Articles by The Tokyo Foundation

Message from the Chairman: The Tokyo Foundation's Work in 2009

Two years ago, the Tokyo Foundation undertook a sweeping overhaul of the structure and content of its programs. We conducted a bottom-up review of our fellows and programs in the areas of policy research and leadership development-the foundation's twin missions-from the standpoint of how best to contribute to Japan and the world in the twenty-first century. You might say we reconstituted the foundation from the ground up.

Should Brain Generation with Stem Cells Be Allowed?

Progress in the life sciences is moving at an astonishing rate, and today it has become possible to reproduce part of the human brain in a test tube. The brain is a key organ controlling human activity, and there is a need to think seriously about how far we should allow such research to proceed.

The Issues in the Farmland System

Tracing the history of how Japan's farmland system has been administered back to 1952, when the Agricultural Land Law was enacted, is a means of shedding fresh light on the problems afflicting Japanese agriculture. It also serves to reveal the policies needed to secure the farmland that is essential to Japan's food security and to identify new actors willing and able to work this land.

Vol. 10: Koji, an Aspergillus

Miso soup for breakfast and dinner, soy sauce that always makes it on the dining table, the evening cup of sake-Japan has a wealth of fermented food products and beverages. The fermenting agent used in many of these foods is koji, a fungus of the genus Aspergillus. But in today's fast-paced society , natural fermentation is growing rare.

Global Financial Crisis Shows Inherent Instability of Capitalism

What can we learn from the global financial and economic crisis? A prominent Japanese economist explains how it reflects the inherent instability of capitalism and reveals the failure of the neoclassical experiment.

Let Corporations Play a Role in Reviving Japanese Agriculture

Japan's farming population is declining as the current generation of farmers ages amid a dearth of potential successors. With more and more farmers abandoning production, the country is losing agricultural resources that are vital to its food security. The entry of private enterprises into the farming sector has the potential to revive Japan's crisis-hit agricultural sector by identifying successors other than the children of farmers and creating jobs.

SYLFF Fellows Volunteer to Help China Earthquake Victims

Two teams of Chinese SYLFF fellows traveled to areas most seriously affected by the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan, visiting local schools and giving moral and material support to surviving students. This was a rewarding experience for them, who report they were moved to see students trying to overcome their grief. The project was supported by the Tokyo Foundation.

Enhancing Parliamentary Functionality (Symposium Report 4)

The last two sessions of the symposium discussed ways to improve parliamentary deliberation and the relationships between parliamentary houses and political parties. The symposium as a whole was a great opportunity for the British and Japanese participants to exchange information and opinions on their political systems.

Vol.9: Japanese Radish

Daikon, or Japanese radish, is one of the most representative vegetables of Japan. Originally from the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts, it found a home in Japan over 1,300 years ago. More than 100 local varieties were born, but most are on the verge of extinction, having been largely replaced by a single variety.

Risk Communication in Relation to Food

How should the government respond to public anxiety about the safety of food? The process by which the British Food Standards Agency explained the risks of BSE to the British people and obtained their understanding and confidence gives some important ideas for risk communication.

The Soseki Connection: Edwin McClellan, Friedrich Hayek, and Jun Eto

Renowned Japanese novelist Soseki Natsume, who witnessed Japan's rapid modernization starting in the late nineteenth century, depicted the lives of intelligentsia in this period. His masterpiece Kokoro (1914) has had a profound impact on intellectual giants in Europe and the U.S., including Friedrich Hayek, Nobel laureate in economics.

The Bureaucratic Role and Party Governance (Symposium Report 3)

The first two sessions of the symposium discussed the relationship between legislators and bureaucrats and party governance issues. Panelists including the British ambassador to Japan, members of the Japanese and British parliaments, and academics exchanged views on ways to improve their political systems.

Vol. 8: Rapeseed Oil

For ages, rapeseed oil was an important oil in Japanese cooking. But while oil consumption has increased with the Westernization of the Japanese diet, domestic production of rapeseed oil has taken a nosedive due to imports of similar products and a lack of producers. This article looks at the activities of farms, citizens, and municipalities that have begun paving the way toward self-sufficient production.

Political Reform of the Japanese System of Government (Symposium Report 2)

In Japan's parliamentary cabinet system, the expected relationship between the ruling political parties and the cabinet is distorted, as are the roles played by politicians and bureaucrats, and the parliament itself is nearly dysfunctional. This analysis of Japanese government today includes recommendations to improve the tenor of the nation's politics and politicians.

A Comparison of Parliamentary Politics in Japan and Britain (Symposium Report 1)

On the surface, the British and Japanese parliamentary systems are similar, but a closer examination reveals many differences between them. The Tokyo Foundation held a symposium aimed at stimulating fruitful discussions on the nature of the British parliamentary system and on how to improve governance in Japan.

Vol. 7: Yukina

Yukina is a rare vegetable with a distinct flavor and texture made by transplanting turnip stalks at the end of fall and harvesting just the spears that have grown under the snow with nutrients from older leaves. Cultivated for centuries as a laborious but valuable source of nutrition in snowy regions, it now faces the issues of climatic anomalies and aging producers.

The Tokyo Foundation initiates partnership with Acumen Fund

Established in 2001 in New York, Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to the problem of global poverty. Identifying with the goals of Acumen Fund, the Tokyo Foundation has initiated partnership with the Fund. Specifically, the Foundation promotes the Acumen Fund Fellows Program (AFAP) and solicits applications in Japan.

The Pros and Cons of Japan's Rice Acreage-Reduction Policy

Food security cannot be achieved without farmland. Yet the policy of trimming rice production by reducing rice acreage, which aims to keep surplus rice off the market to prevent prices from falling, had led to the abandonment of agricultural land, jeopardizing Japan's food security.

The Virtual Center for Advanced Studies in Institution

Institutional research is becoming increasingly important to both scholarly development and effective policy analysis. A group of researchers of the Tokyo Foundation have started a new endeavor, the Virtual Center for Advanced Studies in Institution (VCASI, pronounced "vee-kasi"), using Internet technologies to enhance interdisciplinary communication.

A Small Seed That Yielded Fruitful Results: A Successful JIP Project in Indonesia

The large amount of waste thrown into rivers in Jakarta and West Java caught SYLFF fellows' attention and led them to take action to clean and green the community environment. They involved not only people of the local community but also the regional government to change the environment in which their everyday life takes place.