Masanaga Kumakura 　　　　　It is my great honor to receive the 22nd Pacific Basin Academic Grant from the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Foundation. I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to late Masayoshi Ohira, the Foundation, and its Selection Committee for supporting my research. 　　　　　Proposed first by late Masayoshi Ohira a quarter century ago, the idea of a Pacific Basin Community has since attracted considerable attention and is currently a focal point of discussion in both policy circles and academic community. At present, numerous scholars study carefully various aspects of the Asia Pacific countries and challenges they face. 　　　　　With academic research in the Asia Pacific countries increasingly diverse and specialized, however, it is becoming difficult for individual scholars to look beyond the narrow confines of their specialization to understand how their research relates to those of others and what they collectively imply for the future of the region. This is particularly the case in economics, a discipline that has an important role to play in policy formation but tends to be highly technical and often inaccessible to non-experts. 　　　　　My research project has two objectives. The first aim is to re-examine rapidly changing relations among the Asia Pacific economies using a new class of international trade models, which highlights heterogeneity of firms and their role in macroeconomic dynamics, and detailed industrial and trade datasets that I have been developing with my colleagues. The second aim -- and the one that is equally important for me – is to develop a tool set with which I will integrate my recent and ongoing research and present it in a manner that is accurate but relatively accessible to non-specialists. I plan to pursue these dual aims by refining several existing trade-related economic indices and developing a few new indicators, and by using these indices judiciously to describe the dynamic relationship among the Japanese and other East Asian economies. Whilst this is no doubt a daunting task, I take it as an exciting intellectual challenge and wish to make the most of the financial support provided by the Foundation in coming months.