Friday, March 11, 2011

Japan’s place in the world is changing. Will Tokyo carve out a new role as economic catalyst and mentor for the region, and wise balancer in the turbulent realignment of alliances and rivalries as US hegemony fades around the world? With China replacing Japan as the world’s second largest economy, and Japan’s own internal difficulties eroding its claim to leadership in the region, it is vital for Japan to find ways to be a strong “team player” in shaping the new Asia, both on its own and in the context of the US-Japan alliance.

Join our expert symposium participants—including Dr. Tsuneo Akaha, Brad Glosserman, JD, Dr. William H. Overholt, Daniel C. Sneider, MA, and Dr. Steven K. Vogel—as they explore Japan’s role in Asia in a new era of declining relative Japanese economic power, growing regional concern about the new Chinese assertiveness, and the heightened emphasis on Asia in the second half of the Obama presidency.

Dr. Tsuneo Akaha is a Professor at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and Director of the Institute’s Center for East Asian Studies. Dr. Akaha specializes in Japanese foreign and security policy, international relations of the Asia Pacific, international political economy, and international marine affairs. He was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Tokyo and Seikei University (Tokyo), and a Japan Foundation Research Fellow at Hokkaido University’s Slavic Research Center (Sapporo). Dr. Akaha is the author of Japan in Global Ocean Politics and the editor/co-editor of several titles including Crossing National Borders: Human Migration Issues in Northeast Asia and The Future of North Korea. Dr. Akaha holds a PhD and MA in International Relations from the University of Southern California, a BA in Political Science from Oregon State University, and a BA in Political Science from Waseda University, Tokyo.

Brad Glosserman, JD is Executive Director of the Pacific Forum CSIS in Honolulu, Hawaii, which provides policy-oriented analysis and promoted dialogue on regional security, political, economic, and environmental issues in the Asia-Pacific region. He oversees all Pacific Forum programs, conferences, and publications and directs the Pacific Forum’s Young Leaders program. Glosserman is editor of Comparative Connections, the Pacific Forum’s quarterly electronic journal, and originally wrote the section on US-Japan relations. He is coauthor of numerous monographs on US foreign policy and Asian security relations and appears regularly at international conferences on Asian security and foreign policy. Prior to joining Pacific Forum, he was a member of the Japan Times editorial board for ten years. Glosserman holds a JD from George Washington University, an MA from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and a BA from Reed College.

Dr. William H. Overholt is a Senior Research Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Dr. Overholt joined Asia Programs in 2008 and conducts research on development and governance issues. As the former director of RAND’s Center for Asia Pacific Policy, Dr. Overholt held a distinguished chair at the Center. He is the author of America and Asia: The Coming Transformation of Asian Geopolitics, as well as The Rise of China, which won the Mainichi News/Asian Affairs Research Center Special Book Prize. In 1976, he founded the semi-annual Global Assessment, with Zbigniew Brzezinski, and edited it until 1988. He has also spent 21 years running research teams for investment banks, including Nomura Securities, Bankers Trust, and BankBoston, mostly in Hong Kong or Singapore. Dr. Overholt holds a PhD and MPhil from Yale University and a BA from Harvard University.

Moderator Daniel C. Sneider, MA is the Associate Director for Research at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. He directs the Center’s project on Nationalism and Regionalism and the Divided Memories and Reconciliation project, a three-year comparative study of the formation of historical memory in East Asia. His own research focuses on current U.S. foreign and national security policy in Asia, including work on a diplomatic history of the building of the United States Cold War alliances in Northeast Asia. Sneider was a 2005-06 Pantech Fellow at the Center and the former foreign affairs columnist of the San Jose Mercury News. Sneider also has had a long career as a foreign correspondent with the Christian Science Monitor. Sneider holds an MA in Public Administration from Harvard University and a BA in East Asian History from Columbia University.

Dr. Steven K. Vogel is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He specializes in the political economy of advanced industrialized nations, especially Japan. He has written extensively on comparative political economy and Japanese politics, industrial policy, trade and defense policy, and is the author of Japan Remodeled: How Government and Industry Are Reforming Japanese Capitalism and co-editor of The Political Economy Reader: Markets as Institutions. His earlier book, Freer Markets, More Rules: Regulatory Reform in Advanced Industrial Countries, won the 1998 Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize. Dr. Vogel has worked as a reporter for the Japan Times in Tokyo and as a freelance journalist in France. He has taught previously at the University of California, Irvine and Harvard University. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley and a BA from Princeton University.

Location:
Union Bank
400 California Street
Main Banking Hall
San Francisco, CA
[Map]

Date & Time:
Friday, March 11, 2011
6:00 pm: Program
7:30 to 8:30 pm: Networking Reception

Cost:
$6 for Japan Society members & members of co-sponsoring organizations
$12 General Admission
Free for students with valid ID

Advanced registration for this event has closed. Seating is limited and advanced registration is strongly recommended for building security purposes. The deadline to RSVP for this event is Friday, March 4, 2011; refunds will not be made after this date.

The Japan Society kindly thanks Union Bank for their generous support for this event. This program is co-sponsored by the Japan Policy Research Institute, USF Center for the Pacific Rim and Asia Society Northern California.