The major theme of this Tokyo Round Table Conference is: ‘Economic Institutions in a Dynamic Society: Search for a New Frontier’. Specific aspects of this broad subject-matter will be dealt with in the four subsequent sessions. Therefore I may be permitted to focus on a somewat general issue related to the major theme of our conference, incidentally recalling the most outstanding contributions to our discipline by Gunnar Myrdal who departed from us just four months ago. I think it is only proper to pay tribute to him on this occasion by highlighting, in particular, his concern with institutional economics. Please note that I make a distinction between ‘economics of institutions’ and ‘institutional economics’ as I shall presently explain.