Professor Kaoru Yamaguchi, PhD, was awarded the Friede-Gard-Prize for Sustainable Economics 2025 during the World Expo Osaka. The ceremonial handover of the prize certificate by Professor Klaus Helling from Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld took place at a small ceremony in the German pavillon. Helling had been there as a representative for the Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld, who presented one of sixteen thematic exhibitions of the „Circular City Gallery“, showing solutions towards climate neutrality and practiised sustainability.
Professor Yamaguchi was honored for his outstanding scientific contributions to a sustainable economics, especially for his modeling of an alternative monetary system, the so-called Public Money system. He is internationally renowned for his application of the System Dynamics approach towards various macroeconomic theories and their analysis with regard to stability and crisis resilience.
Professor Yamaguchi was awarded the Friede-Gard-Prize 2025 especially for:
- the detailed demonstration of the instability of the present debt-money system (both in a neoclassical and in a keynesian framework);
- the modeling of the Public Money system using his Accounting System Dynamics (ASD) method, i.e. System Dynamics in a double-entry accounting context, thereby assuring consistency of flows;
- the demonstration of a smooth transition from the present system to the alternative one;
- his concept and modell sketch of MuRatopia/Green Village, a not only economically but also socially sustainabale society.
These models could be used as a viable basis for constructive discussion and stimulation for fruitful further development towards a sustainable economics.
The award ceremony was complemented by a comprehensive appreciation of Professor Yamaguchi and his work on October, 18th.
The participants were welcomed by Prof. Dr. Dirk Löhr, chair of Ecological ‚Economics, Prof. Dr. klaus helling, Dean of Economics at the Umwelt-Campus, and Gerd Schuster, founder of the Friede-Gard-Foundation.
Porf. Dr. Joseph Huber, a proven expert for monetary system, then gave an easily comprehensible introduction into Public Money in contrast to the current debt-money system.
Prof. Steve Keen, PhD, the winner of the Friede-Gard-prize 2022, held the laudation, stressing especially his outstanding merits for creating ASD.
In his award speech Professor Yamaguchi introduced his scientific and academic career to a general audience.
He obtained his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, at that time studying with three ‚Nobel‘ laureates, and follwoing this turned to the System Dynamics method of jay Forrester and started to investigate the dynamic behavior of economic systems - both of the neoclassic and the keynesian type. His work led him to realize that the traditional debt-money systen is inherently instable in both contexts and favors boom-bust-cycles, with credit floods in the boom, and credit crunches in the depression phase. In further research he developed the Public Money system based on ideas of Professor Irving Fisher dating back to the 1930s. This system proved to be sustainable in his modeling. he has also contributed to other aspects of a sustainable economy, e.g. his concept and model sketch of a „‚Green Village’/ MuRatopia for social sustainability.
-> Award speech_slides_part 1a
-> Award speech_slides_part 1b
-> Award speech_slides_part 2a
-> Award speech_slides_part 2b
In his seminar for a professional audience, following after a short break, Professor Yamaguchi gave deep insights in his modeling, and by simulation runs of his models demonstrated how closely their results conform to the economic evoltuion of Japan and the USA.
A presentation by Gerd Schusuter, founder of the Friede-Gard-Stiftung, conccluded the seminar. He combined Public Money with a Circular Economy and showed how they could work together in synergy towards a sustainable economy and society. In addition he demonstrated by the use of a simple model economy how the transition from raw materials mining to raw materials recycling could be performed.
A discussion of the presentations debating several controversial issues concluded the event.
-> Q&A
The recording of the award cermony and the semianr are available on YouTube.