NEWS & EVENTS

Japan-U.S. Forum 2019

On Friday, May 17, 2019 the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies hosted the Japan-U.S. Forum 2019 in collaboration with the Japan Economic Foundation (JEF) at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies | SAIS titled, “The United States and Japan in a Globalizing World.” The forum was lead by Dr. Kent Calder, Vice Dean of Faculty Affairs and International Research Cooperation at SAIS and Mr. Kazumasa Kusaka, Chairman and Chief Executive Office at JEF. The forum itself was split into two panels, titled, “Domestic and International Transformations” and “Toward Stronger, Rule-Based Globalization,” respectively.

Dr. Calder moderated the first panel of session one, titled “Emerging Geopolitical Risks.” Panelists included Ambassador David Shear, the former US Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asian and Pacific Affairs as well as US Ambassador to Vietnam, and Dr. Hal Brands, the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at SAIS. The panel examined looming uncertainties in global affairs, paying special attention to their political-military dimensions as well as to their economic antecedents. In particular, the discussion centered on tensions in the Middle East, the Korean peninsula, and the energy sea lanes between Northeast Asia and the Persian Gulf, as well as the geopolitical implications of China’s Belt and Road program.

The second panel of session one, titled “Domestic Transformations,” was moderated by Dr. Naoyuki Haraoka, Executive Managing Director at JEF. Speakers included Yascha Mounk, Associate Professor of International Affairs at SAIS and Senior Advisor at Protect Democracy, Mr. Daniel Bob, Senior Fellow at the Reischauer Center and former Legislative Assistant to Senator William Roth, Chairman of the US Senate Finance Committee, and Dr. Naoyuki Yoshino, Dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute – ADBI and Professor Emeritus at Keio University. The panelists discussed China’s financial influence in Asia and Japan’s economic stagnation and aging population as well as China’s domination of Japan’s trade relations. The panel also focused on how increased regional and global integration creates a spillover effect across economies.

Following the first session, the luncheon speaker, James Shinn, the former Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and a Technological Entrepreneur gave a speech titled, “The AI Context of Future U.S.-Japan Relations,” which touched upon how AI will effect the future of the U.S.-Japan relationship.

The second session, titled “Towards a Stronger, Rule-Based Globalization,” was moderated by Dr. Joshua White, an Associate Professor at SAIS and the former Director for South Asian Affairs at the U.S. National Security Council.

Panelists included Jacob Schlesinger, a Senior correspondent at the The Wall Street Journal Washington Bureau, Kenneth Levinson, Executive Director at the Washington International Trade Association, and Soichiro Sakuma, Senior Advisor to the CEO at the Nippon Steel Corporation. The session addressed the prospects for constructing a rule-based system with which to order world economic affairs, while being simultaneously time sensitive to emerging political-economic realities in key nations, such as the United States and Japan. The panelists also discussed varying methods for protecting intellectual property as well as mechanisms to help stabilize the US-Japan-China relationship.