Amyx, Jennifer A. 1970-

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Amyx, Jennifer A. 1970-

PERSONAL:

Born January 16, 1970. Education: University of Virginia, Charlottesville, B.A., 1991; Stanford University, Ph.D., 1995.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania, 208 S. 37th. St., Rm. 217, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6215. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, postdoctoral fellow, 1998-99, research fellow, 2000-01; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, assistant professor of political science, 2002—. International visiting scholar, presenter, and media expert.

MEMBER:

American Political Science Association, Association for Asian Studies, International Political Science Association, International Studies Association, Japanese Studies Association of Australia.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Jefferson Scholar, University of Virginia, 1987-91; Margaret Morgan Coughlin Award in Asian History, University of Virginia, 1991; Rotary Japan Program fellowship, 1992-94; Political Science Department fellowship, Stanford University, 1996-98; Harvey fellowship, Mustard Seed Foundation, 1997-98; Japan Fund travel grant, Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, 1997; O'Bie Shultz fellowship in international studies, Stanford University, 1997-98; Asia Pacific Scholar, Stanford University, 1997-98; grant, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 1999; research grant, Shibusawa Memorial Foundation, 2001-02; J.G. Crawford Paper Award for Moving Beyond Bilateralism? Japan and the Asian Monetary Fund, 2001; faculty research travel grant, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 2002; NRC course development grant, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 2002; research grant, Browne Center for International Politics, University of Pennsylvania, 2002-03; visiting researcher grant, University of New South Wales Faculty of Law, 2002; research grant, Shibusawa Memorial Foundation, 2002-04; NRC course development grant, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 2003; conference travel grants, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 2003, 2004; research grant, Browne Center for International Politics, University of Pennsylvania, 2003-04; grant, University of Pennsylvania University Research Foundation, 2004; research fellowship, Japan Foundation, 2004; East-West visiting fellow, 2004; grant, International Center for the Study of East Asian Development, 2004-05; conference grant, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 2005; conference grant, Shibusawa E'ichi Memorial Foundation, 2005-06; grant, International Center for the Study of East Asian Development, 2005-06; research grant, Shibusawa E'ichi Memorial Foundation, 2005-06; Masayoshi Ohita Memorial Book Prize, 2005, for Japan's Financial Crisis: Institutional Rigidity and Reluctant Change; research fellow, Center on Japanese Economy and Business, Columbia University, 2005.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Peter Drysdale) Japanese Governance: Beyond Japan Inc., RoutledgeCurzon Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Japan's Financial Crisis: Institutional Rigidity and Reluctant Change, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2004.

Contributor to works by others, including The Asian Financial Crisis and the Architecture of Global Finance, edited by Gregory W. Noble and John Ravenhill, Cambridge University Press, 2002; Ryudo-kino nihon seiji: "ushinawareta jyu-nen" no seijigaku-teki kensho (title means "The Volatile Period of Japanese Politics: A Political Analysis of ‘The Lost Decade’"), edited by Nobuhiro Hiwatari, Tokyo University Press, 2002; Challenges for Japan: Political Leadership, U.S.-China-Japan Triangle, Financial Reform, and Gender Issues, edited by Gil Latz, Tokyo International House of Japan (Tokyo, Japan), 2003; and Beyond Bilateralism: U.S.-Japan Relations in the New Asia-Pacific Standard, edited by Ellis Krauss and T.J. Pempel, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 2003. Contributor to periodicals, including East Asian Economy Perspectives, Asian Perspective, Japanese Journal of Political Science, and Kenyu; referee and reviewer of articles published in political science and economic journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jennifer A. Amyx became an assistant professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania following several years with Australian National University, Canberra, first as a postdoctoral fellow from 1998 to 1999, and then as a research fellow from 2000 to 2001. She has taught courses on the political economy of East Asia, Japanese politics, Japanese foreign policy, and U.S. foreign policy in East Asia. A fluent Japanese speaker, Amyx has contributed to a great many books which benefit from her considerable knowledge of the Japanese financial system and its history. In addition, Amyx frequently writes articles for financial journals in the United States, Australia, and Japan and papers for organizations that include the East-West Center, Australian National University, and the Tokyo International House of Japan.

