Featuring:

Takatoshi Ito

Professor, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University

Director, Program on Public Pension and Sovereign Funds, Center on Japanese Economy and Business (CJEB), Columbia Business School

Moderator:

David E. Weinstein

Director, CJEB; Carl S. Shoup Professor of the Japanese Economy, Columbia University

Topics to be discussed:

• The Japanese government has created the national “University Fund” with an asset size of 10 trillion yen (USD 70 billion). The Fund aims to generate more than 3% returns annually. However, its return was negative in the first full year of operation, FY 2022. The portfolio is still building up to a reference portfolio of 65% global equities and 35% global bonds.
• When the Fund becomes fully operational in several years, it will distribute annual returns of 3% to select universities. The Fund will help those universities propel research that would generate innovation and improve the ranking of Japanese universities.
• The Ministry of Education has chosen the first beneficiary of this Fund, Tohoku University, which will receive funding in FY 2024.
• There are two challenges. 1) Will the Fund become capable of generating more than 3% returns? 2) Will the recipient university be able to improve its research output and raise its standing among global research universities?

About the speaker:

Takatoshi Ito is the director of the Program on Public Pension and Sovereign Funds and associate director of research at the Center on Japanese Economy and Business of Columbia Business School. He is also a professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He has taught extensively both in the United States and Japan since finishing his PhD in economics at Harvard University in 1979. He taught as an assistant and tenured associate professor (1979-88) at the University of Minnesota, as an associate and full professor at Hitotsubashi University (1988-2002), as a professor at the Graduate School of Economics at the University of Tokyo (2004-2014) before assuming his current position in 2015. He held visiting professor positions at Harvard University, Stanford University, Columbia Business School, the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, and the Tun Ismail Ali Chair Professor at the University of Malaya. He has distinguished academic and research appointments such as president of the Japanese Economic Association in 2004, fellow of the Econometric Society since 1992, research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research since 1985, and faculty fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research since 2006. He was editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Japanese and International Economies and is co-editor of the Asian Economic Policy Review. In an unusual move for a Japanese academic, Ito was also appointed to positions in the official sector, as senior advisor in the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund (1994-97) and as deputy vice minister for International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance, Japan (1999-2001). He served as a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy (2006-2008). (Read more)

Admission and Contact:

You must register to attend this event in person.

If you have questions about the event, please contact us at [email protected].

Main Organizer: Center on Japanese Economy and Business (CJEB), Columbia Business School

Outreach Partner: Japan Research Program, Weatherhead East Asian Institute (WEAI), Columbia University

Special Notes:

• This in-person-only event is open to the public and will not be live-streamed.

A recording will be available on our website at a later date

• Please be advised that this event may be photographed, so your image may appear on our website later. If this is an issue, please let us know.
• Please bring a government-issued ID or Columbia University ID to access Geffen Hall.

For more information about other CJEB events, visit our website or contact [email protected].

Location: Room 120 (Cooperman Commons), Geffen Hall

Time: 6:00-7:30 pm EDT

Free!

Registration