In fiscal 2010, the IER was recognized as a Center for Empirical Analysis on Japanese and Global Economy under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Joint Usage and Research Center Program. As such a center, the IER has made available for use by domestic and international researchers a wide range of statistics through initiatives including provision of microeconomic data from government statistics, and through joint research project programs that are adopted through calls for applications open to all researchers regardless of their national affiliation. The majority of such projects are currently led by researchers based abroad. In fiscal 2018, the IER was also selected for the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) program "Constructing Data Infrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences." Besides these initiatives, individual IER faculty members have received numerous research grants, especially those of Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the JSPS. Utilizing opportunities that were made available through these joint research activities, the IER has become one of the international bases for collaborative research in applied economics.
From these collaborative research projects, individual IER faculty members have published numerous papers in internationally-recognized refereed journals. The research outcomes have been published in research books in English and in Japanese journals and books as well. Furthermore, the IER has three unique means of publication of its own: hardcover books in English known as the
Economic Research Series, books in Japanese known as
Keizai Kenkyu Sosho, and the quarterly journal in Japanese titled
Keizai Kenkyu (The Economic Review), which publishes refereed articles submitted by both outsiders and the IER faculty members. These publications have established reputations for high quality among academics and policy makers. Currently, Hitotsubashi University is implementing its third Medium-Term Plan (2016-21), which calls for generating high levels of world-leading research results to contribute to the sustainable development of global society, and establishing a solid foundation for academic information and swiftly publishing research results both in Japan and worldwide. The IER is leading Hitotsubashi University regarding these objectives.
To further enhance the IER tradition, we plan to focus on the following activities in the near future. First, we will promote the accumulation, publication, and use of a broad range of statistical data by adding Big Data such as high-frequency data from asset markets and point-of-sale (POS) data to government statistics and historical data. Second, we will generate even more research results based on such data. One of the outlets is peer-reviewed journals in English written by IER faculty members. We will attempt to increase the absolute number of such articles. Other outlets include policy briefs and recommendations. Recently, there has been a global shift towards "evidence-based policy making" (EBPM). The shift toward EBPM is affecting the Government of Japan as well. As empirical analysis has been one of the IER's strengths traditionally, we would like to contribute to society in this regard in order to meet high expectations. Third, through diligent research cooperation and personnel exchange, we will strengthen networking with other research organizations in universities both in Japan and abroad, government and public-sector institutions such as the Bank of Japan, and private-sector research institutions. We would appreciate much your guidance and support regarding these activities of the IER.
April 1, 2021
The Director, the Institute of Economic Research
Takashi Kurosaki
