Message from RIEB Director

I was appointed as the Director of the Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration in April 2008. I will do my utmost to fulfill my official responsibilities and advance economics and business administration studies at Kobe University. This institute was established in 1919 as the Commercial Research Institute of Kobe Higher Commercial School and merged with the Institute for Mechanization of Business Administration in 1949 to become the Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration（RIEB）. The Institute’s main office is located to the eastern side of the Kanematsu Memorial Hall (Library for Social Sciences) , on the university’s Rokkodai Campus, where the weeping cherry trees in front of the building bloom gloriously in spring. Due to celebrate 90 years since the establishment as the Commercial Research Institute in 2009, the institute has the longest history of any social sciences research institute in Japan. A research institute established within a university (an attached institute) differs from university faculties and graduate schools, whose basic purpose is student education, in that its specific mission is research. The Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration is Kobe University’s only attached institute and the only research institute in Japan to focus on the dual fields of economics and business administration. The principal mission of the institute is not education, but research. Accordingly, our first aim is to advance the frontier of academic research in the fields of economics and business administration, contributing to the creation of new knowledge. We aim to promote world-class cutting-edge research, becoming a base for international joint research bringing together researchers from throughout the world. We also emphasize research in interdisciplinary areas that straddle economics and business administration. Comprehensive research straddling multiple difficult fields in individual faculties and graduate schools is possible precisely because ours is an attached research institution, and frontier research in the interdisciplinary area of economics and business administration is an important mission of this institute. The second aim of this institute is to contribute to society by carrying out educational and awareness-generating activities based on cutting-edge research as well as industry-academia-government collaborative research activities. The results of cutting-edge research must not be limited to the world of academia but returned widely to society through education (especially graduate school education) and industry-academia-government collaborative activities. Amongst educational activities, the role of nurturing young researchers by employing them to participate in project research as post doctoral fellows is particularly important. In our industry-academia-government collaborative activities, we proactively pursue applied research matched to the needs of society, and expectations are held for the application of cutting-edge research results in policy formation and business administration. In pursuing these two aims, the Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration has vigorously undertaken cutting edge/interdisciplinary research activities and educational/social contribution activities. In terms of research, areas of particular focus achieving notable performance results include: (i) comprehensive research related to the sustainability and diversity of the global economy; (ii) cutting-edge theoretical research related to international trade and economic dynamics; and (iii) cutting-edge theoretical/empirical study related to technology management in the manufacturing industry and the international competitiveness of Japanese companies. In terms of education, institute instructors participate and cooperate with graduate school education in the graduate schools of Economics, Business Administration (MBA course), and International Cooperation. Moreover, several post doctoral fellows and other young researchers (seven as of April 2008) are employed as part of our proactive efforts to nurture young researchers. In terms of industry-academia-government collaborative/socially contributive activities, the institute participates actively in, amongst others, the Information and Digital Equipment Industry/Management of Technology Workshop comprising leading business people involved in technology management; the Monetary Economics Seminar of Kobe University, which has held more than 400 seminars since the institute’s establishment; the Kobe Forum in Business and Economics, which the institute hosts jointly with the Kobe Chamber of Commerce each year; and the Workshop on Aging and Decreasing Fertility Rate, which functions under a collaborative agreement with Hyogo Prefecture. The institute also makes efforts to accumulate and maintain important historical and original materials and documents pertaining to business administration, and has maintained and/or compiled such materials as “Kanematsu’s Collections” (archives), which minutely records the business administration history of Kanematsu Shoten (now Kanematsu Corporation) from the company’s establishment until before World War II; in-house magazines and business pamphlets that show the living face of business administration; and “genealogical charts” diagrammatically depicting the changes for major businesses from the time of their establishment. Furthermore, the institute is currently considering the establishment of a research base related to “Challenges for Kansai manufacturers in the competitive era, and network formation in Asia”, a new interdisciplinary economics/business administration field, in the 2008 fiscal year. Japanese “technology” and “manufacturing” are important resources for this country, which has few natural resources, and how outstanding technology can be tied to profits amidst harsh global competition, as well as how this technology can be passed onto the next generation, are pressing issues. There is a particular concentration of numerous outstanding global enterprises and small-to-medium businesses in the Kansai area; competition with Asia, and network formation are of key importance. The Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration also has the results of leading research related to technology management, global economics and spatial economics/business agglomeration. The institution aims to fully mobilize these while integrating economics and business administration and cooperating with industry, government, and other universities, thus contributing to the invigoration of the Kansai region and, by extension, to the improvement of productivity nationwide, as well as to the further enhancement of Japan’s capacity as a leader in Asia. This is the ultimate objective of our vision. The constituent members of the Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration are all thoroughly aware of our aims, and in the future we will continue to pour our utmost efforts into cutting-edge research activities, educational/awareness-generating activities based on cutting-edge research as well as activities that contribute to society. Cherishing the “traditions” passed down from our Kobe Higher Commercial School days and fully utilizing our own strengths, we will continue to “reform” in order to meet the needs of society. With the keys words of “tradition” and “reform”, we will, as ever, persist in the powerful promotion of economics and business administration research.

April 1st, 2008 MIYAO Ryuzo Director, Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration Kobe University

Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration - Kobe University

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