Providing timely analysis of the key issues in U.S.-Japan relations

Sasakawa USA’s Research Program identifies issues of importance to the United States and Japan that deserve greater attention, coordination, and cooperation. We focus research on five main areas: Security and Foreign Affairs; Cybersecurity; Economics, Trade, and Business; Energy and Technology; and Common Challenges.

Research projects are undertaken by staff experts and visiting fellows. Sasakawa USA also partners with other organizations and individual experts in both Japan and the United States.

Security and Foreign Affairs

Japan’s New National Defense Program Guidelines: Alliance Strategies for the Third Post-Cold War Era

On January 11, 2019, in partnership with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Sasakawa USA organized a symposium to discuss the NDPG. A bilateral group of scholars and former defense officials assessed Japan’s policy priorities and defense capabilities through the lens of its newly revised guidelines and Mid-Term Defense Plan. A book that will bring together the analyses of conference participants will be published in April 2019.

Tabletop Exercise: Pacific Trident II

Sasakawa USA’s Tabletop Exercise: Pacific Trident II, conducted in October 2018, built on the successes of Exercise: Pacific Trident to address U.S.-Japan, U.S.-ROK, and U.S.-Japan-ROK responses to signs of instability and illicit sanctions evasion activities in North Korea.

Cybersecurity

U.S.-Japan Cooperation in Cybersecurity

Since 2015, Sasakawa USA has been working to strengthen the U.S.-Japan partnership in the important emerging field of cybersecurity, with the goal of finding better ways for the two allies to cooperate in preserving the advantages that information technology gives us while making our networks more secure.

Smart Grids and Cybersecurity

Sasakawa USA’s program on Smart Grids and Cybersecurity addresses issues including cybersecurity threats, modernizing electric grids to integrate conventional and renewable sources of electricity, expanding use of energy storage and distributed generation, and responding seamlessly to disruptions.

Economics, Trade and Business

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.

Energy and Technology

Energy security and U.S.-Japan cooperation

Energy security is a concern for both the United States and Japan, and cooperation on this issue represents another means by which to strengthen the U.S.-Japan alliance. In 2016, Sasakawa USA launched a program exploring the energy makeup of both counties, and areas for collaboration.

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.

Common Challenges

The U.S. and Japan: Lessons from 3-11

To commemorate the fifth anniversary of the “3-11” triple disaster now known as the Great East Japan Earthquake, Sasakawa USA in coordination with the U.S.-Japan Council launched a program to draw lessons from the disaster and the joint response to it.

U.S.- Japan Cooperation in Assisting Myanmar’s Development

In 2015, Sasakawa USA launched a program exploring prospects for U.S.-Japan cooperation in assisting Myanmar’s economic and political development.