The U.S.-Japan relationship remains a cornerstone of peace and security in the Asia Pacific region, but the neighborhood was changing even before 2020. What will the relationship look like post-pandemic and with new political leadership in both Japan and the United States? Join us for a discussion on American and Japanese perspectives on the challenges and opportunities facing the relationship moving forward.

Watch the recording on YouTube.

Speakers: 

Toshihiro Nakayama is a Professor of American Politics and Foreign Policy at the Faculty of Policy Management at Keio University. He is also an Adjunct Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs. He was a Special Correspondent for the Washington Post at the Far Eastern Bureau (1993-94), Special Assistant at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations in New York (1996-98), Senior Research Fellow at The Japan Institute of International Affairs (2004-06), Associate Professor at Tsuda College (2006-10), and Professor at Aoyama Gakuin University (2010-14). He was also a CNAPS Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution (2005-06). He received his M.A.(1993) and Ph.D.(2001) from Aoyama Gakuin University. He has written two books and numerous articles on American politics, foreign policy and international relations. He appears regularly on Japanese media and writes a monthly column for Japan News. He received the Nakasone Yasuhiro Award (Incentive Award) in 2014.

Abraham Denmark is Director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and a Senior Fellow at the Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Denmark’s research and policy expertise is in the politics and security of the Indo-Pacific, and in U.S. strategy toward the region.  A Colorado native, Denmark holds an MA in International Security from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, and received a BA in History with Honors from the University of Northern Colorado. He has also studied at Peking University.

Kay Shimizu is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh and a Visiting Scholar at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Japan. Her research addresses institutional design and their effects on economic governance with a special interest in central local relations, property rights, and the digital transformation. Her publications include Political Change in Japan: Electoral Behavior, Party Realignment, and the Koizumi Reforms (coedited with Steven R. Reed and Kenneth McElwain) as well as articles in Socio-Economic Review, Journal of East Asian Studies, Current History, and Social Science Japan Journal. She is the author, with Patricia L. Maclachlan, of a forthcoming book on agricultural cooperative reform from Cornell University Press. Shimizu received her Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University. She contributes regularly to the public discourse on international relations and the political economy of Asia and has been a fellow at the Mike and Maureen Mansfield Foundation, the National Committee on U.S. China Relations, and the U.S.-Japan Foundation.

Moderator: 

Dyron Dabney is an Associate Professor jointly in the Politics Department and the Japanese Studies program at Earlham College, Richmond, IN. He also is the Jackson Bailey Memorial Endowed Chair for Japan Study/Institute for Education on Japan. His research and teaching interests include campaigns and elections, political parties, political participation and elite politics. While specializing in Japanese politics, Dabney’s research and teaching interests invite comparative analyses of Japanese and American politics, culture and society. Dabney’s present-day research is motivated and informed by interdisciplinary studies that bring into focus gendered differences in political participation and behavior. Dabney holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Politics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is a Network for the Future Cohort II Scholar of The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, a former Board of Directors member of ASIANetwork, and a regular guest faculty and lecturer at Waseda University, Tokyo

Join the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania and the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh for a briefing and moderated panel discussion on the evolving Japan-US alliance and its impact on security and geostrategy in Asia.

Supported by a grant from NAJAS and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation

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