Participation as a panel member in “The 20th Anniversary Conference of CIDEG” at Tsinghua University in Beijing (November 15, 2025)

On Saturday, November 15, I participated as a panel member in “The 20th Anniversary Conference of CIDEG” organized by the Center for Industrial Development and Environmental Governance (CIDEG) at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

"The 5th Masahiko Aoki Award in Comparative Institutional Economics Award Ceremony" was also held on the same day, and there were parallel forums on various topics on Sunday, November 16. 

The 20th Anniversary Conference of CIDEG

○ Date: Saturday, November 15

○ Venue: Center for Industrial Development and Environmental Governance (CIDEG), Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

○ Session topic: Technological Innovation and Industrial Development

Keynote speech at "The 2nd Symposium on World Economics, Finance and Business (WEFB)" (August 20, 2025)

I was given the opportunity to give a keynote speech at "The 2nd Symposium on World Economics, Finance and Business (WEFB)" hosted by Life and Medical Sciences Innovation Institute (LMSII) in Tokyo on August 20, 2025.

Presentation slides for the keynote speech can be viewed from the link below:

"Economic Growth and Cities: Why Did Japan's Rapid Growth End in 1974?"
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kzyc8sHnRq1BcAl83DyzxmTC8sf5dzxJ/view?usp=drive_link

Presentation at the "14th Masahiko Aoki Award in Comparative Institutional Economic High-Level lecture" held by Tsinghua University (July 4, 2025)

I had the honor to present at the "14th Masahiko Aoki Award in Comparative Institutional Economic High-Level lecture” held by the School of Public Policy and Manangement, Tsinghua University on July 4, 2025.

You can check out the slides I used for the presentation from the link below:

"Japan’s Income Inequity and Social Security System"
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BhMpBKKn9inppQSXxWmG0qySQNuf8XqD/view?usp=sharing

AGI Working Paper Series “Causes of the Sharp Decline in Migration to Major Metropolitan Areas in the 1970s”

My paper has been published in the AGI Working Paper Series.

Causes of the Sharp Decline in Migration to Major Metropolitan Areas in the 1970s 

(Co-authored with Shinsuke Ikeda and Hiroki Hoshina)

[AGI Repository] https://agi.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2000145

Abstract:
Japan's rapid growth in the 1960s was accompanied by a massive migration from rural to urban areas. However, immediately after 1970, migration declined sharply, and at the same time, the rate of economic growth plummeted.
To explain this decline in urban-bound migration, we estimated the urban-bound migration function.
The estimation reveals that in the 1970s, the largest factor contributing to the decline in this migration was the relative increase in per capita income in rural areas. The second most important factor was narrowing regional disparities in the job-to-application ratio. In addition, the relative increase in the stock of social capital in the local regions also
contributed. However, the population change in the rural areas had negligible effects on urban-bound migration in the 1970s.
This paper also demonstrates that the relative increase in per capita income in rural areas is largely due to policy-based regional redistribution, implying that the large-scale redistribution of the fruits of rapid economic growth to rural areas halted urban-bound migration and reduced the growth rate. This suggests that for developing countries experiencing high growth, curbing the political pressure to redistribute to rural areas may be important to sustain the growth.

TIME magazine published my comments on measures to combat high rice prices

TIME Magazine published my comments on measures to combat high rice prices. They state that the government must reduce import tariff rates with appropriate compensation for farmers.

Click here for the full article.

Presentation at the Japan Association for Applied Economics

I gave a lecture at the Japan Association for Applied Economics: "Why did Japan's period of rapid economic growth end in the early 1970s?

You can view a revised version of the slides used on the day below.

• Why Did Japan's Rapid Economic Growth Come to an Endin the Early 1970s?

Keynote speech at CIDEG in Tsinghua University: “Japan's Social Security System”

On May 24, 2024, Hatta gave a keynote speech on “Japan’s Social Security System” at The 34th Academic Conference of CIDEG (Center for Industrial Development and Environmental Governance) in Tsinghua University, Beijing.

The presentation focused on three themes: redistributive policies, the pension system, and Japan’s social security experience. It explained the current status of these systems and the direction of reform.

A revised version of the slides used in the presentation can be found at the following link:

• Japan's Social Security System

Keynote Speech “Does Consumption Expenditure Represent a Person’s Utility? —Perspective from the Tax Theory—”

Hatta gave a keynote speech at the 14th Biennial Conference of Asian Consumer and Family Economics Association (ACFEA) on 9-12 July 2023. The meeting was held at Kokura, KItakyushu.

You can read the slide material I used at the speech:

• “Does Consumption Expenditure Represent a Person’s Utility?––Perspective from the Tax Theory––”

My lecture “Why Has Japan Stopped Growing Since 1974?” held at Ritsumeikan University

Hatta delivered a lecture“Why Has Japan Stopped Growing Since 1974?” at Ritsumeikan University on June 13, 2023.

• Slide material
• Synopsis

“Productivity Growth Has No Relationship with Population Growth”

Asian Growth Research Institute (AGI) and Fudan University held a joint research seminar on 17 Dec. 2020. Hatta gave a talk on “Productivity Growth Has No Relationship with Population Growth.” You can see the slide material used in this seminar.

Horasis Asia Meeting 2020

Hatta took part in the Horasis Asia Meeting 2020 virtually and gave a short talk on “Enhancing Asian Economic Development Post-COVID.”

