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To many Japanese, Queen's, despite its domestic reputation, is not so well known as University of Toronto or University of British Columbia, however, this is not the case in the field of economics, especially local public finance.

A recent Japanese survey article by Sakashita 1994 on theoretical local public finance, introduces the studies by Queen's scholars, namely Professors Robin Boadway, Frank Flatters and John Hartwick as the major seminal forces in the development of the studies of fiscal federalism. Since one of the serious policy issues in Japan is the decentralization of the highly centralized local government system, the studies by the QED's scholars are getting more attention by serious Japanese researchers. This is substantiated by the fact that QED has been hosting Japanese visiting scholars Isao Horiba (92/93), Harutaka Takahashi (94/95) and Kiyoshi Mitsui (95-97), and all share research interest in local public economics. In addition, the current two Japanese in the Ph.D program are now conducting research on local public finance under the supervision of Robin Boadway.

In addition to this academic aspect, hospitality offered by the department was/is also well-appreciated by the Japanese visitors. Noritsugu Nakanishi, visitor for 94/95 then finalizing his destination for his sabbatical, once told the author that, in addition to its academic excellence, the considerate and well-organized response from QED was one of the reasons he chose Queen's over the other Canadian academic institutions. Other visitors, including Toru Nagahashi (93/94), would express the same sentiment and agree their expectations were met.

The majority of the visitors and the two Ph.D. students from the universities of Aoyama Gakuin, Meiji Gakuin and Hitotsubashi, chose Queen's because of the good stories and encounters their predecessors experienced here at QED and Kingston.

Masayoshi is currently enrolled in the PhD program.

Last modified: 4 March 1997
URL: http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/pub/newsletter/1996-97/japan.html