As a research center affiliated with Hitotsubashi University, the Institute of Economic Research (IER) has been actively conducting research activities in its efforts to serve as a hub of collaboration for domestic and international researchers engaging in original, leading-edge studies. Most of the IER faculty members are also involved in graduate education at the Graduate School of Economics, giving seminars and lectures. The predecessor of the IER, the Institute of Research on the East Asian Economies at Tokyo University of Commerce, dates back to 1940. It later became the Institute of Economic Research at Hitotsubashi University in 1949. The following year, 1950, marked the launch of The Economic Review, and the annual publication of the Economic Research Series has continued since 1953.

Besides the faculty members’ individual research work, the IER has a history of successful collaborative research, guided by its founding purpose of “comprehensive research on the Japanese and world economies”. Of particular note is the 14-volume publication Long-Term Economic Statistics of Japan, which upon completion received the grand prize in the 1989 Nikkei Prize for Excellent Books in Economic Science. During the period from 1995 through 1999, the IER undertook a Center of Excellence (COE) project run by then the Ministry of Education for building a long-term economic statistical database for Asia. Results obtained in the project led to the publication of Asian Historical Statistics (planned to be a 12-volume series) which started with the launch of its first volume in 2008 covering Taiwan. For the period of 2000 through 2004, the IER organized the Project on Intergenerational Equity, which was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and promoted international joint research on pension, healthcare, population, labor, and environmental issues.

In 2003 through 2007, the IER engaged in two 21st Century COE programs (entitled “Research Unit for Statistical Analysis in the Social Sciences” and “Normative and Social Choice in Contemporary Economic Systems”), and in 2008 a successor Global COE program entitled “Research Unit for Statistical and Empirical Analysis in Social Sciences” was started for the purpose of extending these programs. In addition, the IER promoted two large-scale projects from 2006 through 2010: “Economic Analysis of Intergenerational Issues” supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research and “Understanding Inflation Dynamics of the Japanese Economy” supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Creative Scientific Research (Research Center for Price Dynamics). Also in 2008, the IER took on a Project for Promoting Empirical Social Sciences to Solve Issues of the Near Future entitled “Design of Industry and Financial Networks Enabling Sustainable Growth” (Research Center for Interfirm Network).

Some of these major joint research projects produced clear results and saw their completion as IER projects, while others were developed and modified into succeeding projects Regardless of the scale of projects, the IER’s stance has been to actively promote many collaborative research projects and try to make its facilities internationally accessible for collaboration purposes. The driving force for achieving these goals is the IER’s five research departments—Japanese and Asian Economies; U.S. European, and Russian Economies; Contemporary Economies; Comparative Economic Systems; and Economic Systems Analysis—and three affiliated research centers, namely, the Research Centre for Information and Statistics of Social Science, the Center for Economic Institutions, and the Center for Intergenerational Studies (opened in 2007), to one of which all IER faculty members belong.

As for the research departments, their names reflect their functions. In terms of the affiliated research centers, the Research Centre for Information and Statistics of Social Science is expanding its services to provide government microdata for academic research in cooperation with the Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The Center for Economic Institutions was established for the purpose of systematically conducting basic research on the economic institutions of Japan and other Asian countries, and becoming the center of the international network in the field. The topics emphasized by the center have changed over time. Currently, the center promotes international joint research, focusing mainly on economic development and institutions in low-income countries in Asia and Africa. The Center for Intergenerational Studies promotes leading-edge research on intergenerational issues as a hub of international collaborative research in cooperation with four central government ministries and agencies. In addition, the Russian Research Center was established as an IER entity in 2007 although no IER faculty member serves as a regular member. The center was originally started when a study was commissioned by a private company, and activities of similar nature are being developed.

From 2010, the IER has been designated as a “Center for Empirical Analysis on Japanese and Global Economy” under the new Joint Usage/Research Center project of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. The main objective is to build an international collaborative research center based on cooperation with industry, government, and international organizations, backed by the development of a system for using government microdata as well as the development of general data archives and methods of statistical analysis. More specifically, the IER has been engaging in the Project for JSPS Invitational Training Program for Advanced Japanese Research Institutes, which is intended to train young researchers through instruction and supervision by internationally recognized researchers, through research projects in which a wide variety of non-IER researchers participate via an open application process, and through the Program for Promoting the Use of Anonymous Data Released by the Government.

It is worth noting that this wide range of research activities is made possible by the IER’s comprehensive support system which has been developed throughout its history. The Research Assistant Department consists of the Publications and Secretariat Section and the Large-Scale Data Archiving and Processing Section, and the Administrative Department includes the IER Library and the Library for Japanese Statistics. They jointly strive to build a unique collection of documents and aim to serve as data archives or libraries specialized in statistical information. Also, support provided by the Administrative Office for the application for Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research and other funding sources is part of the IER’s tradition, and which is clearly reflected in the IER’s high rates of winning competitive research funds over a long period.

Lastly, with the faculty members, outside research collaborators, and supporting staff working as a team, the IER, as stated at the beginning, aims to function and evolve as a hub of collaboration among domestic and international researchers, while continuing to provide publicly meaningful services and produce original, leading-edge research output. It goes without saying that the accumulated individual research conducted by IER’s faculty members is the source of collaborative research projects, and, as a matter of course, further accumulation of individual research is a constant pursuit.