Emeritus Professor Peter Drysdale has received the Japan Foundation Award for 2014 for his pioneering work in the study of economic policy in Japan and East Asia, the formation of APEC, and economic exchange between Australia and Japan.
The Japan Foundation Award is made each year to individuals and organisations that have made a distinguished contribution to scholarship, cultural, and international affairs related to Japan. Former recipients include Harvard professor, historian and diplomat, Edwin Reischauer, Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami and translator Donald Keene.
Professor Drysdale, now based in the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific's Crawford School, went to Japan to study the development of the Australia-Japan relationship as an ANU graduate student.
"The associations and the deep friendships that I formed then and through my work in Japan and around the Asia Pacific region over all these years have been a never-ending source of inspiration and encouragement," said Professor Drysdale.
"The Award is a huge honour, and above all recognition of their support and commitment to cooperation among the peoples of our region."
ANU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian Young said the award was a great acknowledgement of Professor Drysdale's work.
"His ongoing work on East Asian and Pacific economic cooperation and East Asian economies contributes to the University's broader strategic focus on Australia's place in the region and the world," Professor Young said.
The Award attracts a prize of five million yen that Professor Drysdale has committed to research and exchanges on regional cooperation.
Two individual awards have been made to Australians since the Awards were established in 1973, both to former ANU staff.
Sir John Crawford, former Chancellor, received the Award in 1984 for his service to Australia-Japan economic relations. Modern translator of Japanese classic novel, The Tale of Genji, Royall Tyler received the Award in 2007.
In 1979, the pre-cursor project to the University's Australia-Japan Research Centre, which Professor Drysdale was instrumental in founding, received the Award for institutions.
Professor Drysdale is widely acknowledged as the leading intellectual architect of APEC. He was founding head of the Australia-Japan Research Centre and is known internationally for his work on East Asian and Pacific economic cooperation and the East Asian economies.
He is recipient of the Asia Pacific Prize, the Weary Dunlop Award, the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun with Gold Rays and Neck Ribbon, the Australian Centenary Medal and he is a Member of the Order of Australia, and an Honorary Doctor of Letters, from ANU.
He is presently Head of East Asia Forum, the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research (EABER) and the South Asia Bureau of Economic Research (SABER).
In 2011-12, he served on the Advisory and Cabinet Committee of the Australian Government's White Paper on Australia's in the Asian Century and as a member of the Strategic Advisory Board for implementation of the White Paper.
