Author: Jenny Corbett, ANU

French President Sarkozy is the first foreign leader to visit Japan since the disasters of early March. His visit has been welcomed in Japan and has partly restored the unfortunate impression that the French jumped ship early by evacuating all their nationals.  Well-timed, symbolic gestures of support can have great impact. Would this be a good moment for a high-level gesture of goodwill, respect and support from Australia?  Absolutely. But a mere repetition of the mantra that Japan is our most strategically important ally in the region would be a wasted opportunity. These circumstances provide an important moment to take the bilateral relationship one big step towards new levels on many fronts.

On the humanitarian front Australia can offer assistance beyond aid and rescue teams. Read more…

Author: Jenny Corbett, ANU, and Christopher Findlay, University of Adelaide

Managing the global recovery and the transmission of shocks that might accompany economic integration continues to be a talking point around the region. An example is the recent conference in Korea organised by the IMF.

These meetings generally conclude with statements that everything matters and statements such as ‘actions in multi-country frameworks can be used to complement strengthening measures adopted at the individual economy level’. Read more…

Author: Jenny Corbett

The recent spate of bad economic news about Japan has raised many questions about the global crisis, Japan’s response and what it will mean for Australia. Do we understand Japan well enough to be able to answer the fundamental questions?

In the middle of last year it looked as if Japan was set to weather the world’s financial storms. By November its own government was talking of recession and by this month the economic data proclaimed a virtual melt-down of the industrial sector. The numbers are alarming not only for their size but for their speed. Japan will probably be the worst performing OECD economy in 2009, shrinking by an estimated 2.6%. Industrial production in the last quarter has fallen to the level of 1983.

How has this happened in an economy that was, up to the end of 2007, experiencing its longest postwar recovery?

Read more…