Shintaro Hamanaka
Biographic Data
| ID | 4386176 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Shintaro Hamanaka |
| GIVEN NAMES | Shintaro |
| FAMILY NAME | Hamanaka |
| SIGNATURE | HAMANAKA S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Japan External Trade Organization |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0265-9525 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The Politics of Regionalism in the Mekong
Regionalism in the Mekong has continued to proliferate over the last three decades, despite some ups and downs, but the reasons for this persistent proliferation remain under-explained. The hypothesis of this study is that ‘institutional bypass’, a concept originally developed by international lawyers, provides the logic behind the proliferation of regional institutions in the Mekong. This is a top-down force to bypass existing institutions, ofte…
Diplomatic benefits and economic costs of regional leadership
The leading position in international institutions brings both economic costs and diplomatic benefits. A state that aspires to “regional leadership” usually strives to form a regional group where it can assume the top position in order to enjoy international status, and moreover, often agrees to shoulder the large economic cost of sustaining regional institutions, expecting that doing so would further enhance its status. This article examines thi…
Understanding Asean Centrality
ASEAN centrality is a term that has emerged in the recent literature on international relations and institutions focussing on the region surrounding ASEAN. It refers to the idea that ASEAN has or should have a central role in forming the political and economic institutional architecture of a wider region. Unfortunately, however, previous studies have failed to identify whether ASEAN has centrality or not. There are two problems. First, the concep…
Legal Traditions as Economic Borders
This article makes two main claims: A state’s legal tradition is embedded into its domestic institution in each issue area and a state that has a common/civil law-type domestic institution in a certain issue area (not necessarily a state that has common/civil law tradition) prefers common/civil law-type international agreements in the same issue area. The consequence of these two claims is that states’ legal tradition is often one of the primary …
Domestic legal traditions and international cooperation
The compatibility in terms of domestic systems that embed specific values of particular legal traditions is a critical determinant of international cooperation. We analyze international cooperation on professional qualifications because a domestic qualification system best showcases its distinct approach to social governance. Civil law states, which value written rules and certainty, use paper examinations as a core component of competency assess…
Regionalism, membership and leadership
Drawing inspiration from a Chinese proberb, this paper offers an alternative interpretation of regionalism, with a special reference to its membership. This alternative interpretation provides insights into the exclusionary aspect of regionalism, for which mainstream international relations theories lack a certain efficacy in providing plausible explanations. We hypothesize that a state forms a regional group in which it can be a leader, excludin…
Inter-regionalism in the Global South
No region exists in isolation. Regions always have some external linkages. Existing studies on regions’ external relations often emphasize inter-regionalism, namely, a project to link two regionalism projects. The majority of these studies deals with the European Union’s (EU) ties with regionalism elsewhere. However, the EU is very unique, because its external policies are centralized in Brussels, and inter-regionalism naturally plays a dominant …
Why breakup? Looking into unsuccessful free trade agreement negotiations
Understanding the Asean way of regional qualification governance
Existing studies on Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) are mostly based on the European experience. In this paper, we discuss the ongoing attempt of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to establish very unique MRAs, using professional service qualifications, particularly engineering, as a case study. Several ASEAN professional service qualification MRAs employ a “hub‐and spoke” model, wherein neither the hub (regional mechanism) …
Insights to Great Powers' Desire to Establish Institutions
What is unique about AIIB compared against past cases is not the behavior of regional dominant power (Japan in the past and China now), but the reaction of the US.
