I mentioned the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in my 'The internationalization of economics in Japan' (In _The Post-1945 Internationalization of Economics_, edited by A.W. Coats, Duke University Press, 1996). Probably mine is the only paper referred to the NBER activities in the volume. In cooperation with NBER and the Center for Economic Policy Research, England, the Tokyo Center for Economic Research (TCER) has organized annual international conferences since 1987. TCER was (is) one of the few private efforts for promoting empirical, econometric studies in Japan. TCER helped make macro-econometric models in the late 1950s and 1960s, and has held an annual conference on current topics since 1963. It supported a wide variety of inter-collegiate exchanges of research activities, including weekly meetings held in the Tokyo City area. TCER also supports a seminar on the East Asian economy, which was first promoted by NBER, and holds conferences on the economic connections between the U.S., East Asia and Japan under the auspices of NBER, the Korean Development Institute and the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, Taiwan. >From the similar perspective, I also pay attention to the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN & East Asia (ERIA), which was established a few months ago. ERIA is expected to beccome an East Asian version of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the future. International comparative studies in empirical research need the same definitions for economic statistics and the economic language across national boundaries. Historians of economics usually need tp get hearings from contemporary economists to get the understanding of the contexts in empirical studies and the significance of individual or institutional efforts in this area. Aiko Ikeo