Greetings from the New President
In February I assumed the position of President of the National Institute for Research Advancement (NIRA). I would therefore like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and discuss my aspirations for the Institute.
I have come to this position from a career in academic research and teaching, mainly in the field of international economic issues. In addition, I have also considered a variety of economic issues as a member of government committees and of Strategy Councils that have functioned as advisory bodies to several Japanese prime ministers. These activities have brought me into frequent contact with the activities of domestic and overseas think tanks. NIRA is one of the leading think tanks in Japan. Established in 1974, NIRA will celebrate its 32nd anniversary this year. During this time, NIRA's research has produced results in a wide variety of areas, but these 32 years have also seen extraordinary change in Japan's economic and social environments. There are therefore several points that I would like to emphasize as I oversee the operation of the Institute in my new capacity.
Japan faces a huge amount of economic and social policy issues. However, very few think tanks in the nation are at present addressing these issues. This makes NIRA, which has worked from the beginning in the area of policy research and achieved consistently excellent results, all the more essential. The Institute represents an important infrastructure for the implementation of policy research. In the future, we will continue to identify policy needs and to conduct research with excellent theoretical and practical foundations in order to meet those needs.
Current policy issues are highly complex and specialized. It is therefore necessary to utilize networks of specialists in order to address them. NIRA also functions as a nodal point for the research activities of specialists outside the Institute. We will further enhance this aspect of NIRA in order to accumulate knowledge and increase the level of specialization of the Institute's research results.
The trend towards decentralization is accelerating. NIRA has accumulated substantial research results on local issues through cooperation with and subsidization of local think tanks. In the future, NIRA will further enhance research in this area by working to promote joint research projects with local governments.
Policy research is not completed with the publication of research results. Research results are not effectively utilized until they have an impact on policy formation. The selection of themes that will influence the policy formation process is therefore of great importance. We will continue to focus our efforts in this area.
In recent years, remarkable development has been observed in the Asian region. This has generated an increasing number of problems which it is difficult for individual nations to provide solutions to, and which therefore must be wrestled with by the region as a whole. NIRA has traditionally cultivated networks with overseas think tanks, and will fully utilize those networks in studying these problems.
In the near future, NIRA will be privatized, and a new NIRA will come into existence. This new Institute will be forced to reduce the scale of its operations. However, the new-born NIRA will also be required to conduct research on policy issues quickly and effectively. I believe that the new Institute will be able to generate more significant results despite its smaller scale by maximizing its use of networks of specialists in Japan and overseas. This is the perspective that we will be adopting in considering the most suitable form for the new NIRA, and we will move ahead with all due speed in drawing up plans for changes to ensure that this form is realized.
It goes without saying that NIRA's staff will have to redouble their efforts to enable the Institute to fulfill its responsibilities when its scale is reduced. However, help from outside the Institute will also be essential, and I therefore hope that NIRA's supporters will be as generous in the future as they have been in the past.
Motoshige Itoh
President
National Institute for Research Advancement
(Professor Motoshige Itoh, of the Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo, has become the fifth President of NIRA, following the retirement of Takafusa Shioya)
