Friday, December 9, 2011

Japan and the United States: "Two Political Economies in Crisis"

Starting tomorrow (although I guess it’s already tomorrow over there) is the conference “Two Political Economies in Crisis: Historical and Comparative Perspectives on the Fiscal Dilemmas Facing Japan and the United States,” which has been convened by Eisaku Ide (Keio University) and W. Elliot Brownlee (Yokohama National University and University of California, Santa Barbara) at Keio University.  Here are the panels:

Session 1
Chair Morinao Iju (Yokohama National University)
The Fiscal Crises in Japan and the United States: Toward a Comparative Perspective
W. Elliot Brownlee

How and why has the Japanese Government Sector gone deeply in debt?
Takehiko Ikegami (Rikkyo University)

From the Affluent Society to the Intolerant Society: The Fiscal Mechanisms Responsible for Poor Tax Consent in Japan
Eisaku Ide

Commentator Morinao Iju

Session 2
Chair Eisaku Ide

Who helps financing the State as 'Fiscal Agent’? : A Brief Comparison of Germany with Japan
Takaharu Shimada (Ph.D. Candidate in Keio University)

Spending and Tax Consent in the US and Japan
Gene Park (Loyola Marymount University)

Japan's Debt Crisis and Two Lost Decades
Masaru Kaneko (Keio University) and Yukiko Yamazaki (University of Tokyo)

Commentator Shigeru Sato (Tohoku Gakuin University)

Session 3
Chair W. Elliot Brownlee

The VAT Laggards: A Comparative History of Japanese and US Resistance to the Value-added Tax
Ajay K. Mehrotra (Indiana University)

The Outliers: Corporate Income Taxes in the United States and Japan, 1970-present
Joseph J. Thorndike (The Tax History Project at Tax Analysts and University of
Virginia)
Commentator Satoshi Sekiguchi (Rikkyo University)

[Day Two after the jump.]

Session 4
Chair Eisaku Ide

Taxing, Spending, and Public Opinion: The Erosion of Tax Consent in the United States
Andrea Louise Campbell (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Imagine All the People: Public Finance and the Welfare State
Cathie Jo Martin (Boston University)

Revenue-raising side is more problematic than spending: the case of Japan's societal crisis
Mari Osawa (University of Tokyo)

Commentator W. Elliot Brownlee and Ajay K. Mehrotra

Session 5
Chair Eisaku Ide

The political economy of intergovernmental fiscal relationship and local government deficit: Japan's case in comparative perspective
Masayuki Takahashi (University of Niigata Prefecture)

A comparative analysis of the accumulation of the Japanese and US subnational government debt since 1980
Masaya Ueda (Ministry of International Affairs and Communications)

Commentator Gene Park

Session 6
Chair W. Elliot Brownlee

The Campaign for Federal Tax Limitation in the United States since 1973
Isaac William Martin (University of California, San Diego)

Demanding More/Trusting Less: American Disaster Politics in an Age of Diminished Solidarity
Gareth Davies (University of Oxford)

Commentator Joseph J. Thorndike