Since Prime Minster Shinzo Abe took office at the end of 2012, he has advanced his economic policy, “Abenomics”, which is consisted of three arrows. The first arrow is aggressive monetary policy. The second arrow is flexible fiscal policy. The third arrow is growth strategy - structural reform. With Abenomics, Japanese economy has out-performed expectations of many people around the world. The Japanese economy shifted to steady growth. Prices started to rise to overcome deflationary environment. Stock prices rose 57% in 2013. However, the great performance owes a lot to monetary policy, the first arrow, whose effect may not last long. The Growth Strategy, the third arrow, is about raising the potential growth rate of Japanese economy. Prime Minister Abe announced his first Growth Strategy in June 2013 and revised it a year later in June 2014. His top priority in his revised Strategy is corporate governance.
Mr Takeshi Komoto was a Featured Speaker at The IAFOR North American Conference on Sustainability, Energy & the Environment 2014 in Rhode Island, USA.
Takeshi Komoto
Mr Takeshi Komoto serves as Executive Director of the Japan External Trade Organization’s (JETRO) New York Office, where he assists the President of JETRO for all the activities of the NY Office to promote trade and investment between Japan and the United States,
He was seconded to JETRO from the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), where he was latterly Director for FTA/EPA Negotiations, and was responsible for various negotiations including the China-Japan-Korea (CJK) FTA, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (formerly ASEAN+6), as well as the Japan-Myanmar Bilateral Investment Agreement. He also played a leading role in international negotiations and domestic coordination for the World Trade Organization (Doha Round), and APEC.
Other secondments include to the APEC Secretariat in Singapore from 2008-2011 as Program Director, and to the Japan Defense Agency, where he served as a chief negotiator with the US Department of Defense on ballistic missile defense, which culminated in a successful deal between the two countries for procurement and operation.
Mr Komoto’s work at METI over the past twenty years has focused on foreign affairs, and his research at the Ministry has included research on the global economy (including international financial markets and global trade and investment trends from both a micro and macro perspective, as well as industrial and trade strategy policy making for the apparel and textile industry in Japan.
Mr Komoto is an Economics graduate from the University of Tokyo, and holds a Masters in Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.
