Washington Kenkyu Group: Discussion with Mr. Ken Moriyasu

Date: Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Speaker: Mr. Ken Moriyasu, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute; Former Correspondent, Nikkei/Nikkei Asia

On June 30, 2026, Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA hosted an event featuring Mr. Ken Moriyasu, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, for a discussion on the evolving roles of journalism and think tanks in an era of democratic uncertainty. The event was moderated by Dr. Satohiro Akimoto, chairman and president of Sasakawa USA.

Mr. Moriyasu opened the dialogue by analyzing how online networks and artificial intelligence have completely commodified breaking news and rendered traditional speedy and accurate reporting models easily replicable. To maintain high-quality journalism and distinctive analysis today, he emphasized three crucial tenets: moving away from using expert commentary as a mere box-checking exercise in favor of testing explicit hypotheses; weaving in deep historical context and the literature that shapes policymakers’ mindsets; and conducting rigorous, firsthand field reporting. He pointed to his own past reporting, such as uncovering the back-alley diplomacy of the Biden-Xi summit on the sidelines of the 2023 APEC by visiting the meeting site the day after, as this type of primary source gathering cannot be replicated by AI.

Drawing from his extensive career as a journalist, Mr. Moriyasu reflected on his recent professional pivot to Hudson Institute. He described the transition as a shift from journalism’s rapid, daily publishing cycle to an environment that grants the temporal and institutional flexibility necessary for long-term, structured analysis. He noted that the core skills of a journalist, including objective information gathering, interviewing, and clear communication, translate seamlessly into producing high-impact policy research.

One of the central topics discussed was Nikkei’s landmark 2015 acquisition of the Financial Times (FT), a major milestone for Nikkei’s global media history. Mr. Moriyasu, who served on the core team and later as an integration coordinator, shared behind-the-scenes insights into how Nikkei aggressively adopted the FT’s advanced digital marketing, dynamic infographics, and strict digital-first philosophy to build its modern subscriber base. He addressed the current limits of domestic Japanese print media due to demographic contraction and noted that platforms like Nikkei Asia represent the crucial next step for Asian media to project an objective, English-language narrative globally to push back against heavily funded propaganda on social media. The conversation also explored the unique operational realities of think tanks in Washington in the era of extreme political polarization.

Mr. Moriyasu detailed his current research focus at Hudson Institute, which is China’s strategic pivot from traditional maritime-centric Indo-Pacific frameworks toward the landmass of Eurasia. He argued that Western analysts have over-indexed on the Indian Ocean and failed to see that Beijing is actively attempting to insulate itself from potential U.S. naval blockades by building a robust “Eurasian Fortress” of land-based pipelines and domestic electric vehicle supply chains backed by continental resources.

During the concluding Q&A session, audience members engaged the speaker on the practicalities of maintaining institutional objectivity amidst political polarization. Mr. Moriyasu observed that, while a think tank fellow must take a sharper approach to asserting policy hypotheses compared to a traditional reporter, strict adherence to data-driven and fact-based frameworks remains the ultimate defense against partisan bias or outside donor influence. Mr. Moriyasu concluded by highlighting how generation-defining intellectual work at think tanks is increasingly sharpened through iterative logic testing with AI models before formal drafting, to ensure that policy recommendations can cut through today’s fragmented media landscape.

Photo (left to right): Mr. Ken Moriyasu and Dr. Satohiro Akimoto.