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Under the Abe administration, Japan’s security policy has made significant changes to adapt to the challenges of the 21st century international arena. The effect of the changes on the future of Japanese security is an important consideration for Japan’s foreign relations and domestic policies. Andrew Oros, Professor of Political Science and Director of International Studies at Washington College, and David Hunter-Chester, Senior Research Analyst at Intelligent Decision Systems, Inc., joined Stimson’s Yuki Tatsumi, Senior Associate of the East Asia Program, for a timely discussion of Japanese security policy and defense posture. Oros is author of the recently published book Japan’s Security Renaissance: New Policies and Politics for the Twenty-First Century (Columbia, 2017), and Hunter-Chester recently published Creating Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force, 1945-2015: A Sword Well Made (Lexington, 2016).
WHAT: A discussion on the changes in Japan’s security policy and defense posture and their implications for the future, based on two recently published books by their authors.
Featuring:
Andrew Oros
Andrew Oros is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of International Studies at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. He conducted research for his latest book, Japan’s Security Renaissance (Columbia University Press, 2017), as an invited research fellow at Japan’s National Institute of Defense Studies and as a Japan Foundation Abe fellow at Keio University in Tokyo and Peking University in Beijing. Other published work includes Normalizing Japan: Politics, Identity, and the Evolution of Security Practice (Stanford University Press, 2008), Global Security Watch: Japan (Praeger Press, 2010; co-authored with Yuki Tatsumi), and over a dozen scholarly articles and book chapters on Japanese politics and East Asian security. He earned his Ph.D in political science at Columbia University and an MSc in the Politics of the World Economy as a Marshall scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He also has studied at three universities in Japan, and earned his BA from the University of Southern California.
David Hunter-Chester
David Hunter-Chester is a Senior Research Analyst for Intelligent Decision Systems, Inc., and a retired U.S. Army colonel. As a Foreign Area Officer focused on Japan for 20 of his 26 years, he served in a variety of politico-military posts at the operational and strategic levels, in Japan, Iraq and the Pentagon, and he is a graduate of both Japan’s Command and Staff College and the National Institute of Defense Studies. He has a Ph.D. in East Asian History from the University of Kansas, and has taught at the United States Army Command and General Staff College, West Point and Webster University. As well, he worked for Raytheon on a project connected to Japan’s nascent amphibious capabilities. