With the U.S.-Japan trade wars of the 1980s and early 1990s a distant memory and the Asia-Pacific now the center of global growth, the American and Japanese economies are more closely linked than ever before.

Trade and investment between the two countries and among key nations of the Asia-Pacific are poised to accelerate with the implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. With Japan also embarking on major economic policy reforms encompassed by “Abenomics,” economic relations between the United States and Japan have entered a particularly dynamic period.

Sasakawa USA is working with partner organizations in holding an ongoing, high-level, bilateral economic dialogue, as well as a series of conferences and seminars on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Abenomics. Sasakawa USA’s projects address the design and impact of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the supply chains of American and Japanese companies, and issues relating to rare metals.

Programs

Securing Critical Resources in a New Green and Industrial Era

Sasakawa USA held a conference featuring key business, government, and other experts that focused on rare metals to examine the various risks companies face sourcing critical materials, look at data-driven projections on future sourcing for various technologies, and develop strategies to improve the resiliency of critical materials supply lines.

Supply Chains: Promoting U.S.-Japan Cooperation

Enhanced market access across the Asia Pacific region offers new opportunities—but also risks—for Japanese and U.S. companies doing business abroad. How can businesses secure their supply chains while minimizing risks in this new environment? In 2016, Sasakawa USA partnered with the Center for Responsible Enterprise And Trade (CREATe) and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New York (JCCI) to discuss some of the most pressing challenges companies now face in the global economy.

Japan Political Pulse (JPP)

Sasakawa USA’s Japan Political Pulse aggregates major opinion polls conducted by Japanese media outlets in order to provide a more accurate picture of the Abe government’s public approval rating. In addition to aggregating multiple polls, Sasakawa USA’s fellows also provide occasional commentary on noteworthy data points in recent surveys.

High-Level Working Group on Japan-U.S. Common Economic Challenges

In 2014, Sasakawa USA partnered with the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Sasakawa Peace Foundation Japan to launch a multiyear project, the High-Level Working Group on Japan-U.S. Common Economic Challenges, that hosts seminars to address pressing policy issues such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), fiscal sustainability, and slow growth.

Publications

Shinzo Abe’s greatest gamble

Author: Tobias Harris

Categories: In the News

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has repeatedly shown a willingness to take calculated risks to advance his goals. Now he is preparing to run his greatest risk yet — a snap election scheduled for Oct. 22 — that Abe is calling not from a position of strength, but his opponents’ position of weakness,

Tags: Abenomics, economics, election, lpd, polictics, Shinzo Abe, snap election, tobias harris

China’s Intellectual Property Theft Must Stop

Author: Admiral Dennis C. Blair and General Keith B. Alexander

Categories: In the News

Admiral Dennis Blair co-authored this opinion piece with General Keith Alexander, a former commander of the United States Cyber Command and a former director of the National Security Agency, on the importance of challenging China’s theft of U.S. intellectual property.

Tags: China, ip, IP theft, USTR

The Past May Rhyme, But is Asia Now Singing a Different Tune?

Author: Chris Nelson

Chris Nelson, Sasakawa USA Fellow for U.S.-Asia Relations, reflects on the 2017 Shangri-La Dialogue, organized by the International Institute on Strategic Studies, and the implications for U.S. allies and friends in Asia of the Trump administration’s uncertain policies. In the absence of U.S. leadership, says Nelson, Japan seems to be taking a more proactive role in the region.

Tags: ASEAN, China, FONOPs, Japan, Paris climate accords, Shangri-La Dialogue, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership, U.S.-Asia relations

After TPP: The future of U.S.-Japan trade relations

Author: Tobias Harris

Categories: In the News

A bilateral economic dialogue between the United States and Japan emphasized win-win economic cooperation. The friendly discussions, however, obscured the extent to which Japan and the United States are pursuing conflicting visions of the U.S.-Japan economic relationship, writes Sasakawa USA Fellow Tobias Harris, in this op-ed published by The Diplomat.

Tags: free trade agreement, Japan, trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership, U.S.