Takahiro Miyao's Radio Institute of Global Communications: No. 16, February 6, 2005

Takahiro MIYAO (Professor, GLOCOM)

Partial transcript and translation from Prof. Miyao's Radio Program, posted here with permission of Radio Nikkei

Takahiro Miyao's Radio Institute of Global Communications: No. 16
Radio Nikkei daiichi hoso ; BS Radio Nikkei 300 ch.
Broadcast time:	February 6 (Sunday) 19:00-19:30
Recording place:	Recorded in Radio Nikkei's Studio
Program:	1. Introduction 2. Virtual Discussion 3. Trend Research 4. Concluding Remarks
Audio:	Radio Program  (Windows Media Player) (Mainly in Japanese but some parts in English) Asia Station Web site (in Japanese)

Introduction

Hello, everyone. I hope you are doing alright in this severe winter weather. Today In the first half of the program I will take up an important article on Japan's Free Trade Agreements and East Asian Economic Community, and will explain these concepts in detail. Then in the second half I will have a telephone interview with a specialist on Japan's soft power, and ask him what soft power really is and how to measure it. It should be quite interesting. So please stay tuned.

Virtual Discussion

In his article "Economic Integration in East Asia and Japan's Role," Professor Toshihiko Kinoshita says that FTAs (Free Trade Agreements), EPAs (Economic Partnership Agreements), and even an East Asian Economic Community idea have recently become very popular in East Asia, as the sense of regionalism has been increasing in the Asian region. In this situation, Japan's role is quite important, not just for Japan's own sake, but for the region as a whole, because Japan is not only a regional power in Asia, but also a global power, at least economically. So, Japan's responsibility will be to give the U.S. that tends to be skeptical about East Asian Community movements a kind of assurance that the creation of the Community in Asia would not harm the U.S. and transparency of decision-making as well as openness of the regional economy will be maintained and even enhanced.

Trend Research

Today, we will have a telephone interview with Mr. Yoshiyuki Sodekawa, who has been a chief researcher at Dentsu Institute for Human Studies and has just been appointed as a member of the Economic and Social Research Institute in the Cabinet Office of the Japanese Government. Mr. Sodekawa is a foremost specialist on Japan's soft power, so we will ask him about it.

(Interview with Mr. Sodekawa in Japanese)

Concluding Remarks:

If you have any comment on today's program, please contact us through our Radio Nikkei hompage (www.radionikkei.jp/joho). Actually you can hear our past broadcast program on our homepage by clicking the "on-demand" section in the upper righthand corner. I hope you enjoyed today's program. Our next program will be on the first Sunday in March, that is, March 6. In the meantime, please stay warm and take care. See you next month.