Social Innovation and New Solutions to Youth Unemployment: UK & Japan’s Emerging Youth Policy

12 March 2013

6:00 – 7:30pm, followed by a drinks reception to 8:00pm

13-14 Cornwall Terrace (Outer Circle), London, NW14QP

In the UK, young people with low or no qualifications make up 39% of all young people unemployed and not in education, and 47% of those inactive and outside learning, despite only accounting for a quarter of the youth population. Tony Wilson, Policy Director of Inclusion, which delivers research and new approaches to policy that promote social inclusion in the labour market, will talk about the UK’s policy of intervention and provision of training to improve the employability of  British youth. His recent publications include the BIS research paper (Number 101) Youth Unemployment: Review of Training for Young People with Low Qualifications (Dept. for Business Innovation and Skills, February 2013).

From the 1960s onwards, Japan’s rapid economic growth generated internationally low levels of youth unemployment. This changed in the 1990s however, and by the 2000s, youth unemployment was recognised as a serious concern. Japan’s Emerging Youth Policy (Routledge, 2013) is based on extensive fieldwork that draws on both sociological and policy science approaches, and is the first book to investigate in detail how the state, experts, the media, and youth workers have reacted to the rise of youth joblessness in Japan. The book argues that entrepreneurial youth support leaders in Japan can provide sustainable, attractive solutions to the dilemmas that virtually all post-industrial nations currently face but have not yet seriously addressed. Dr Tuukka Toivonen, the author of the book, will discuss Japan’s emerging youth policy and attempt to bring evidence from Japan into a dialogue with the realities in other advanced nations, such as the UK.

Dr Tuukka Toivonen

Dr Tuukka Toivonen is Junior Research Fellow at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford, and is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Global Communications Centre (GLOCOM), the International University of Japan, Tokyo. He holds a DPhil in Social Policy from the University of Oxford, and is a graduate of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan. He has held visiting positions at the universities of Kobe, Tokyo, Kyoto and Keio. He is a sociologist by training and has published several articles in world-class journals that comparatively analyse policy-making processes, youth problems and social innovations. He is also the co-editor of A Sociology of Japanese Youth: From Returnees to NEETs (Routledge, 2012). Currently, he is carrying out fieldwork on the evolution of social entrepreneurship and related innovation communities in Japan. Alongside his purely academic work, he also engages in social innovation activities himself as the founder and representative of Kansai RISE, which promotes young people’s creative involvement in public improvement and policy-making at regional level.

Tony Wilson

Tony Wilson joined Inclusion as Director in October 2011. He has more than ten years’ experience of policy and research, project management and delivery across a range of roles in HM Treasury, the Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentre Plus. Since joining Inclusion, Tony has led on a range of projects including a feasibility study on developing a new employment programme in Northern Ireland, assessing approaches to tackling youth unemployment, the fragmentation of services for young people, and evaluations of programmes to increase employment among inactive groups. Most recently, Tony led on employment policy and delivery at HM Treasury: advising on labour market trends, policy responses to the downturn, delivery of welfare-to-work programmes and benefit reform. Prior to this he was responsible for the design and delivery of a number of Department for Work and Pensions employment projects. These included overseeing the development and introduction of the Future Jobs Fund, which created over 105,000 temporary jobs for long-term unemployed people. He was an expert policy adviser to David Freud on his independent review of welfare-to-work, published in 2007.

Organised by The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

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Leadership in Central Banking

23 February 2012

6:00 – 7:45pm, followed by a drinks reception to 8:45pm

Daiwa Foundation Japan House

Central banks currently face unusual challenges. In both the UK and Japan, the normal policy lever – interest rates – is at or close to its limits, forcing central bankers to consider innovative measures, such as “quantitative easing” (QE), to support their economies. But these measures have been controversial. Some argue that the Japanese experience shows that QE doesn’t work, while others say that the real problem is the Bank of Japan’s cautiousness. In the UK, critics argue that QE has failed to boost the economy, debased the currency, and pushed up inflation. In the meantime, savers and pensioners in both countries have been squeezed by unusually low returns on their investments. In this seminar, the second in the 2012 series Leadership: People and Power in the UK and Japan, we ask what lessons can be learnt from the Bank of Japan’s experience over the last two decades – and what central bankers in both countries should do next?

Satoshi Kawazoe

Satoshi Kawazoe has been General Manager for Europe and Chief Representative in London at the Bank of Japan since May 2011. Prior to this, Mr. Kawazoe was General Manager of the Bank’s Shizuoka branch (2009-2011). Mr. Kawazoe held several other posts at the Bank, generally relating to international relations. In that capacity, he represented the Bank in various fora, such as the Committee on the Global Financial System and the Markets Committee, which regularly meet at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, discussing developments and issues in the international financial markets and the economy.

Stephen King

Stephen King is HSBC’s Group Chief Economist and the Bank’s global head of economics and asset allocation research. Since 2001, Mr. King has been writing a weekly column for The Independent. He has given written and oral evidence to the House of Commons Treasury Committee and the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, and oral evidence to the House of Lords Committee on UK Monetary Policy. Between 2007 and 2009, he was a member of the European Central Bank Shadow Council, and he recently became a member of the Financial Times Economists’ Forum. His first book,Losing Control (Yale University Press) examines the impact of the emerging nations on western economic prosperity.

Edward Carr (Chair)

Edward Carr is Foreign Editor of The Economist. Carr started at the paper as a science correspondent. In 2000 he left for the Financial Times, where he served as News Editor. Returning to The Economistin 2005, Mr. Carr was Business Affairs Editor, charged with the coverage of business, finance and science.

