An air of uncertainty remains prevalent in the Indo-Pacific region. The South China Sea continues to be in contention, with six governments exerting claims on overlapping areas. The threat of a full-blown trade war between China and the United States puts the stability of the regional (and global) economy in question. Meanwhile, the Korean peninsula appears to swing between the brink of conflict to the possibility of dramatic diplomatic breakthroughs. It was in the midst of this precarious period for the region that the third annual gathering of the U.S.-Japan Security and Defense Dialogue Series took place in Tokyo from January 30 to February 1.

The 2019 meeting was co-sponsored by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation and APARC’s U.S.-Asia Security Initiative (USASI). For the past three years, the series has convened senior Japanese and American policymakers, military leaders, scholars, and regional experts to discuss Japan's security strategy and the alliance between Japan and the United States. Support for the workshop came from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Since its inception in 2016, the dialogue series has provided a venue for in-depth discourse on contemporary Asia-Pacific security issues, and has helped build bridges between American and Asian academics, government and military officials, and other defense and security policy specialists. “We have continued to expand the range of attendees from the Japanese and U.S. government and military,” said USASI Director Karl Eikenberry. “This has ensured for our dialogue even greater policy relevance with each iteration.”

“The U.S.-Japan security dialogue is unique because it combines civilians and military officers, both retired and serving, which simply does not take place elsewhere,” observed Stanford Lecturer in International Policy Daniel Sneider, a regular participant. “It also avoids the sometimes-empty rhetoric about our alliance in favor of an operational, but strategically informed, approach that gets at not only what is being accomplished, but where the gaps exist in our alliance.”

Threats, Challenges, and the Appropriate Responses

L to R: Amb. Karl Eikenberry and Lt. General Noboru Yamaguchi (Workshop Co-Chairs)

The 2019 dialogue opened with a day of discussions on many of the challenges facing the U.S.-Japan security alliance, including an assessment of the latest security trends in the Indo-Pacific, as well as Japan’s new National Defense Program Guidelines (NDPG). Passed by the Japanese Cabinet only a month earlier, the NDPG was the focus of two sessions on day one, including a discussion of its implications for Indo-Pacific security, as well as a session on the guideline’s ramifications for concepts of Integrated Air and Missile Defense and Archipelagic Defense

“Unsurprisingly, the global rise of China—along with the U.S. and Japan’s separate and combined responses to PRC strategy in the Indo-Pacific Region—helped shape both our agenda and the selection of participants,” observed Eikenberry. “We were specifically interested in the implications for the maritime domain and certain operational aspects of the U.S.-Japan security alliance.”

The day one closing ceremony featured remarks from the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, the Honorable William Hagerty.

Developing Policy Recommendations, Meeting with Policymakers

L to R: Major Rodger Welding and Colonel Daniel Munter (United States Pacific Air Forces), and Lt. Colonel Yuka Nakazato, (Japan Air Self-Defense Force)

Days two and three were designed for small group sessions. Referred to as “Core Group”, its U.S. and Japanese members met the morning of January 31 to review the preceding day’s workshop and develop corresponding policy recommendations. The quality and depth of the conversations underscored just how great an impact the expanded range of participants had on the resulting policy.

“Participants weren't afraid to address sensitive, big-picture questions,” said Phillip Lipscy, a Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford, “like the slow growth of Japanese military spending in the face of increasing regional threats and the challenges posed by unpredictable US administration policies.”

“Even as an expert of Japanese politics, I found the dialogue extremely informative and stimulating,” shared Lipscy.

Sneider agreed as well. “One thing that stood out this year, in contrast to the previous years, was a greater willingness on the part of our Japanese colleagues to air their sense of unease about and even opposition to the direction of American foreign and security policy under the Trump administration,” he said. “In the past, the American participants were much more open about their criticism of their own government, the Japanese tended to be polite—not so much this year, which made for a lively exchange on many issues.”

