ARCHIVED Japan Macro Salon with Jesper and Bill

Date
Monday 15 April 2024
Time
12.00 - 1.00pm (BST)
8.00 - 9.00pm (JST)

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Booking Details
Free - On Zoom
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Join us for the latest in our regular quarterly webinar on business and current affairs, Japan Macro Salon with Jesper and Bill. In these our Chair Bill Emmott teams up with Jesper Koll, longtime Tokyo resident and one of the most keenly watched economists and investment strategists in that town, to discuss what's new in the Japanese economy, business, financial markets and more. 

Each quarter, Jesper and Bill open with a conversation about the latest trends that have caught their attention, and then welcome a special guest to focus on a topic of the moment. All the while, they will be interacting with questions from the audience. These webinars are run in association with Asia Society Japan.

In this Salon, they will be joined by Yoko Iwama, Professor of National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and director of Security and Strategy Program (SSP) at GRIPS. Discussion will focus on Prime Minister Kishida’s state visit to the US in April, the first such visit by a Japanese leader since Shinzo Abe in 2015. The visit comes ahead of talks in Washington, in which the two leaders are expected to agree on the review of the long-standing security arrangements between the two countries. 

Jesper Koll has been researching and investing in Japan since becoming a resident in 1986. Over the past two decades, Jesper has been consistently recognized as one of the top Japan strategists/economists, having worked as Chief Strategist and Head of Research for U.S. investment banks J.P. Morgan and Merrill Lynch. He currently serves as Expert Director for the Monex Group and the Japan Catalyst Fund (Japan’s 1st retail investor based corporate engagement/activist fund). His analysis and insights have earned him a position on several Japanese government and corporate advisory committees, including Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike’s Advisory Board. Jesper serves as Board Director of OIST, the Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology and is a Founder and Board Director of the Asia Society Japan and heads their Policy Committee. He is one of the few non-Japanese members of the Keizai Doyukai, the Japan Association of Corporate Executives; and serves on the board of several Japan-based start-ups. He has written three books in Japanese and, in 2021, created the acclaimed video/pod-cast series Japan - Capitalism that works. Jesper is an economist, angel-investor, patron; and yes, a Japan Optimist. 

Yoko Iwama is Professor of National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS). She is also the director of Security and Strategy Program (SSP) at GRIPS. She graduated from Kyoto University in 1986 and earned her PhD in Law at the University. Having served as Research Assistant of Kyoto University (1994–97), Special Assistant of the Japanese Embassy in Germany (1998–2000), and Associate Professor at GRIPS (2000), she was appointed Professor at GRIPS in 2009. She was a student at the Free University of Berlin between 1989-1991, during which period she encountered the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of the two Germanies. Her specialty is international security and European diplomatic history centering on NATO, Germany, and nuclear strategy. She has served on numerous government committees including the Advisory panel on the Reconstruction of a Legal Basis for Security (2006-7, 2013-14).  

Her publications include John Baylis and Yoko Iwama (eds.) Joining the Non-Proliferation Treaty: Deterrence, Non-Proliferation and the American Alliance, (Routledge 2018); Pascal Lottaz and Yoko Iwama(eds.) Neutral Europe and the Creation of the Nonproliferation Regime 1958-1968 (Routledge, 2024); Yoko Iwama (ed.) The Realities of Nuclear Sharing: NATO’s Experience and Japan (Shinzansha, 2023 in Japanese：核共有の現実―NATOの経験と日本). She is currently working on a co-authored book on the Neutrals and the NPT (in English). She received the 2022 Inoki Masamichi Prize of Japan Society for Security Studies for her book, The 1968 Global Nuclear Order and West Germany (Yuhikaku, 2021 in Japanese: 核の一九六八年体制と西ドイツ).  

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Explore our series of webinars with leading experts in politics, economy and media. More details on upcoming events and past webinar videos HERE.