Person:

Yarrow, Richard

March 2022. Harvard Kennedy School fellow Richard Yarrow and Harvard students Tasuku Ono and Candice Yang recently interviewed Saito Renho, a longtime leader in Japan’s opposition Constitutional Democratic Party. Renho, who is popularly known by her given name, first entered Japan’s national legislature in 2004 and served as president of the Democratic Party of Japan from 2016 to 2017. Here we present the parts of the discussion in which they focus on issues of Japanese economic growth and reform, the effects of ‘Abenomics’, redistribution, East Asian demographics, as well as technology, research and facilitating future innovation in Japan.

The enormous growth of China’s investments in Israel has become one of the major changes in the Middle East’s geopolitics during the last decade. This paper examines the nationalist motivation behind China’s investment in Israeli technologies and Israel’s strategic role in China’s intended transition from the “world factory” to a global innovation champion. China’s engagement with Israel in the Belt and Road Initiative reflects Chinese techno-nationalism, and the Chinese government has used nationalist discourse to mobilize private enterprises to invest in Israeli technology, promoting the growth of Chinese private investments alongside Chinese state-affiliated investments in Israel since 2014. This chapter also analyses how the surge in Chinese investment activities has shaped larger debates and tensions in Israel’s policymaking and national identity.

This chapter traces the history of the community of elite German natural scientists in the early twentieth century through the scientists’ nationalism and participation in World War I. Many leading German scientists sacrificed their research interests, international reputations, and scholarly freedom for harsh war work that military officers largely did not respect. In analysing their actions and writings, and the text of the 1914 “Call to the Civilized World,” the chapter describes scientists’ commitment to a collectivistic nationalism and compares the statements of German and British scientists. The scientists’ post-1918 crises and transformed identities further highlight the significance of nationalism in shaping the early twentieth-century German scientists’ work and careers.

This week marks the anniversary of journalist Theodore White’s reporting on the 1942-44 famine in Henan, which helped spur greater relief for people in this inland province.

Thailand’s Pheu Thai-led national government had planned to cap Bangkok’s mass transit train fares at 20 baht for Thai citizens, beginning in October or November of 2025. The plan expands on a 2023 fare cap for some trains, and on then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s transit proposals from 2005-2006. Thus, the fare cap has been discussed for decades, and it resembles other Thaksin-era initiatives in offering a simple benefit for lower-income voters. Comparing normal transit fares and income measures across East Asia shows that there is merit to some fare reform: Bangkok’s train fares are among the highest in Asia, both in absolute terms and relative to the wages of the poorest residents, which hinders workers’ mobility. However, Bangkok’s transit system also remains underdeveloped compared to other major cities in Asia, with as much as a third of Bangkok’s population lacking easy access to mass transit trains. Lowering fares would have limited equity benefits for most residents, would not lead to stable transit revenues, and would likely make further transit expansion less affordable. Raising minimum fares, while reducing fares for some lines and interchanges, could improve Bangkok’s transportation and regional economy, while sustaining the transit system’s finances.

Thailand’s attempts to use economic power to influence the outcome of its border conflict with Cambodia in 2025 largely failed, due to major changes in the Cambodian economy that have lessened its reliance on its richer neighbour. The conflict’s aftermath highlights how the growth and diversification of Southeast Asian economies increasingly precludes regional governments’ use of so-called ‘geoeconomic’ strategies against one another.