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About the PRI

Greeting from the President

Profile and Activities

The Policy Research Institute, originally the Institute of Fiscal and Monetary Policy (established in May 1985), is an organization to be inaugurated by the Ministry of Finance in July 2000. Its purpose is to conduct comprehensive surveys and studies with a greater policy oriented focus, amid the bigsocio-economic changes underway in Japan, such as the globalization and liberalization of the economy in recent years and the rapid advancement of the falling birthrate and the aging of the population.

Policy Research Institute Logo Mark is here.
The Institute's principal activities are as follows.
Also see the brochure "Activity Report 2017(PDF:1071KB)".

MAJOR AREAS OF ACTIVITIES

RESEARCH

The Research and Administration Department is engaged primarily in five types of research activities.

  • Research Committees
    The Department organizes research committees of scholars and economists that conduct theoretical studies of fiscal and economic issues from a medium orlong term perspective. The results are compiled into reports and publicized.
  • International Conferences and Symposia
    The Department holds international conferences and symposia to exchange views with Japanese as well as foreign scholars and economists through discussions on important fiscal and economic issues.
  • Financial Review
    The Department publishes the Financial Review, a periodical of theses on theoretical and empirical analyses of fiscal and economic issues by leading researchers and experts.
  • Discussion Papers
    The Department publishes discussion papers to present analyses of fiscal and economic issues by staffs in the Ministry of Finance and economists in the Policy Research Institute.

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE

International Cooperation Division is engaged in promoting international exchange primarily through two avenues.

Technical Cooperation to Developing Countries
  • To assist fiscal and economic reforms intransition economies and other developing countries, the Division holds seminars in these countries, dispatches experts, accepts trainees and recommends relevant policies.
  • The Division is building a human network, along with transferring Japan's knowledge and experience, by inviting personnel of the finance ministries and other authorities of some twenty countries, mainly in Asia, to participate inits Seminar on Finance and Economy.
Sharing Research with Foreign Institutes

The Division works with international financial institutions to jointly organize international conferences, such as regularly sharing research results through the Japan-China Joint Workshop and Trilateral Seminar on Financial Cooperation among Japan, China and Korea.

In addition, the Division accepts foreign researchers specializing in Japanese fiscal policy and the Japanese economy and provides them with supportin their investigations and research.

INFORMATION COLLECTION AND PUBLICATION

The Information Service Department is responsible for collecting and analyzing basic information related to fiscal and economic matters. Some of the results are distributed to research institutes and universities.

Publications

The Department publishes the "History of Fiscal and Monetary Policies in Japan," a full history of the Ministry of Finance's administrative policies by field, for example, the budget and taxes; the "Ministry of Finance Statistics Monthly", which mainly covers performance statistics.

Management of the Ministry Library

The Department oversees document collection at the Ministry Library. The library, a branch of the National Diet Library, houses approximately one hundred and seventy thousand books, primarily in the fields of fiscal and economic affairs.

STATISTICAL RESEARCH

The Statistical Research Department conducts regular financial surveys (e.g., assets and liabilities, capital, and profit and loss) on corporations to compile the "Financial Statements Statistics of Corporations by Industry." This includes quarterly surveys of corporations with capital of ten million yen or more and annual surveys of all corporations.
In addition, the Department conducts the"Business Outlook Survey" to as certain the management prospects of businesses.

TRAINING

The Personnel Development Department is in charge of training.
It provides the staffs of the Ministry of Finance, the Local Finance Bureaus and the Local Finance Offices with a variety of training courses.
The Department conducts about forty courses annually. These include Initial Training Courses for newcomers, Supervisory Training Courses for newly appointed directors, Executive Seminars for the executives of the Ministry ofFinance, the Local Finance Bureaus and the Local Finance Offices, and variousProfessional Training Courses to provide specialized knowledge related to theMinistry' operations.
In addition, the Department has the Regional Training Offices in the Local Finance Bureaus, Fukuoka Local Finance Branch Bureau and the Finance Department of Okinawa General Bureau. These Regional Training Offices conduct various training courses to provide basic knowledge related to the Ministry' operations.

 

 

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