This event, held in partnership with Chatham House, brings a panel of experts to Japan House London to discuss how Japan can navigate turbulent times in the Indo-Pacific.

Japan faces a challenging year at home and abroad. New Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru lost the ruling coalition’s parliamentary majority in the October elections, Donald Trump is returning to power in the USA , and neighbouring South Korea is mired in its own political difficulties.

After an extended period in which domestic stability lay the foundations for a growing regional and global role, Japan will now have to navigate fragile politics at home and an increasingly problematic external environment.

The Japan-South Korea-USA trilateral partnership, which was one of the success stories of the last few years, will face a rocky road after Trump’s re-election to the White House and South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol’s abortive attempt to declare martial law.

Meanwhile, China, which is nervously awaiting Trump’s first moves, will be keen to show Japan and other regional rivals that it can maintain its increasingly robust stance in the region.

In these trying circumstances, how will Japan handle Trump 2.0? How can it better use its existing strong relationships with key Indo-Pacific partners such as ASEAN, Australia and India to support stability in the region? And what can Tokyo do with European partners such as the UK, France and Germany to tackle a growing list of shared challenges and deepen economic and security cooperation?

 

About the Speakers

Kanehara Nobukatsu served as Assistant Chief Cabinet Secretary to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe from 2012 to 2019. In 2013, he became the inaugural Deputy Secretary-General of the National Security Secretariat, a role which he held until his retirement from government service in 2019. He also served as Deputy Director of the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office. Kanehara’s role in the Cabinet built on a distinguished career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he served in a number of notable positions, including Director-General of the Bureau of International Law, Deputy Director-General of the Foreign Policy Bureau, Ambassador in charge of the United Nations and Human Rights. He served abroad as Deputy Chief of Mission in Seoul, South Korea, and Political Minister at the Embassy of Japan in Washington. He was decorated by the president of the Republic of France with l’Ordre nationale de la Légion d’honneur.

Tsuruoka Michito is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University. He received a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London. His areas of expertise include international security, contemporary European politics and Japan’s foreign and security policy. Prior to joining Keio in 2017, Dr Tsuruoka was a Senior Fellow at the National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS), Ministry of Defense, Japan. He also served as an Adviser for NATO at the Embassy of Japan in Belgium and visiting fellow at RUSI in London and at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra.

Kristi Govella is Associate Professor of Japanese Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on Japan and the Indo-Pacific region, including topics such as economic statecraft, government-business relations, regional institutional architecture, military alliances, non-traditional security, and the governance of the global commons. She is also an Adjunct Fellow at the East-West Center and Pacific Forum and Editor of the journal Asia Policy. Prior to joining Oxford, Dr. Govella held positions at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, Harvard University, and the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Chair: Ben Bland, Director, Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House

This event is introduced by Japan House London Director General, Sam Thorne.

---