RJIF Research Director Kay Kitazawa delivered a speech at Japan Update 2016, an annual international symposium providing Australian audiences with a comprehensive overview of Japan’s current economic, social and political landscape.

This year Japan Update was held at Australian National University (ANU) on September 21, 2016, and was attended by 300 policymakers, academics, and other practitioners.
Other speakers at the event include Professor Gerald Curtis, Columbia University, Ms Naomi Koshi, Mayor of Otsu City, Mr Hideo Hayakawa, former Chief Economist and Executive Director of Bank of Japan and current Senior Executive Fellow of Fujitsu Research Institute.

The event focused on Japan’s recent developments and future directions in three key areas: the state of the economy, ‘Womenomics,’ and politics and foreign policy.

In her speech “Can Womanomics Work?” Ms Kitazawa highlighted the need for a more thorough and strategic approach to managing the work-life balance. She argued that we need to change our perceptions of it from “a concern of women, especially of working mothers, “to “an every worker’s issue.” During the discussions, she suggested that the diversification of income sources for workers would help in solving the issues of long-working hours that lie beneath female under-representation in the workplace.

*Click here for more info of the event

Ms Kitazawa also co-edited the latest “Reinventing Japan” issue of East Asia Forum Quarterly, an international journal published by ANU that is renowned for quality Asian analysis, research and policy commentary on the Asia Pacific region in world affairs.

*East Asia Forum Quarterly