Recorded by Professor Kenichi Ohno

My same book (see below) won another award, this time the newly created Osaragi Jiro Award for Critical Works sponsored by the Asahi Newspaper Company. I am the first winner of this award. Osaragi Jiro was a novelist who wrote about French and Japanese modern history (including Yokohama merchants), among other things. The Asahi Newspaper says they will support dissemination of my ideas to the rest of the world.

My Japanese book, Globalization of Developing Countries: Is Autonomous Development Possible? (Toyo Keizai, 2000) won the Suntory Prize for 2001 (with the other eight prize winners). Among other things, this book discusses the meaning of "translative adaptation", problems with IMF/WB/WTO policies, Meiji Japan's industrialization, Vietnam's industrialization under integration pressure, Asian crisis, and Central Asian transition strategies. It is a pity that most of you cannot read it in the original. But many of the book's ideas are actually presented in my classes, so foreign students can still enjoy some parts of it.

 Several Japanese professors, in collaboration with Vietnamese researchers from National Economic University, visited many firms in Northern and Southern Vietnam. This was a part of the joint NEU-JICA research project. Hundreds of textile, garment and footwear factories and outlets were visited, and a large number of electronics JVs, steel and machinery companies, motorbike and automobile assemblers were interviewed. As a result of these research trips, I think we have a very clear and concrete advice for the Vietnamese government in the near future. A new homepage was created for this project and main report drafting was begun. Prof. Fukunari Kimura and I gave a three-day lecture on "Trade, FDI and exchange rates after the Asian crisis" at NEU. These were some of our activities during this summer.

IMF organized a closed session to explain their new policy on conditionality (they will limit themselves to macro and financial areas and leave structural reforms to WB etc). Fischer and Boorman were more reasonable than before. But Mr. N----, who was responsible for Indonesia in 1997-98, insisted that comprehensive conditionalities were still desirable (sigh...) I had the honor to converse with Mr. Tarrin Nimmanahaeminda (former Thai Finance Minister) over lunch. My former student Mr. Yu from People's Bank of China was there too, taking care of his boss (Assistant Governor). I hope he will be assistant governor himself soon.

At the request of Japan's Foreign Ministry, GRIPS is trying to set up within our institute a new research center for external economic policies (development, integration, trade, FDI, ODA, WTO, exchange rates, etc.) and Prof. Hayami and I are nominated as initial leaders. But this will take time, so at first we will do research and organize a supporting office in preparation. After a few years, if successful, we will have a permanent center.

Ronald McKinnon, "Japan and US Should Remove Yen Appreciation Worry," Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei), May 11, 2001--also in Japanese but McKinnon's English original available. Read

Ronald McKinnon and Kenichi Ohno, "The Foreign Exchange Origins of Japan's Economic Slump," The World Economy, 24:3, March 2001. This is an update of the McKinnon-Ohno hypothesis.

I was a member of the Japanese MOF mission to Uzbekistan (Feb. 2000) to discuss the currency unification problem. We met Minister Azimov and Undersecretary Kuchkarov from MOF, Governor Muradjanov of CBE, etc. Mr. Azimov and I are of the same age (but I am just a professor...). Does anybody know when Uzbekistan is going to have only one exchange rate?

But in Japanese. Kenichi Ohno, Globalization and Developing Countries: Is Autonomous Development Possible? Toyo Keizai Shimposha, 2000.