An Enhanced Agenda for US-Japan Partnership
The wide-ranging developments that have begun to reshape Asia in recent years are driving the evolution of new regional relationships and institutions, and it seems clear that these will ultimately necessitate fundamental adjustments to the US-Japan relationship. For this reason, JCIE and the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership are undertaking a study to explore how bilateral cooperation can be deepened in order to face common challenges, strengthen regional and global stability and prosperity, and, ultimately, make the US-Japan alliance more robust and versatile. This project convenes promising, young Japanese and American experts to survey Japanese and US policy on five key issue areas, identify areas of potential divergence and convergence, and examine where deeper bilateral cooperation or coordination may be natural and potentially make a meaningful regional or global contribution.
The study team made preliminary presentations at a full-day workshop in New York on February 25, 2008, where Hitoshi Tanaka, JCIE senior fellow and former deputy foreign minister, drew on his experience to offer commentary on the considerations that a senior policymaker would need to weigh in each issue area. On February 26–27, the study team then took part in a visit program including a series of meetings with senior foreign policy analysts, scholars, former US policymakers, presidential campaign advisors, and Congressional staff on various aspects of US-Japan relations.
On January 9–11, 2009, the study team came together again for several days of programs in Tokyo and Shimoda. On January 9, the study team participated in a roundtable with foreign ministry officials entitled “Global Challenges and Japan’s Strategy” and had a series of meetings with experts on US-Japan relations. The study group then traveled to Shimoda, site of the historic Shimoda Conference, for a two-day workshop where each participant made an in-depth presentation on the progress of their research since the last study group meeting. Their findings are now being compiled into an edited volume to be published in 2009.
Project Participant Website (password accessible only)
Research Project Team
Senior advisor
Hitoshi Tanaka, Senior Fellow, JCIE
Military-military and civil-military cooperation on nontraditional security
Tetsuo Kotani, Research Fellow, Ocean Policy Research Foundation
John Park, Program Officer, Northeast Asia, Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention; Co-Director, Trilateral Dialogue in Northeast Asia, United States Institute of Peace
Energy, environment, and climate change
Llewelyn Hughes, Doctoral Candidate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Shoichi Itoh, Associate Senior Researcher, Economic Research Institute for Northeast Asia (ERINA)
Human security aspects of global health and other development issues
James Gannon, Executive Director, JCIE/USA
Eriko Sase, Assistant Professor of Community Health and Program Director, Global Health Systems Program, Center for Global Health Systems, Management, and Policy, Wright State University
Managing the international financial system
Jennifer Amyx, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
Yuko Hashimoto, Economist, International Monetary Fund; Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics, Toyo University
Regionalism in East Asia: Bilateralism and multilateralism
Phillip Lipscy, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Stanford University
Satoru Mori, Research Fellow, Graduate School of Law and Politics, University of Tokyo
Ryo Sahashi, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Tokyo; Research Fellow, JCIE