It has been eight months since the Suga administration took office, and there have already been significant challenges in both domestic and foreign policy. The government’s management of the coronavirus pandemic has led to increased public anxiety, with cases rising in recent weeks, and the vaccination programme lagging badly. The decision whether to go ahead with, cancel or postpone the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics has divided public opinion in Japan, where most people are worried about going ahead during the ongoing pandemic. The Suga administration has also found it hard to position Japan amid ongoing tensions between the US and China.

In the context of the Liberal Democratic Party’s long dominance of Japanese politics, the government has also been bedevilled by corruption scandals, such as the doctoring of public records by the Japanese Finance Ministry. The lack of transparency in Japan’s system of government has given rise to increasing public discontent. All these factors may affect both the upcoming general election expected to take place by this September and the House of Councillors election to be held next year.

In this webinar chaired by Dr John Nilsson-Wright, Professor Makihara will explain what is currently going on in Japanese politics, covering both short-term challenges and fundamental structural issues.

Date: Tuesday 1 June 2021

• UK Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm (BST)
• Japan Time: 8:00pm-9:00pm (GMT+9)

About the contributors

Izuru Makihara is a Professor at the University of Tokyo’s Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology. His research focuses on the political history and bureaucracy of postwar Japan. He also analyses contemporary Japanese politics using oral history methods and comparisons with developed countries. He holds a B.A. in Law and a PhD from the University of Tokyo. He has been a research scholar at the LSE and a visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.

John Nilsson-Wright (formerly Swenson-Wright) is senior university lecturer at Cambridge University and an official fellow at Darwin College; he also is concurrently senior research fellow for Northeast Asia and Korea Foundation Korea Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House. He was head of the Chatham House Asia Programme from March 2014 to October 2016 and is a graduate of Christ Church and St. Antony’s College, Oxford and SAIS, Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on Cold War history and the contemporary international relations of Northeast Asia, with reference to Japan and the Koreas.

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