Welcome to the
website of Bill Emmott
I am a writer and consultant best known for my 13 years as editor-in-chief of The Economist (1993-2006) as well as for my books and films on Japan and Italy. My latest book, published in summer 2019, was ‘Japan’s Far More Female Future’ which analyses the economic impact of the growing number of females in higher education in Japan. These days, I am a “Brexile” living in Ireland, though I also spend time in Oxford, and am chairman of the Wake Up Foundation, a charity I co-founded with the film-maker Annalisa Piras, as well as of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Japan Society of the UK, and Trinity College Dublin’s Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute. This site carries my articles, videos, speeches and books, as well as my 2050 Index looking at the long-term strengths and prospects of western societies.
Read moreFeatured ArticleSee all
Public Trust in Political Leadership Key in Responses to COVID-19 Pandemic
24.05.20 Publication: Mainichi Shimbun
Last December, the government of my country, the UK, looked supremely powerful and confident. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party had just...
Read moreLatest ArticlesSee all
Japan Society Chairman’s Blog – 8
22.05.20
Vladimir Lenin, the former exile in London whom your chairman has at times been accused of resembling, was a fine provider of useful quotations. One of the...
Read moreJapan Society Chairman’s Blog – 7
15.05.20
One enjoyable memory from my time when posted to Tokyo is of a weekend visit in what I think must have been 1985 to Ito-shi, out on the Izu peninsula, for the...
Read moreJapan Society: Webinar Series 6: What We Know Now: Medical Science and the Response to COVID-19
12.05.20
What We Know Now: Medical Science and the Response to COVID-19 with Dr. Kiyoshi Kurokawa and Dr. Peter...
Read moreThe 2050 Index
In too many countries, politics and policy making is addicted to the short term. To help foster the longer-term thinking we all need, in 2017 I worked out this index, together with James Fransham of The Economist, which ranks 35 advanced western countries according to 25 different measures, grouped under the themes of demography, knowledge, innovation, globalization and resilience. I will be publishing an updated version in 2019.
See the 2050 IndexLatest Film: Lecture at University of Tokyo, May 15th 2019
Latest Book
Japan’s Far More Female Future
Until now, Japan’s politics, economy and society have been dominated by men. The future promises to be different, as demographic realities and the growing number of women graduating from higher education since the early 1990s steadily change organisational structures and culture. How well the country adapts to this will determine whether in the 2020s, 30s […]
Read moreSee all