Foreword

This book, City, Public Value, and Capitalism, is one fruit of research conducted through the online policy platform of Meridian 180, headquartered at the Northwestern Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University.

Meridian 180 is an online system that was established in 2011 for the purpose of facilitating global research collaboration and disseminating policy proposals and research results in multiple languages—it currently has a worldwide membership of about 800 researchers and practitioners. An extensive archive of its activities can be found at the Meridian 180 web page (https://meridianforums.northwestern.edu). Its purpose is to tackle the pressing global challenges of our time and propose the policies necessary for an improved society by aggregating international knowledge through a multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural approach.

This book was edited under the auspices of the Asia-Japan Research Institute at Ritsumeikan University in partnership with the Northwestern Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. Ritsumeikan University is the first institution to have a Meridian 180 agreement with Northwestern University.

In 2019, Ritsumeikan University (through Meridian 180) hosted an online forum on the theme of "Smart & Shrinking Cities" and held discussions with members on the future of cities in the 21st century both face-to-face and online. This book focuses on important questions that emerged in these discussions and collects them in one volume. In this sense, this volume is none other than the result of policy research centered around Meridian 180.

The book is published using a new e-book system developed by the Northwestern Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and the Northwestern University Library. This digital publishing system can be applied in various ways online and is expected to spread rapidly in the future. It is a great honor to have this book published. As the editors, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Northwestern University. If our book could contribute to the development of the new e-book system by the Northwestern Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and the Northwestern University Library, we would be more than happy.