Japan group meets in Tokyo.

• Position: Bureau News

Members of the NBER's Working Group on Japan and their guests met in Tokyo on September 14-15. Theft two-day session was organized by Magnus Blomstrom, NBER and Stockholm School of Economics; Jennifer Corbett, Oxford University; Fumio Hayashi, NBER and University of Tokyo; and Anil K Kashyap, NBEE and University of Chicago. The following papers and topics were discussed:

Taehun Jung, Yuki Teranishi, and Tsutomu Watanabe, Hitotsubashi University, "Zero Bound on Nominal Interest Rates and Optimal Monetary Policy"

Discussant: Sergio Altimari, European Central Bank

Hiroshi Fujiki and Shigenori Shiratsuka, Bank of Japan, "Policy Duration Effect under the Zero Interest Rate Policy in 1999-2000: Evidence from Japan's Money Market Data"

Discussant: Matthew D. Shapiro, University of Michigan and NBER Luncheon Speaker: Heizo Takenaka, Economics Minister of the Japanese Government

Donald R. Davis and David E. Weinstein, NBER and Columbia University, "Bones, Bombs, and Break Points: The Geography of Economic Activity"

Discussant: Michael M. Knetter, NBER and Dartmouth College

Panel Discussion: The Looming Social Security Crisis in Japan

Chair: Charles Y. Horioka, NBER and Osaka University

Panelists: Tatsuo Hatta, University of Tokyo, Marten Palme, Stockholm School of Economics, and Toshiaki Tachibanaki, Kyoto University

Ralph Bryant, Brookings Institution, and Warwick McKibbin, Australian National University, "Incorporating Demographic Change in Multi-Country Macroeconomic Models: Some Preliminary Results"

Discussant: Fumio Hayashi

Gavin Cameron, Oxford University, "The Sun Also Rises: Productivity Convergence between Japan and the U.S."

Discussant: Ari Kokko, Stockholm School of Economics

Masaharu Hanazaki, Hitotsubashi University, and Akiyoshi Horiuchi, University of Tokyo, "Can the Financial Restraint Hypothesis Explain Japan's Postwar Experience?"

Discussant: Jennifer Corbett

Heather Montgomery, The Asian Development Bank Institute, "The Effect of the Basel Accord on Bank Portfolios in Japan"

Discussant: Joe Peek, university of Kentucky

Takatoshi Ito, NBER and Hitotsubashi University, and Kimie Harada, Daito Bunka University, "Japan Premium and Stock Prices: Two Mirrors of Japanese Banking Crises"

Discussant: Kenji Wada, Kejo University

What can a central bank do when faced with weak aggregate demand even after it has reduced the short-term nominal interest rate to zero? To address this question, Jung, Teranishi, and Watanabe solve a central bank's...