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November 9, 4-5 p.m. California time/ November 10, 9-10 a.m. Japan time
(Note:  Daylight Saving Time in California ends November 7)

In April 2021, then Prime Minister Suga announced to the world that Japan will strive to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, seemingly setting the country on a path toward accelerated energy transition primarily by renewables. Under Prime Minister Kishida, Japan’s commitment may be on a more shaky ground, as demands for steady energy supply by old industries gained more traction and calls for restarting nuclear power plants are becoming louder. In this new political environment, in which Japan’s energy policy seems to be in flux, what is the future of renewables, nuclear energy, and fossil fuels, and what is the best energy mix for Japan considering its unique geopolitical position?

Panelists 

Phillip Lipscy is an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto, the Chair in Japanese Politics and Global Affairs and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Japan at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy.  His research addresses substantive topics such as international cooperation, international organizations, the politics of energy and climate change, international relations of East Asia, and the politics of financial crises.  He has also published extensively on Japanese politics and foreign policy.  Lipscy's book from Cambridge University Press, Renegotiating the World Order: Institutional Change in International Relations, examines how countries seek greater international influence by reforming or creating international organizations.  Before arriving to the University of Toronto, Lipscy was assistant professor of political science and Thomas Rohlen Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University.  Lipscy obtained his Ph.D. in political science at Harvard University and received his M.A. in international policy studies and B.A. in economics and political science at Stanford University. 

 

Mika Ohbayashi is the Director at Renewable Energy Institute since its foundation in August 2011.  Before joining the Institute, she worked in Abu Dhabi for the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) as Policy and Project Regional Manager for Asia Oceania. She is one of two founders of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP) and served as Deputy Director for 8 years following its establishment in 2000. She also worked as Advisor for Climate Change Projects and Policies for UKFCO at the British Embassy to Japan. She started her career in the energy field by joining Citizens' Nuclear Information Center in 1992.  She was awarded the Global Leadership Award in Advancing Solar Energy Policy by the International Sola Energy Society (ISES) in 2017. 

 

Moderator

Kiyoteru Tsutsui is the Henri H. and Tomoye Takahashi Professor, Professor of Sociology, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Deputy Director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, where he is also Director of the Japan Program. He is the author of Rights Make Might: Global Human Rights and Minority Social Movements in Japan (Oxford University Press, 2018), co-editor of Corporate Responsibility in a Globalizing World (Oxford University Press, 2016) and co-editor of The Courteous Power: Japan and Southeast Asia in the Indo-Pacific Era (University of Michigan Press, forthcoming 2021). 

 

 

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This event is part of the 2021 Fall webinar series, Perfect Storm: Climate Change in Asia, sponsored by the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.

This event is part of the Asia Health Policy Program's 2021-22 Colloquium series "Aligning Incentives for Better Health and More Resilient Health Systems in Asia”

Three prominent demographers discuss China's demographic change with insights from the seventh national census. Topics include the pace of urbanization, the more balanced sex ratio, increasing educational attainment, population aging, potential impacts of the pandemic, and recently announced changes in family planning and retirement policies.

Wang Feng is professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine, and an adjunct professor of sociology and demography at Fudan University in Shanghai, China. He has done extensive research on global social and demographic changes, comparative population and social history, and social inequality, with a focus on China. He is the author of multiple books, and his research articles have been published in venues including Population and Development Review, Demography, Science, The Journal of the Economics of Aging, The Journal of Asian Studies, The China Journal, and International Migration Review. He has served on expert panels for the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, and as a senior fellow and the director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy. His work and views have appeared in media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Guardian, Economist, NPR, CNN, BBC, and others.

Cai Yong's research focuses on China's one-child policy and its implications for fertility and social policies. The one-child policy, engineered to control China's population growth by restricting fertility to one child per couple, has been controversial for many reasons, including the policy's questionable demographic and economic assumptions, the ethical concerns regarding direct state intrusion into family matters, and its negative social and demographic impacts. Cai's work has contributed to an emerging consensus on China's fertility change and the impact of the one-child policy. Specifically, his work shows that: China's fertility has dropped to a level well below the replacement; the demographic impact of the one-child policy was modest, much less than the government's claim of 400 million averted births; socioeconomic development played a critical role in driving China's fertility decline; and the socioeconomic impacts of low fertility and population aging are substantial. The consensus on these issues, to which Cai contributed, provided the empirical and scientific foundation that persuaded the Chinese government to end the three-decade-long policy.

Cai continues to monitor China's fertility in the post-one-child era, but with a new focus on international comparisons on sustained low fertility and population aging, both from a micro perspective about individual responses and family dynamics and from a macro perspective about social welfare regimes and public transfers.