COP 17 and Beyond: Japan-UK and Global Action for Addressing Climate Change

11 November 2011 from 6.30pm

The Japan Foundation, London
Russell Square House
10-12 Russell Square
London, WC1B 5EH 

From late November to December, delegates from all over the world will meet in COP17 in Durban, South Africa to establish a new framework in order to continue to tackle the issue of climate change. Before the start of this conference, the Japan Foundation will host a special lecture here in London inviting four professionals representing both Japanese and European perspectives – the event will be moderated by Oliver Morton, currently senior editor at The Economist, where he was until recently Energy and Environment Editor.

Prof Mitsutsune Yamaguchi will deliver a presentation entitled ‘In search of an effective and feasible international framework – A balanced approach’ about Japanese policy on climate change issues and the rationale underlying it. Prof. M. Yamaguchi is an environmental economist and Project Professor at the University of Tokyo. He is a member of various Government committees on climate change and has been a lead author for the IPCC 3^rd, 4^thand 5^th assessment reports.

Dr Robert Falkner, Senior Lecturer in International Relations and Associate, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment will discuss ‘What future for international climate policy? Durban and beyond’. The talk will focus on the prospects for a future framework agreement on climate mitigation and the options available for advancing climate policy through multilateral channels.

Dan Dorner, Senior Energy Analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA), will present the key climate change findings from the Agency’s flagship publication, the World Energy Outlook 2011, focusing on the latest data, policy developments and scenario projections for the next 25 years.

Jun Arima, special advisor to the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry for Global Environmental Affairs and Director-General of JETRO London, will discuss ‘COP17 and beyond – Japan’s view on a fair and effective international framework”’ based on his experience as Japan’s chief negotiator at the COP14, 15 and 16 and the on-going UNFCCC negotiation.

This event is supported by the Embassy of Japan, JETRO London and ANA

This event is free to attend but booking is essential. To reserve a place, please email your name and the title of the event you would like to attend to event@jpf.org.uk.

 

The Future of Education in the UK and Japan

This fourth seminar in the 2011 series, Uncertain Futures: The Individual, Society and the State in the UK and Japan, will consider the role of education in society and the pressures of adapting education policy to changing needs. The ebb and flow of educational reforms in past decades has seen British and Japanese models held up for scrutiny or emulation. Individualism, internationalization and the information age have, at different times, informed debates on ideology and practice. Our speakers will explore such topics as ‘the tyranny of exams’ and education for employability in determining to what extent economic necessity may determine the priorities of the future. The discussion will focus upon core values in education and aspirations for children, families and schools in the UK and Japan.

Contributors

Dr Anthony Seldon

Anthony Seldon is a political historian and commentator on British political leadership as well as on education and contemporary Britain. He is also Master of Wellington College, one of Britain’s most famous and historic independent schools and was co-founder and first Director of the Institute of Contemporary British History. Dr Seldon is author or editor of some 25 books, including Brown at 10, a biography of Gordon Brown (2010), ‘Trust: How We Lost It and How to Get It Back’ (2009), ‘Blair’s Britain, 1994-2007’ and ‘Blair Unbound, 2001-2007’ (with Peter Snowdon)(2007). He has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Brighton and Richmond and in 2007 was given a Chair at the College of Teachers as Professor of Education. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts. Dr Seldon is regarded as one of the country’s most high profile independent school headmasters and appears regularly on television and radio and in the press, and writes for several national newspapers. His views on education have regularly been sought by both government and political parties.

Professor Roger Goodman

Roger Goodman is Nissan Professor of Modern Japanese Studies at the University of Oxford where he has been Head of the Social Sciences Division since 2008. His publications include ‘Japan’s International Youth: The Emergence of a New Class of Schoolchildren’ (1990) and ‘Children of the Japanese State: The Changing Role of Child Protection Institutions in Contemporary Japan’ (2000) both of which have also been published in Japanese versions. He has also edited or co-edited a further eleven books including ‘The East Asian Welfare Model: Welfare Orientalism and the State’ (1998); ‘Family and Social Policy in Japan’ (2002); ‘Can the Japanese Change their Education System?’ (2002); ‘Global Japan: The Experience of Japan’s New Immigrant and Overseas Communities’ (2003), ‘The ‘Big Bang’ in Japanese Higher Education: The 2004 Reforms and the Dynamics of Change’ (2005), ‘Ageing in Asia: Asia’s Position in the New Global Demography’ (2007) and ‘A Sociology of Japanese Youth Problems: From Returnees to NEETs’ (forthcoming, 2011). His main research interests are in the education and social welfare systems of modern Japan.

Baroness Estelle Morris (Chair)

The Baroness Morris of Yardley started her career in education as a teacher in an inner city multi-racial comprehensive school where she taught for 18 years. In 1992 she entered Parliament and in 2001 became the Secretary of State for Education and Skills. She followed this with 2 years as a Minister at the Department of Culture Media and Sport and left Parliament in 2005. Since then she has combined a career that includes senior posts both in education and the arts as well as being a member of the House of Lords. Her roles in education have allowed her to see the education landscape from classroom teacher to senior policy maker and it is this breadth of experience that is now reflected in her comments and analysis of education. Amongst other posts she now works at the Institute of Effective Education at the University of York which aims to transform the relationship between education research and practice so that policy making and teaching can become more evidence based. She is a regular contributor to Guardian Education.

24 May 2011

6:00 – 7:00pm, followed by a drinks reception to 8:00pm

Daiwa Foundation Japan House

Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

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