Amyx is the editor, with Peter Drysdale, of Japanese Governance: Beyond Japan Inc. The term "Japan Inc." was once used to describe the primary purpose of the Japanese government, which was to reform the Japanese economy following World War II, but the industrial growth could not be sustained and in the 1980s, Japan fell into an economic malaise. The book came out of a 1999 conference held at the Australian Research Centre of Australian National University, during which the policies of the 1990s were studied and examined as to the ways in which they have and have not changed. Six of the chapters are adapted from papers presented at the conference, and four others were commissioned for this volume.

In reviewing Japanese Governance in the Contemporary Review, Raymond Lamont-Brown commented that the editors "present a background to the study, showing how ‘Japan Inc.’ developed and how the political sleaze, misappropriation and scandals—from the Japanese Foreign Office to the Ministry of Finance—led to new laws and ordinances to make government-commercial relations more transparent. The National Ethics Law for Central Government Public Servants of April 2002 is one example."

Amyx is the author of Japan's Financial Crisis: Institutional Rigidity and Reluctant Change, in which she studies Japan's banking crisis and the failure of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to adequately respond to it. The three sections of the book cover an analysis of the precrisis years during which financial policy was driven by relationships, the collapse of the financial system, and the evolution of a new market-oriented and more formal and transparent system. Amyx explains the MoF's relationships with the political parties (primarily the Liberal Democratic Party), banks, and government agencies that included the Bank of Japan. In writing this volume, Amyx benefited from access to MoF personnel records and the interviews from which the facts flowed.

"Amyx tells the story well," wrote Hugh Patrick in the Journal of East Asian Studies. "The pillars of the Japanese postwar economic system were bank-based corporate finance, and especially the main bank-client relationship; management control of large corporations; and the permanent employment system, with managers giving priority to their employees relative to their shareholders. Overseeing and interacting with this was a highly capable and effective government bureaucracy elite in the economic ministries, both promoting and regulating the system. At its center was MoF, by far Japan's most powerful and important economic institution."

Institutional change followed the 1990s speculative asset bubble, and a complete collapse several years later was narrowly avoided. The puzzle was why this situation lasted so long, given Japan's past economic success. Public awareness was in part responsible for the elimination of those pieces of the system that were nonfunctioning, and other pieces were dramatically changed. Regulatory powers previously enjoyed by the MoF were transferred to the new Financial Supervisory Agency (FSA; now the Financial Services Agency), and the national Bank of Japan became an independent bank. In spite of these reforms, Japan continued to experience economic decline for some fifteen years, and at the point where Amyx ends her study, large non-performing loans (NPLs) remained on the balance sheets of banks, but as Patrick noted, a major NPL crisis was avoided, and future economic policy and health now rely on strong and effective political leadership. Amyx also compares Japan's situation with those of China, Korea, and the United States. Patrick commented that although he already knew a great deal about the financial system of Japan, he learned much more from reading Amyx's book.

Myung-Koo Kang reviewed Japan's Financial Crisis in Pacific Affairs, noting that one of the strengths of the book is "that it successfully combines analysis of macro-level reform politics with an analysis of micro-level institutional dynamics." Kang wrote that the author "studies the dynamic, strategic interactions between the major actors within the financial policy networks," and added that she "does not lose the analytic balance between the structural constraints of the network structure and the choices of the various actors involved in the process." Kang concluded by noting fundamental questions raised by this book, including how institutional rigidity can be overcome by government and how the sort of government leadership that can change institutional rigidity can be fostered within Japanese politics.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Contemporary Review, November, 2003, Raymond Lamont-Brown, review of Japanese Governance: Beyond Japan Inc., p. 305.

Journal of East Asian Studies, January-April, 2006, Hugh Patrick, review of Japan's Financial Crisis: Institutional Rigidity and Reluctant Change, p. 159.

Pacific Affairs, spring, 2006, Myung-Koo Kang, review of Japan's Financial Crisis, p. 127.