Li Shuzhuo is currently University Distinguished Professor of Population and Development Policy Studies, Honorary Director of the Institute for Population and Development Studies, School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi’an Jiaotong University, and consulting professor at the Morrison Institute for Population and Resource Studies, Stanford University. He is a member of the Social Sciences Committee of the Ministry of Education of China. His research is focused on population and social development as well as public policies in contemporary China, including population policies and development, gender imbalance and sustainable social development, aging and health, migration and integration.

Asia Health Policy Program (AHPP) 2021-22 Colloquium series "Aligning Incentives for Better Health and More Resilient Health Systems in Asia”

Friday, October 29, 2021, 8:30am - 9:30am (Beijing time)

This paper investigates the impact of China’s reform of the system for medical payments from traditional fee-for-service to prospective payment in the form of diagnosis-related group. The paper explores comprehensive aspects of the reform, taking advantage of a large-scale administrative data set from a pilot city in China. It finds that medical expenditure per admission dropped by 7.3 percent, with greater impact on patients who spent a larger amount. To better understand the changes, further decompositions find that the expenditure reduction is fully explained by reduction in the quantity of services instead of using cheaper ones, and by reduction in the use of drugs but not reduction in other types of services, including examination, treatment, and nursing care. In addition, no evidence is found on quality deterioration or behavioral responses, including upcoding and cream skimming. Hospitals maintained their revenue through attracting more patients to contend with cost containment induced by the payment reform.

Julie Shi is Associate Professor of Health Economics in the School of Economics and the School of Global Health Development at Peking University. Dr. Shi’s research focuses on the design and impact of health care payment systems, the economics of health insurance coverage, drug regulations, and the trend of medical expenditures. Shi’s work has contributed to the theory and practice of China’s payment system reform. Her research on health insurance includes the impact of insurance on medical utilization. She has conducted academic and policy research on government regulations on prescription drugs. She also works on the trend of expenditures for patients with catastrophic diseases.

Dr. Shi’s undergraduate degree is from Tsinghua university and her PhD is from Boston University, both in economics. Before joining Peking University, she was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. Her work has published on leading academic journals including Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Health Economics, and Health Economics. She received awards for paper of the year in 2014 from the National Institute of Health Care Management (NIHCM) in the United States. She has conducted multiple projects for central and local governments in China for policy recommendation.

 

Fall 2021 Webinar Series Kickoff with Mr. Ban Ki-moon and Prof. Nicole Ardoin

September 28, 5-6 p.m. California time/ September 29, 9-10 a.m. Korea time

This event is held virtually via Zoom. Registration required.

 

The Asia-Pacific region is the world’s most vulnerable region to climate change risks. With its densely populated low-lying territories and high dependence on natural resources and agriculture sectors, Asia is increasingly susceptible to the impacts of rising sea levels and weather extremes. The impacts of climate change encompass multiple socioeconomic systems across the region, from livability and workability to food systems, physical assets, infrastructure services, and natural capital.

The Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center’s Fall 2021 webinar series, “Perfect Storm: Climate Change in Asia,” explores climate change impacts and risks in the region, adaptation and mitigation strategies, and policy responses.

Join us for the series kickoff event, featuring a keynote address by former UN Secretary-General and former South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, who is known for putting sustainable development and climate change at the top of the UN agenda, and a discussion with Stanford social ecologist Nicole Ardoin, a leading expert in environment, sustainability, and climate change education. Mr. Ban’s keynote will focus on COVID-19 and climate change.

Panelists 

Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Chairman of Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future, 8th Secretary-General of the UN

Ban Ki-moon is a South Korean diplomat who was the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations and a career diplomat in South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the UN.

Mr. Ban’s current leadership roles include the Chairman of South Korea’s Presidential National Council on Climate and Air Quality; Chairman of Boao Forum for Asia; Co-Chair of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, Vienna; Chairman of the International Olympic Committee’s Ethics Committee; Distinguished Chair Professor and Honorary Chairman at the Institute of Global Engagement and Empowerment at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea; and President of the Assembly and Chair of the Council of Global Green Growth Institute.

Mr. Ban served two consecutive terms as the Secretary General of the UN (2007-2016). Throughout his tenure at the UN, he strove to be a bridge builder, to give voice to the world’s poorest and the most vulnerable people, and to make the organization more transparent and effective. He successfully pressed for action to combat climate change — an effort that culminated in the adoption and rapid entry into the landmark Paris Agreement in 2016. Mr. Ban worked closely with member states of the UN to shape the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to establish UN Women, which has been advancing the organization’s work for gender equality and women’s empowerment. He also launched major efforts to strengthen UN peace operations, to protect human rights, to improve humanitarian response, and to prevent violent extremism and to revitalize the disarmament agenda.

At the time of his appointment at the UN, Mr. Ban was the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea. His 37 years with the Ministry included postings in New Delhi, Washington D.C., and Vienna, and responsibilities for a variety of portfolios, including Foreign Policy Adviser to the President, Chief National Security Adviser to the President, Vice Minister, Deputy Minister for Policy Planning and Director-General for American Affairs. Mr. Ban has also been actively involved in issues relating to inter-Korean relations by serving as Chairman of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization.

