The Economic Security Intelligence Lab (ESIL) at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo, will host a public seminar co-organized with FRONTEO, Inc. and the Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization (IDE-JETRO).

New Developments in Supply Chain Research:
Input–Output Tables, Firm-Level Data, and AI

In recent years, supply chain visibility and risk management have become indispensable challenges for governments and companies alike. As international geopolitical tensions persist, efforts to diversify supply chains have accelerated not only in advanced technology sectors such as semiconductors, AI, and biotechnology, but also in relation to critical materials and energy. At the same time, sanctions regimes and export control frameworks have been strengthened across countries, and Japanese companies are increasingly required to accurately identify supply chain dependencies and enhance accountability. Against this backdrop, attention to advanced analytical methods from the perspective of economic security has intensified.

Supply chain research has evolved significantly beyond macro-level analysis based on international input–output tables using conventional statistical data. It has expanded toward empirical analysis that leverages actual inter-firm transaction networks, resulting in substantial methodological advancement. In particular, multi-layered approaches are taking shape, including vulnerability assessments using input–output tables, more precise dependency analysis through integration with firm-level data, and the application of large language models (LLMs) to develop new analytical techniques. These innovations have made it possible to capture industrial structures and relationships within global value chains in far greater detail than before.

This seminar will bring together experts working at the forefront of international input–output analysis, inter-firm transaction network analysis, and AI applications to engage in discussion grounded in the latest theory, data, and policy perspectives. In addition to presenting cutting-edge insights on vulnerability analysis using international input–output tables and advanced methodologies that combine firm-level data and AI, the seminar will explore future directions and possibilities for supply chain research from perspectives that cut across policy, industry, and academia.

The Economic Security Intelligence Lab (ESIL) at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo, will host the following public seminar, welcoming Mr. Hiroyuki Nakajima, Head of the Americas Regional Office at the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

The Japan–U.S. Tariff Agreement and Economic Security:
Insights from the Frontlines of Trade, Investment, and Infrastructure

Mr. Nakajima has overseen JBIC’s operations for the United States at its New York office and has been directly engaged at the forefront of major shifts in U.S. trade policy, industrial policy, and external economic strategy under the Trump administration. In particular, he has been deeply involved in analyzing and responding, from both practical and policy perspectives, to how the restructuring of tariff policies and investment and supply chain measures centered on economic security have affected Japanese companies’ strategies toward the U.S. market and the broader Japan–U.S. economic relationship.

In this seminar, Mr. Nakajima will provide an overview of the latest developments and structural changes in Japanese corporate investment in the United States and the associated impacts on supply chains, in light of the Trump administration’s tariff policies. His analysis will draw on the results of JBIC’s Overseas Investment Survey, released earlier this month, which examines Japanese companies’ overseas business activities. He will also discuss the outlook for the U.S. political and economic landscape toward 2026. Domestically, he will consider how divided control of the House and Senate following the midterm elections may affect governance and trade and economic policy. Internationally, with reference to the recently released U.S. National Security Strategy, he will examine how U.S. Asia policy, including its approach toward China, is likely to evolve in coordination with trade, investment, and infrastructure strategies. In addition, where possible, he will offer insights into future directions for Japan–U.S. economic relations, including investment and financial cooperation under the Japan–U.S. tariff agreement.

This seminar will provide a valuable opportunity for researchers, policymakers, and business professionals with interests in Japan–U.S. relations, economic security, trade policy, outward investment, and infrastructure finance to gain a deeper understanding of the intersection between policy and practice. We sincerely look forward to your participation.

Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS) Temple University Japan and the Economic Security Intelligence Lab (ESIL) at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), the University of Tokyo, are pleased to invite you to an online webinar featuring Dr. Laura Murphy, Professor of Human Rights at Sheffield Hallam University and Carr-Ryan Fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.

Dr. Murphy’s long-standing research on forced labor in the Uyghur region faced unprecedented interference in 2024, which culminated in the Sheffield Hallam University’s decision to discontinue her research in 2025, a development widely reported by major outlets including the BBC and The Guardian. Her case has sparked urgent debate about how external actors may seek to influence or curtail academic inquiry. Building on this and other recent examples, the webinar will explore how shifting international dynamics are creating new forms of transnational pressure on universities, and what these developments mean for academic freedom and institutional autonomy.

The session will examine the broader implications of such pressures for scholars, students, and research institutions, including constraints on transparency, access, governance, and institutional safeguards. As global political uncertainty continues to grow, these issues are becoming increasingly relevant for universities in Japan as well. The event aims to provide researchers, administrators, and students with insights into how higher education institutions can better protect academic freedom and ensure the integrity of their research environments.

In addition to Dr. Murphy, the event will feature opening remarks by Robert Dujarric of ICAS Temple University Japan and will be moderated by Akira Igata, the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST) at the University of Tokyo.

Speaker bio
Laura T. Murphy is Professor of Human Rights and Contemporary Slavery at the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University (UK). She received the National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award and was a British Academy Visiting Fellow and a John G. Medlin Jr. Fellow at the National Humanities Center.

She is the author of Freedomville: The Story of a 21st-Century Slave Revolt (Columbia Global Reports, 2021), The New Slave Narrative: The Battle over Representations of Contemporary Slavery (Columbia University Press, 2019), Survivors of Slavery: Modern-Day Slave Narratives (Columbia University Press, 2014), and Metaphor and the Slave Trade in West African Literature (Ohio University Press, 2012). She is also the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Global Literature and Slavery (Cambridge UP, 2022).

Her research team has published a series of reports and evidence briefs about the Chinese government's intertwined systems of internment and forced labor that has been inflicted on the people of the Uyghur Region. The work investigates the international supply chains that have ties to those repressive systems, including those attached to the solar, apparel, chemicals/plastics, automotive, and critical minerals sectors. She has provided expert testimony and evidence on the crisis in the Uyghur Region to the U.S., U.K. and Australian governments and EU leadership. She also provided private briefings to government agencies, advocacy groups, law firms, and others interested in the issue globally.

She has previously conducted research on forced labor in India, Nigeria, Ghana, the United States, and Canada.

She has recently been part of a team that created core competencies for medical professionals addressing human trafficking in healthcare settings with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her previous research on the intersection of homeless youth and human trafficking in the U.S. and Canada provided a four-pronged, victim-centered community blueprint for how service providers can best assist youth at risk of trafficking, based on interviews with over 600 homeless youth in the U.S. and Canada. She has consulted for the World Health Organization, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Office of Victims of Crime, and the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center, as well as other government agencies, workers unions, investor groups, law firms, and advocacy groups.