What is Subregionalism? Analytical Framework and Two Case Studies from Asia
When scholars and policy‐makers use the term subregionalism or subregional cooperation rather than regionalism or regional cooperation, they seem to emphasize certain elements of cooperation that tend to be overlooked or neglected by regional cooperation. What are they? This study first discusses the elements that make cooperation or a project subregional rather than regional. Then the article conducts a comparative case study analysis of subregi…
Services trade integration in Asia
This paper will examine the level of services trade integration in Asia in comparison with Europe and North America. The main empirical findings of this paper are that: (i) the regional bias of services trade in Asia is as high as or higher than in Europe and North America; (ii) in Asia, the regional bias of services trade is higher than that of goods trade, which is in sharp contrast to Europe and North America, where the regional bias of goods …
Asian Financial Cooperation in the 1990s
A commonplace view holds that the trend toward Asian financial regionalism is a relatively new phenomenon, developing in response to the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis in particular. In this article I challenge this view by analyzing financial regionalist projects before the crisis. Asian countries, especially Japan, sought to establish an Asia-only financial cooperation framework throughout the 1990s. The policy stance of the United States, in…
Asia‐Only versus Asia–Pacific Regionalism
While many believe that Asian regionalism lacks institutions, Asia, in fact, is home to a wide range of regional institutions and frameworks. The rise and fall of regional institutions in Asia is an extremely dynamic process. This paper argues that the dynamic nature of Asian regionalism can be explained by a “regionalism cycle” with regard to membership. The institutional outcomes of regionalism in Asia have been cyclical because the interplay b…
Quality of the Trade Statistics of the Lao PDR
This paper assesses the quality of the trade statistics of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) by comparing its export/import data with the import/export data of its trading partners (mirror data). The author finds, first, that publicly available Lao PDR statistics compiled by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MIC) are not consistent with the Harmonized System (HS) of classification. It would therefore be advisable for the Lao PDR…
Asian Regionalism and Japan
This book explores the essential nature of regionalism by conducting a comprehensive analysis of more than 30 regionalist proposals made by Japan and other Asian countries throughout the post-war period. Shintaro Hamanaka examines the whole post war period and covers all regionalist proposals since then, while most existing studies cover only the development of Asian regionalism in the recent decade. A significant number of cases in the proposed …
Asian Regionalism and Japan
Understanding the Asean way of regional qualification governance
Existing studies on Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) are mostly based on the European experience. In this paper, we discuss the ongoing attempt of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to establish very unique MRAs, using professional service qualifications, particularly engineering, as a case study. Several ASEAN professional service qualification MRAs employ a “hub‐and spoke” model, wherein neither the hub (regional mechanism) …
What is Subregionalism? Analytical Framework and Two Case Studies from Asia
When scholars and policy‐makers use the term subregionalism or subregional cooperation rather than regionalism or regional cooperation, they seem to emphasize certain elements of cooperation that tend to be overlooked or neglected by regional cooperation. What are they? This study first discusses the elements that make cooperation or a project subregional rather than regional. Then the article conducts a comparative case study analysis of subregi…
Legal Traditions as Economic Borders
This article makes two main claims: A state’s legal tradition is embedded into its domestic institution in each issue area and a state that has a common/civil law-type domestic institution in a certain issue area (not necessarily a state that has common/civil law tradition) prefers common/civil law-type international agreements in the same issue area. The consequence of these two claims is that states’ legal tradition is often one of the primary …
Domestic legal traditions and international cooperation
The compatibility in terms of domestic systems that embed specific values of particular legal traditions is a critical determinant of international cooperation. We analyze international cooperation on professional qualifications because a domestic qualification system best showcases its distinct approach to social governance. Civil law states, which value written rules and certainty, use paper examinations as a core component of competency assess…
Inter-regionalism in the Global South
No region exists in isolation. Regions always have some external linkages. Existing studies on regions’ external relations often emphasize inter-regionalism, namely, a project to link two regionalism projects. The majority of these studies deals with the European Union’s (EU) ties with regionalism elsewhere. However, the EU is very unique, because its external policies are centralized in Brussels, and inter-regionalism naturally plays a dominant …
Asian Regionalism and Japan
This book explores the essential nature of regionalism by conducting a comprehensive analysis of more than 30 regionalist proposals made by Japan and other Asian countries throughout the post-war period. Shintaro Hamanaka examines the whole post war period and covers all regionalist proposals since then, while most existing studies cover only the development of Asian regionalism in the recent decade. A significant number of cases in the proposed …
Asian Regionalism and Japan
Asian Financial Cooperation in the 1990s
A commonplace view holds that the trend toward Asian financial regionalism is a relatively new phenomenon, developing in response to the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis in particular. In this article I challenge this view by analyzing financial regionalist projects before the crisis. Asian countries, especially Japan, sought to establish an Asia-only financial cooperation framework throughout the 1990s. The policy stance of the United States, in…
Asia‐Only versus Asia–Pacific Regionalism
While many believe that Asian regionalism lacks institutions, Asia, in fact, is home to a wide range of regional institutions and frameworks. The rise and fall of regional institutions in Asia is an extremely dynamic process. This paper argues that the dynamic nature of Asian regionalism can be explained by a “regionalism cycle” with regard to membership. The institutional outcomes of regionalism in Asia have been cyclical because the interplay b…
Quality of the Trade Statistics of the Lao PDR
This paper assesses the quality of the trade statistics of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) by comparing its export/import data with the import/export data of its trading partners (mirror data). The author finds, first, that publicly available Lao PDR statistics compiled by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MIC) are not consistent with the Harmonized System (HS) of classification. It would therefore be advisable for the Lao PDR…
Services trade integration in Asia
This paper will examine the level of services trade integration in Asia in comparison with Europe and North America. The main empirical findings of this paper are that: (i) the regional bias of services trade in Asia is as high as or higher than in Europe and North America; (ii) in Asia, the regional bias of services trade is higher than that of goods trade, which is in sharp contrast to Europe and North America, where the regional bias of goods …
What is Subregionalism? Analytical Framework and Two Case Studies from Asia
When scholars and policy‐makers use the term subregionalism or subregional cooperation rather than regionalism or regional cooperation, they seem to emphasize certain elements of cooperation that tend to be overlooked or neglected by regional cooperation. What are they? This study first discusses the elements that make cooperation or a project subregional rather than regional. Then the article conducts a comparative case study analysis of subregi…
Insights to Great Powers' Desire to Establish Institutions
What is unique about AIIB compared against past cases is not the behavior of regional dominant power (Japan in the past and China now), but the reaction of the US.
