July 15, 2016
Associate Professor Makiko Nakamuro of the Faculty of Policy Management has won the runner-up prize at the 7th Business Book Award (organized by the Business Book Award Executive Committee 2016).
The Business Book Award is Japan's first business book award, selecting and honoring the best business books of the year. It was established in October 2009 with the aim of "contributing to the revitalization of the publishing industry by further enhancing the presence of business books, as well as contributing to the growth of Japanese businesspeople and, by extension, the development of Japanese industry." The first award was held in 2010, and since then it has been held once a year as an industry-wide award event.
The award considered business books published between January 2015 and December 2015. Associate Professor Nakamuro's book, "The Economics of 'Academic Ability'" (published in June 2015), won the runner-up prize with praise such as, "It carefully explains very difficult content while being stimulating to many people," and "It holds great significance in sounding a major alarm about the current situation in Japan, where education, the infrastructure of business, has remained completely unchanged for decades."
Comment from Associate Professor Nakamuro
While general-interest books written by renowned economists are widely read overseas, in Japan, it could not be said that specialized books and papers written by researchers were widely read.
I had the impression that it was a significant negative that, especially in recent economics, while various new discoveries related to our lives and economic activities are being made, these research findings are rarely seen. Instead, unverified information from the internet is believed and permeates people's lives.
I began to think that I wanted to write an "academic yet readable" book someday, around the time I returned from the United States and became a researcher. This book, which summarizes the research findings of educational economics without using technical terms, became a bestseller with 200,000 copies sold and was read by many people. I am very pleased to have received the runner-up prize at the Business Book Award.