Title: Book Launch of Dr Fumihito Gotoh’s research monograph ‘ Japanese Resistance to American Financial Hegemony: Global versus Domestic Social Norms'

The EASG is pleased to announce that we will be hosting a book launch event for Dr Fumihito Gotoh on 6 February (Thu.) 11:00-12:00 at OC1.02 (1st floor of Oculus).

Dr Gotoh is a Teaching and Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. His research interests include International Political Economy, East Asian politics and political economies, varieties of capitalism, politics and sociology of finance, and credit markets and credit rating agencies. His monograph, Japanese Resistance to American Financial Hegemony: Global versus Domestic Social Norms, was published from Routledge RIPE Series in Global Political Economy in October 2019. His articles have appeared in Review of International Political Economy and The Pacific Review. Previously, he was a senior credit analyst for the Industrial Bank of Japan,Merrill Lynch and UBS.

During this book launch event, Dr Gotoh will be talking about his new book published by Routledge in October 2019 entitled 'Japanese Resistance to American Financial Hegemony: Global versus Domestic Social Norms'. The book investigates why the convergence of Japan’s bank-centered financial system to an American-style capital market-based model has lost steam since the mid-2000s, despite financial deregulation during the 1980s and 1990s. Examining the ideational conflict within Japanese elites between the market liberalization and anti-free market camps, it scrutinizes the American and Japanese credit rating agencies operating in Tokyo and explores the differences between the two major industrial associations,Keidanren and Doyukai, which have played a key role as "ideational platforms" for Japanese corporate society. The book emphasizes the concept of "systemic support", whose broadened definition incorporates dominant elites’ support and protection of subordinate in exchange for the latter’s obedience and loyalty. It argues that Japanese society’s anti-liberal, anti-free market norms centered on systemic support are a form of counter-hegemony, and this has resisted American financial hegemony, promoting international capital mobility and capital markets, and prevented capitalist dominance from severing long-term social ties such as management-labor cooperation and corporate group alliances. Yet this resistance has generated growing problems for Japan.

This book is directly linked with research areas of International political economy, Japanese political economy and corporate governance, and varieties of capitalism. However, for those who are

interested in the broader research areas of Asian studies, this well articulated book and event will also allow you to broaden your viewpoints about similar ongoing dynamics in the region.

For further details, please visit the EASG’s official facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/PAIS.EASG/