Japan’s Foreign Policy under the New Administration

October 29, 2008 Program hosted by Sasakawa USA and the East-West Center

Featuring:

Professor Akihiro Iwashita
Director, Slavic Research Center, and Professor, Hokkaido University, Japan

and

Professor Nobumasa Akiyama
Associate Professor, Graduate School of Law, Hitotsubashi University, Japan
Adjunct Research Fellow, Center for the Promotion of Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, Japan Institute
of International Affairs (JIIA)

Japan’s recent Lower House elections propelled the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to leadership, ending an almost fifty-year political domination by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). This change may have profound implications for the foreign policies of Japan’s allies as Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and the DPJ begin putting their stamp on Japan’s most pressing domestic and foreign policies. Professor Akihiro Iwashita and Professor Nobumasa Akiyama will discuss the new administration’s take on foreign policy, examining its attitudes toward regional relations with countries such as Russia, China, and the United States, as well as its perceptions of global concerns such as environmental and nuclear issues.

Akihiro Iwashita is a professor and director of the Slavic Research Center at Hokkaido University, Japan.

Previously, he was a visiting fellow at the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at The Brookings Institution (2007-2008). He was awarded the 2007 JSPS Prize and the 2006 Osaragi Jiro Prize for Commentary. Professor Iwashita’s publications include Toward a New Dialogue on Eurasia: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization; Its Partners (Slavic Research Center, 2007); and Eager Eyes Fixed on Eurasia: Vol. 1 Russia; Its Neighbors in Crisis and Vol. 2 Russia and Its Eastern Edge (Slavic Eurasian Studies No. 16-1,2, Slavic Research Center, 2007).

Nobumasa Akiyama is an associate professor in the Graduate School of International Law at Hitotsubashi University and an adjunct research fellow for the Center for the Promotion of Disarmament and Non-Proliferation at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA). Previously he served as a senior
research fellow at JIIA (2005-2007), and a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Law at Kyushu University (2005-2006). Professor Akiyama’s publications include “Fukuda Doctrine Revisited: Is There a Japanese Vision for Asian Regionalism?” in Aileen Baviera, ed, Regional Security in East Asia: Challenges to Cooperation and Confidence Building (The Asian Center Publication Office, University of the Philippines, 2008); and “Dynamics of Global-Regional Concerns on Proliferation: Who Should Be Responsible?” in N.S. Sisodia and A.K. Behuria, eds., West Asia in Turmoil: Implication for Global Security (New Delhi, Academic Foundation, 2007).