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Japan holds a secret conference to promote `Abenomics`

Posted May. 31, 2013 06:16,   

한국어

The Japanese government held an international conference with global economists, while “Abenomics,” a Japanese program of monetary easing, falters due to plummeting stock prices and soaring bond yields.

The Japanese government, which is accelerating the monetary easing policy on the back of the support from key countries including the U.S. and the international organization, apparently tries to win over globally influential economics and opinion leaders.

As Japan’s strategy begins to work, Korea’s voice seems to fade out. The Korean government has criticized the negative impact of the Japan’s weak yen policy on Japan’s neighboring countries and the global economy in the G20 summit and the general meeting of the International Monetary Fund.

In Tokyo`s Mita Conference Hall on Thursday, the Economic Social Research Institute of the Cabinet Office held an unofficial international conference titled “Toward the regeneration of the Japanese economy: the role of policies in the global economy.” The think tank said, “The conference is an occasion where global and Japanese economists discuss which role Abenomics will play in the revival of the Japanese economy and the development of the global economy.”

Some 300 global opinion leaders are known to participate in the conference, which will be ended Friday. They include bigwig economists such as Joseph Stiglitz, a professor of economics at Columbia University and Nobel laureate, Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Richard Cooper of Harvard University and Adam Posen of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Other participants included famous Japanese scholars such as Koichi Hamada, professor emeritus of economics at Yale University and special adviser to the Cabinet who is known for designing Abenomics, and Motoshige Itoh, a Tokyo University professor and president of the National Institute for Research Advancement.

Sachs and Stiglitz delivered keynote speeches Thursday under the theme of “The Global Economic Environment” and “The Growth and Distribution of the Global Economy,” respectively. On Friday, the institute`s director Kenji Umetani will explain “Abenomics economic policy” and key presenters will have a discussion over the “ripple effect of Abenomics.”

The Economic Social Research Institute did not invite the general public for security issues. Without disclosing the titles of speeches to the public, the institute said, “We’ll post them on our website later.”

Economic experts say that the conference is based on the thorough strategy of the Japanese government, which tries to create an international opinion in favor of Japan by explaining the logic of Abenomics to global leaders.