K-School, Japanese Business Group Announce Partnership

As a result of a partnership announced yesterday between a Japanese business association and the Kennedy School of Government (KSG), students will have newfound access to premiere international business research.

The KSG's Center for Business and Government (CBG) will produce research, sponsor two fellowships and run executive conferences as benefits of its partnership with Keizai Doyukai (Doyukai), a Japanese business association, said J.H. Dow Davis, executive director of CBG.

CBG officials are praising the partnership as a major achievement.

"The establishment of a long-term relationship with the Kansai region is one of this year's most satisfying developments for the [CBG]," said Roger B. Porter, the director of CBG, who is also IBM professor of business and government at KSG, in a press release.

This year, the research will be headed by Pierre Sauve, a CBG fellow and Brookings Institute senior fellow.

The research will focus on the global trading system, and Sauve will present his findings at a KSG conference in June and publish them later, Davis said.

Another element of the partnership is two fellowships for Japanese executives at KSG, similar to those existing fellowships that bring business experts and scholars from other countries to the school.

"These are business executives from the Osaka region who will come here for one to two semesters and will work on research that fits into the center for business and government's mission," Davis said.

Research topics will be determined jointly by the Kennedy School and the executives.

The "executive sessions" that the partnership will organize will likely have three to four faculty members going to Osaka to discuss various economic issues, Davis said. The sessions will probably start in 2001.

The program will raise awareness of Japanese business issues at KSG, organizers said.

"The generous gift from the Doyukai will sustain programs that will provide for the exchange of ideas between the [CBG] faculty and Doyukai members," Porter said in a press release.

The partnership will help further the CBG's goals of "helping meet the challenges of making democratic political institutions and market oriented economic arrangements work well," as outlined on their Web site.