More than thirty members of the business, academic and government communities attended a December 7, 2012 seminar featuring Mansfield Fellow Jennifer Reynolds Wheelock (Congressional Budget Office) discussing the year-end fiscal cliff and other budget challenges facing the U.S. The seminar, organized by the Mansfield Foundation in collaboration with the Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo, was moderated by Professor Hideaki Tanaka (Meiji University). Ms. Wheelock provided a detailed explanation of what the fiscal cliff entails, what is at stake, and possible outcomes. Comments and questions from the audience provided further insights into how the U.S. and Japanese budget processes differ and how opposing views on the fiscal cliff are delaying a resolution.