Junhyun Chae
Where I Work Now
I now work on digital assets at INTERTRADE Co., Ltd. My work involves systems and infrastructure that combine finance and blockchain technology.
How I Found This Lab
As an international student, my first step toward attending graduate school in Japan was to find a lab myself. While looking into various universities and laboratories, I came into contact with Professor Inoue.
Professor Inoue always took the time to ask what each student wanted to do. He helped us shape our research around our own ideas, and he listened to what I was thinking, even when my Japanese was far from fluent. Looking back, I feel I already had some sense of what kind of place this lab was at that point.
What I Researched
In a word, my research was about economics. I had always been interested in the flow of money.
More specifically, I studied how a financial crisis in one country spreads to other countries.
Much of the previous research looked at countries in isolation or considered only one type of connection between them, such as trade. But I felt that real crises would not spread along just one simple path.
I analyzed how lending and borrowing between countries and trade in goods each contribute to the spread of a crisis, and how these two channels interact. Using data, I was able to confirm that looking at both together reveals risks that cannot be seen by looking at either one alone.
If you would like to know more, please take a look at the paper below. You are also welcome to get in touch with me.
Chae, J., & Inoue, H. (2026). Multilayer Propagation of Cross-Country Systemic Risk. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 19(3), 197.
https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm19030197
What I Gained from the Lab
I like taking on things that no one has done before. But those challenges can be reckless, and they often fail. I did, in fact, fail quite a lot.
In this lab, however, my efforts amounted to more than reckless attempts. Professor Inoue believed in my motivation when I had no results to show, and each time I took a step forward, he helped me think about the next goal. When someone believes in you, you want to live up to that belief. That feeling became a much stronger source of motivation than I had expected.
I learned firsthand how much strength comes from having someone who takes on a challenge and someone who believes in them. That is the most important thing I gained from this lab.
In My Work Today
My current work is not directly connected to my graduate research. But digital assets and blockchain are fields where the right answers are still being worked out, and here too, I am the first to volunteer when there is something new to try.
Before joining the lab, I think my first reaction to something unfamiliar would have been, “What if I fail?” Now I can say, “Let’s give it a try.” I have the experience of starting that way in the lab and following through to the end, so I feel I can do it again.
To Those Considering Graduate School
People come to graduate school for different reasons, and I think any reason is fine.
But if there is even a small part of you that thinks, “I want to really explore this,” I hope you will act on that feeling. It does not have to be anything grand. “I’d like to give this a try” or “This interests me” is enough.
The experience of working as hard as you can because someone believes in that feeling—because you want to live up to their expectations, or because you do not want to let yourself down—stays with you far longer than you might imagine. Whatever you do next, it can give you a reason to believe in yourself.
The Inoue Lab I was part of was a place where I could have that kind of experience.
