Tuesday, March 26, 2019
12:00-2:00 PM
C. K. Choi Building, Room 120 (1855 West Mall)
By: Dr. Yosuke Sunahara

Lunch will be provided.  Please RSVP   here.

The government survey which conducted in 2013 estimated there existed more than eight millions empty houses in Japan, and the result gave a massive shock to the Japanese society. Though both national and local governments have addressed the problems caused by the increase of empty houses, such countermeasures do not effectively decrease the number of empty houses. The reason is that more than one million of newly-built houses are still provided every year while the empty houses got recognized as a social problem.

  

As the population of Japan is decreasing year by year since the latter half of the 2000s, it is evident that such provisions of newly-built houses are not sustainable in the future. Nonetheless, Japanese society allows the increase of newly-built housings, and it cannot be explained merely by such a tendency that Japanese people like new things. This talk will describe that potential home buyers and providers behave rationally even though the provision of newly-built housings are irrational from the macro-level perspective. Based on the rational behaviors, historically developed institutions around housing are substantial and well balanced (but seemingly unsustainable).

Tuesday, March 26, 2019
2:00-3:30 PM
Venue: C. K. Choi Building, Room 120 (1855 West Mall)

Light refreshments will be served.  Click   here   to RSVP.

Come join a roundtable discussion on Japan's leadership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Liberal International Order with former Canadian Ambassadors Don Campbell and Joseph Caron, Professor Sunahara from Kobe University, Professor Paul Evans, Professor Brian Job, and Professor Yves Tiberghien.

5:00-6:00 PM 

Venue: TBD 

By: Mr. Joseph Caron