The NEXT Alliance Initiative will occasionally create simple interactive “maps” to help interested scholars, students, and policy makers visualize how the US and Japan organize themselves to address emerging challenges. Experts in these mapping areas often know their own country’s organization well and perhaps an immediate counterpart in the allied government, but few have a comprehensive understanding of how that counterpart fits within the broader arrangement of agencies, offices, and stakeholders in the policy making process. We hope that these simple maps will be useful in deepening mutual understanding and facilitate alliance cooperation.