Profile & Activities

The Research Institute of Capital Formation (RICF) was established on July 1, 1964, as a department of the Japan Development Bank, with Dr. Osamu Shimomura as its first executive director. Through research in collaboration with professors, particularly economists, RICF conducts research centering on fixed investment, which plays an important role in Japan's economic growth. The institute also conducts research on such broad-ranging economic topics as financial economics, public finance, corporate management, and regional and social development.

RICF's major research focal points have varied according to the changing issues that Japan's economy has faced over the decades, including high economic growth, two oil crises, and the bursting of the bubble economy and the long period of economic slump that ensued. Upon entering the 1990s, the institute began the analysis of social common capital (natural capital, social infrastructure and institutional capital) in addition to the analysis of corporate capital investment. Social common capital as advocated by RICF advisor the late Professor Hirofumi Uzawa is a concept of capital extended from corporate (private) capital, and it has become an important pillar of the institute's research activities.

Currently operating as a research department of DBJ, the institute concentrates on one of Japan's most significant challenges― the formation of a sustainable economy and society― conducting its research activities in a neutral position and in collaboration with university professors. RICF disseminates information by publicizing research papers, publishing books and holding symposiums in line with its aim of contributing to the development of Japanese society through its research results.