relations with that of US-France-German relations during the critical decade after the War, this project will show that US government and corporate polices at that period account for the differences in the domestic political economic regimes. It is the distinct features of US.Japan relations based on the domestic institutions of both countries, as identified by the comparison, and sustained by the interests of market actors that tend to be reproduced and persistent. This approach -- which takes into account market actors, such as firms and unions, as well as governments in explaining comparative international relations --should explain the recurrence of trade issues and the difficulties faced by both governments in managing US-Japan relations.