Mr. Ban earned a master’s degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1985 and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Seoul National University in 1970.
 

Nicole Ardoin, Emmett Family Faculty Scholar, is the Sykes Family Director of the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) in the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University. She is a senior fellow with the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education.

Founder of the Stanford Social Ecology Lab, Professor Ardoin is an interdisciplinary social scientist who researches individual and collective environmental behavior as influenced by environmental learning and motivated by place-based connections. Professor Ardoin and members of her lab pursue their scholarship with a theoretical grounding and orientation focused on applications for practice. They often work in collaboration with community partners, including public, private, and social sector organizations at a range of scales, to co-design and implement studies that build on a theoretical frame while concurrently addressing questions of interest to the partners. This work occurs primarily in informal settings, such as parks and protected areas, nature-based tourism locales, community gathering spaces, and other everyday-life settings.

Interested in actionable knowledge and notions of co-production, Professor Ardoin and her group collaborate with sustainability, environmental conservation, and philanthropic organizations to study the design, implementation, and effectiveness of a range of social-ecological practices. Through reflective learning, curiosity, and humility, the Social Ecology Lab strives to bring theoretically based insights to sustainability opportunities and challenges.

Professor Ardoin is an associate editor of the journal Environmental Education Research, a trustee of the George B. Storer Foundation, chair of NatureBridge's Education Advisory Council, an advisor to the Student Conservation Association and Teton Science Schools, among other areas of service to the field.

 

Moderator

Gi-Wook Shin, Director of APARC and the Korea Program

Gi-Wook Shin is the director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center; the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea; the founding director of the Korea Program; a senior fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; and a professor of sociology, all at Stanford University. As a historical-comparative and political sociologist, his research has concentrated on social movements, nationalism, development, and international relations.

 

The Stanford Internet Observatory will host a panel of speakers presenting views on new products and services intended to protect children in encrypted spaces. As part of our ongoing workshop series "Balancing Trust and Safety in End-to-end Encrypted Platforms," we facilitate open and productive dialogue on this divisive and controversial topic to find common ground and areas of compromise.

The webinar will include remarks from representatives from academia (UC Berkeley, Stanford), Industry (Apple), civil liberties organizations (ACLU, CDT) and child safety organizations (NCMEC, Thorn)

REGISTER

About the Session: How do gangs compete for extortion? Using detailed data on individual extortion payments to gangs and sales from a leading wholesale distributor of consumer goods and pharmaceuticals in El Salvador, we document evidence on the determinants of extortion payments, firm responses to extortion, and effects on consumers. We exploit a 2016 non-aggression pact between gangs to examine how collusion affects extortion in areas where gangs previously competed. While the non-aggression pact led to a large reduction in violence, we find that it increased extortion by 15% to 20%. Much of the increase in extortion was passed-through to retailers and consumers: we find a large increase in prices for pharmaceutical drugs and a corresponding increase in hospital visits for chronic illnesses. The results shed light on how extortion rates are set and point to an unintended consequence of policies that reduce competition between criminal organizations.

 

 

About the Speaker: Carlos Schmidt-Padilla received his PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also a Research Associate at the Center on the Politics of Development. Since September 2021, Carlos has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford Impact Labs (SIL), affiliated with PovGov at CDDRL. Broadly, his research interests encompass the political economy of development of Latin America and of sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, he studies questions concerning crime, human capital, immigration, and policing in developing countries. Carlos is from San Salvador, El Salvador.

There is no secret formula for success. But what if there were a pattern you could follow? A way of mapping the route and navigating the obstacles that arise?

Michael Barber has spent many years advising governments, businesses and major sporting teams around the world on how to achieve ambitious goals on time. In this book, he applies the wisdom he has gained from dealing with large, complex organizations and elite athletes to help anyone tackle their most challenging goals.

Drawing on the stories of historic visionaries and modern heroes – from Galileo to Rosa Parks, Gareth Southgate to Justin Trudeau – Accomplishment blends personal anecdote and proven strategy to trace a blueprint that can be applied to any area of life.

At the book’s core is the need to remember the ethical basis for what you have set out to do. Doing the right thing for the right reason is the reward that will see you through the criticism and setbacks. So whatever it is that you aspire to do – run a marathon, transform a school or run a public service for millions – this book will inspire you to get going and to bridge the gap between vision and reality.

Click here to purchase the book.

 

About the Author: Sir Michael Barber is a global expert on the implementation of ambitious change in large, complicated systems. He has advised governments on every continent and worked with major private sector organizations, schools and universities in Britain and the US. In addition, Barber has advised Team Sky, the elite cycling team and, since 2016, he has been a member of the Football Association's Technical Advisory Board, which helps the FA prepare England's teams, both men and women, for major tournaments.