In the afternoon, core U.S. participants again met with the US Ambassador, along with his embassy team, as well as with senior Cabinet Office officials from the government of Japan.

Field Testing Ideas

During the second annual gathering in 2018, the dialogue began including a visit by the core workshop participants to a combined U.S. military—Japanese Self Defense facility. As part of the 2019 dialogue, the Core Group spent their third and final day visiting Yokota Air Base, the headquarters of both United States Forces Japan and Japan Air Self Defense Force Air Defense Command.

“ “These visits allow us to better understand Alliance operational challenges in the field,” noted Eikenberry. “Just as importantly, it affords us an immediate opportunity to test out some of the very ideas discussed during the preceding days.”

Yokota Air Base, Japan

Chatham House Rules applied to the dialogue, but a workshop report is forthcoming.

View the reports from the first and second annual workshops.

The U.S.-Asia Security Initiative is part of Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC). Led by former U.S. Ambassador and Lieutenant General (Retired) Karl Eikenberry, USASI seeks to further research, education, and policy relevant dialogues at Stanford University on contemporary Asia-Pacific security issues.

(L to R: Karl Eikenberry, Michael McFaul, Major Marcus Morgan (U.S. Army LNO to Japan Ground Self Defense Force Northern Army and Stanford University Center for East Asian Studies MA ’18), Phillip Lipscy, Daniel Sneider)

Why does cellist Yo-Yo Ma refer to the Silk Road as the ‘Internet of antiquity’? What is globalization? What is economic interdependence? What are diversity and inclusion? These are some of the questions that high school students from Yokohama Science Frontier High School (YSFH) considered during a visit to the San Francisco Bay Area in January 2019. Alumni of the U.S.-Japan Council’s TOMODACHI Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) and SPICE staff encouraged the students to critically consider the questions during their visits to Facebook, Apple, and Stanford University.

Prior to their arrival, YSFH students shared their goals for the trip. YSFH student Ken Horikoshi, who aspires to become a robotics engineer, noted, “I will need communication skills, skills of thinking deeply, and of course, knowledge about space or robotics to make my dreams come true. So, I’d like to make an effort to improve these skills.” With the students’ goals in mind, ELP Chair and SPICE’s Rylan Sekiguchi organized visits to Apple and Facebook and assisted with a one-day seminar at Stanford.

Derek Kenmotsu talks with students and teachers on Apple campus.

Mana Nakagawa gives students and teachers a tour around Facebook headquarters.

During the seminar at Stanford, SPICE staff introduced the YSFH students to SPICE lessons from Along the Silk Road to illustrate that globalization is not just a modern phenomenon. The staff noted that in some ways, the ancient Silk Road was the first real conduit of globalization, as it connected vast lands into a trade network that spread goods, beliefs, and technologies far from their areas of origin. ELP alumna Naomi Funahashi, instructor of SPICE’s online course on Japan, illustrated this by showing how musical instruments were carried along the Silk Road and gradually adapted to cultural and geographic features of local environments. She mentioned, for example, similarities and differences of lutes that can be found in Europe, China, Korea, and Japan. She also noted a description of the Silk Road by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, founder of Silkroad, who has described the Silk Road as the “Internet of antiquity”; expounding upon this notion, Sekiguchi and SPICE’s Jonas Edman noted that by studying about the Silk Road, we can gain historical insights into how the contemporary stage of globalization is changing our world and our lives.

A highlight of the seminar featured the YSFH students giving presentations on their science-related research to the SPICE staff and visiting scholars at Stanford from Japan. YSFH student Kazuhiro Okada’s presentation on his ambition to design underwater cities stretched the audience’s notions of globalization and interconnectedness. One commented, “It would be interesting if you could someday design a subway stop under the ocean between Aomori Prefecture and Hokkaido.”