Understanding the Asean way of regional qualification governance
Existing studies on Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) are mostly based on the European experience. In this paper, we discuss the ongoing attempt of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to establish very unique MRAs, using professional service qualifications, particularly engineering, as a case study. Several ASEAN professional service qualification MRAs employ a “hub‐and spoke” model, wherein neither the hub (regional mechanism) …
Why breakup? Looking into unsuccessful free trade agreement negotiations
Inter-regionalism in the Global South
No region exists in isolation. Regions always have some external linkages. Existing studies on regions’ external relations often emphasize inter-regionalism, namely, a project to link two regionalism projects. The majority of these studies deals with the European Union’s (EU) ties with regionalism elsewhere. However, the EU is very unique, because its external policies are centralized in Brussels, and inter-regionalism naturally plays a dominant …
Regionalism, membership and leadership
Drawing inspiration from a Chinese proberb, this paper offers an alternative interpretation of regionalism, with a special reference to its membership. This alternative interpretation provides insights into the exclusionary aspect of regionalism, for which mainstream international relations theories lack a certain efficacy in providing plausible explanations. We hypothesize that a state forms a regional group in which it can be a leader, excludin…
Legal Traditions as Economic Borders
This article makes two main claims: A state’s legal tradition is embedded into its domestic institution in each issue area and a state that has a common/civil law-type domestic institution in a certain issue area (not necessarily a state that has common/civil law tradition) prefers common/civil law-type international agreements in the same issue area. The consequence of these two claims is that states’ legal tradition is often one of the primary …
Domestic legal traditions and international cooperation
The compatibility in terms of domestic systems that embed specific values of particular legal traditions is a critical determinant of international cooperation. We analyze international cooperation on professional qualifications because a domestic qualification system best showcases its distinct approach to social governance. Civil law states, which value written rules and certainty, use paper examinations as a core component of competency assess…
Diplomatic benefits and economic costs of regional leadership
The leading position in international institutions brings both economic costs and diplomatic benefits. A state that aspires to “regional leadership” usually strives to form a regional group where it can assume the top position in order to enjoy international status, and moreover, often agrees to shoulder the large economic cost of sustaining regional institutions, expecting that doing so would further enhance its status. This article examines thi…
Understanding Asean Centrality
ASEAN centrality is a term that has emerged in the recent literature on international relations and institutions focussing on the region surrounding ASEAN. It refers to the idea that ASEAN has or should have a central role in forming the political and economic institutional architecture of a wider region. Unfortunately, however, previous studies have failed to identify whether ASEAN has centrality or not. There are two problems. First, the concep…
The Politics of Regionalism in the Mekong
Regionalism in the Mekong has continued to proliferate over the last three decades, despite some ups and downs, but the reasons for this persistent proliferation remain under-explained. The hypothesis of this study is that ‘institutional bypass’, a concept originally developed by international lawyers, provides the logic behind the proliferation of regional institutions in the Mekong. This is a top-down force to bypass existing institutions, ofte…
Political science (13 works) · Economics (10 works) · International Development and Aid (8 works) · International trade (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Global trade and economics (7 works) · Law (7 works) · International Relations and Foreign Policy (6 works) · Business (5 works) · Geography (5 works)