Recorded on November 19, 2024.
Before BRI: Japan’s Overseas Development Assistance
Tuesday Nov 19, 2024
9 - 10 AM (Eastern)
Online only
About the event
Beginning in the 1950s, Japan’s Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) has been an important instrument for Japanese diplomacy. Its initial focus on economic development in Asia was characterized as being both nonmilitary and nonpolitical. However, this cold war strategy has evolved over the past two decades, in large part due to the rise of China, to include both national security challenges and the promotion of universal values. How will Japanese ODA policy respond to the current challenge of striking a balance between promoting universal values and avoiding offense to recipient governments? Can Japan play a special role as the developed world’s “ambassador” to the Global South? Hiroaki Shiga, a professor at Yokohama National University, will join NYU Law Adjunct Professor Bruce Aronson in a conversation on the evolution and current challenges of Japan’s ODA policy.
About the speaker:
Hiroaki Shiga is a professor at the Graduate School of International Social Sciences, Yokohama National University, and a leading expert on Japan’s ODA policy. His research centers on development cooperation strategy, informed by his experience working in development cooperation at the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the Ministry of Finance of Japan. The results of his research have been published in international academic journals such as World Development and IDS Bulletin of Sussex University, and by research institutions such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Professor Shiga is a graduate of the University of Tokyo and has a Master of International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University.
About the moderator:
Bruce Aronson is senior advisor at the Japan Center of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute and an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law. He has been a tenured professor of law at universities in the United States (Creighton University) and Japan (Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo). Before beginning his academic career, he was a corporate partner at the law firm of Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP in New York. He also served as an independent director at Eisai Co., Ltd., a listed Japanese pharmaceutical company. Professor Aronson twice received Fulbright grants to be a senior research scholar at the University of Tokyo and at Waseda University, and was a visiting scholar at the Bank of Japan. His main area of research is comparative corporate governance with a focus on Japan and Asia. Publications include a textbook, Corporate Governance in Asia: A Comparative Approach (with J. Kim, Cambridge University Press, 2019).