The ELP identifies, cultivates, and empowers a new generation of leaders in the U.S.–Japan relationship. Chair Sekiguchi, other ELP alumni, and SPICE staff extended this mission to the generation behind them. YSFH teacher Nobuyo Uchimura described the experiences that they provided her students as very precious ones that expanded their learning beyond the confines of a classroom, and YSFH teacher Yukimasa Uekusa noted his desire to prioritize programs such as this into the future.

President Trump caught the world by surprise once again yesterday with a decision not to sign a deal with his North Korean counterpart, Chairman Kim Jong-un, in Hanoi, Vietnam. While walking away is a common tactic in working-level negotiation, what happened in Hanoi was a rare case and the least expected outcome.

Read the full article on Axios.

Trump and Kim share a common desire for development.

At first glance U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seem like an unlikely pair. A few years back they were calling each other “Rocket Man” and a “dotard,” and tension between the United States and North Korea was escalating rapidly in 2017. But in a few days they are slated to meet for the second time, and according to Trump they had “fallen in love” not long after their first encounter. What could have created such intimate bond between the two? The common interest that brings the two together is the desire for development — economic development in the case of Kim and property development in the case of Trump.

Read the full article on The Diplomat.

Stanford e-Japan is an online course that teaches Japanese high school students about American society and culture and U.S.–Japan relations. The course introduces students to both American and Japanese perspectives on many historical and contemporary issues. It is offered biannually by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE). The Fall 2018 cohort was the seventh group of students to complete Stanford e-Japan.

In August 2019, three of the top students of the Fall 2018 Stanford e-Japan distance-learning course will be honored at an event at Stanford University. The three Stanford e-Japan Day honorees—Sakura Hayakawa (Katoh Gakuen Gyoshu Senior High School), Ryotaro Homma (Kaisei Senior High School), and Taiki Yamamoto (Ritsumeikan Uji Senior High School)—will be recognized for their coursework and exceptional research essays that focused respectively on “Importance of Youth Political Participation and Citizenship Education,” “The Abolition of the Electoral College: A Synthesis of the Positive Aspects,” and “The U.S.-Japan Alliance: Is a New Framework Necessary?”

Mayu Fujinami (Keio Girls Senior High School) and Tatsuya Sugiyama (Saitama Prefectural Urawa High School) received Honorable Mentions for their research papers on “The Importance of Paternity Leave for Gender Equality” and “Design Thinking: Lessons from the U.S.,” respectively.

Applications for the next session of Stanford e-Japan (Spring 2019) are currently being accepted through February 24, 2019. More information is available at stanfordejapan.org.

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Stanford e-Japan is currently accepting applications for the Spring 2019 session, which runs from April 22 to August 23, 2019. The deadline to apply is February 24, 2019.

Now in its eighth session, Stanford e-Japan is SPICE’s online course for high school students in Japan. Accepted students engage in an intensive study of U.S. society and culture and U.S.–Japan relations. Ambassadors, top scholars, and experts throughout the United States provide web-based lectures and engage students in live discussion sessions.

The Spring 2019 session is generously supported by the Yanai Tadashi Foundation, Tokyo, Japan.

This year, Stanford e-Japan has moved to an online application system. All applications must be submitted at https://spicestanford.smapply.io/prog/stanford_e-japan/ via the SurveyMonkey Apply platform. Applicants and recommenders will need to create a SurveyMonkey Apply account to proceed. Students who are interested in applying to the program are encouraged to begin their application early.

For more information about Stanford e-Japan, please visit http://stanfordejapan.org.

To stay informed of news about Stanford e-Japan and SPICE’s other student programs, join our email list or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

SPICE offers separate courses for U.S. high school students. For more information on those, please visit http://reischauerscholars.org (online course on Japan), http://sejongscholars.org (Korea), and http://chinascholars.org (China).

Related articles:

• Winners announced for the Spring 2018 Stanford e-Japan Award
• Japan Day 2018: Recognizing future leaders in the U.S.–Japan relationship