“Economic Growth and Cities in Japan: Implications to Yangtze River Delta”

On November 27, Hatta took part in “Yangtze River Delta University Think Tank Summit 2020” virtually and gave a talk on “Economic Growth and Cities in Japan: Implications to Yangtze River Delta.”

You can see the slide material I used in the talk.

APER Forum 2020

On 14 August 2020, Hatta virtually attended the Asia Pacific Energy Regulatory Forum (APER Forum) 2020, hosted by Singapore’s Energy Market Authority. As the chair of the EGC, Hatta talked on “Impact of COVID-19 on Electricity Demand in Japan.”

Recent publications in English

“Severance Payment and Labor Mobility––A Comparative Study of Taiwan and Japan”

Tatsuo Hatta and Shinya Ouchi published “Severance Payment and Labor Mobility––A Comparative Study of Taiwan and Japan” (Hatta, Tatsuo and Ouchi, Shinya Eds.) from Springer.

• Springer website 
• Amazon 

About this book
This book compares legally allowed dismissal conditions in employment contracts in Taiwan and Japan and then examines the possibility of introducing the Taiwan-style severance payment system into Japanese employment contracts.

A significant difference exists between employment regulations of Japan and Taiwan. In Japan, dismissal of an employee on the grounds of ability is not easily upheld in a court of law, and a set rule for dismissals with severance payment does not exist. On the other hand, in Taiwan, where regulations do not allow dismissal at will, an employee can still be dismissed with severance payment, as long as due process is followed.

Written by labor lawyers and labor economists from both Taiwan and Japan, this book describes the procedures that must be followed in the dismissal process in the two countries. It also shows that this difference in dismissal conditions between the two countries explains the low labor mobility in Japan and high labor mobility in Taiwan, and that this difference in labor mobility, in turn, caused the shift of IT production from Japan to Taiwan in the 1990s. The final chapter of the book elucidates the need for introducing the Taiwan-style severance payment before carrying out further deregulation in Japan.

AGI WP: “Introducing Severance Payment Systems in Japan —A Proposal for Vacancy Decontrol—”

Hatta presented an AGI working paper “Introducing Severance Payment Systems in Japan —A Proposal for Vacancy Decontrol—”.

Abstract  

In Japan, the court requires job restoration rather than a severance payment from a firm after it decides that a dismissal has been abusive. This results in a high settlement cost for termination. 

This paper makes two proposals for introducing severance payments to reduce settlement costs in Japan. The first applies to existing contracts and proposes to specify levels of severance payments that would replace the current job restoration requirement after the court determines that a case is abusive. 

The second applies to new employees either for a recently vacated position or a new position and proposes vacancy decontrol, which allows firms to set the levels of severance payments freely while also honoring the existing contracts. Within this category, this paper proposes government-assisted vacancy decontrol, a transitional measure, where the government sets a minimum level of statutory severance payment, which is equal to six months of wages for a worker who has worked for 20 years, following the Taiwan precedent. After the need for the transitional measure is dissolved, complete vacancy decontrol should be introduced, abolishing the statutory severance payment. We have proposed that even at this stage, the government should publicly set a default level of the severance payment, which a firm should observe unless an explicit agreement or contract stipulates otherwise. The government should immediately introduce some form of vacancy decontrol for senior workers who have already retired from a regular job.

“Competition policy vs. industrial policy as a growth strategy”

Hatta presented a paper “Competition policy vs. industrial policy as a growth strategy” on China Economic Journal.

Hatta, Tatsuo. (2017). Competition policy vs. industrial policy as a growth strategy. China Economic Journal, 10 (2): pp. 162-174. https://doi.org/10.1080/17538963.2017.1321216

ABSTRACT:
This paper shows that competition policy, rather than industrial policy, generated the rapid economic growth in post-war Japan. It also reveals that Japan’s growth rate was lowered from the mid-1970s due to newly introduced industrial policies and paucity of further competition policy. The current Abe government recognises the need for competition policies in Japan to recover from the low-growth period. The paper describes the types of competition policy carried out under Abenomics, especially in National Strategic Special Zones.

Abbreviations: METI: Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. NSSZ: National Strategic Special Zones.

KEYWORDS: 
Competition policy, industrial policy, growth strategy, trade liberalization, privatization

“Economic Challenges Facing Japan’s Regional Areas”, Palgrave Macmillan

Hatta published “Economic Challenges Facing Japan’s Regional Areas (Tatsuo Hatta Ed.)” from Palgrave Macmillan.

About this book
This book analyzes issues related to economic challenges for Japan’s regional revitalization. Japan’s responses to such challenges and to the problem of an aging population are of deep interest to the nations outside of Japan. This book brings together 19 articles contributed by Japan’s leading scholars, originally prepared for an online policy information portal, SPACE NIRA launched by the Nippon Institute for Research Advancement (NIRA) with Dr. Tatsuo Hatta, President of the Asian Growth Research Institute, as its General Editor. This book is a significant and useful reference for all scholars, students, and individuals with an interest in current policy issues in Japan.

World Forum on Energy Regulation 2018 in Mexico

Hatta gave a lecture on Disruptive Technology and Policy in Japan in World Forum on Energy Regulation 2018 (WFER 2018.)

You can see the slide material that I used on the following website.

Disruptive Technology and Policy in Japan

A presentation on the National Strategic Special Zones

Hatta gave a presentation on the National Strategic Special Zones at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ.)

You can see the presentation material on the next website (my Google Drive):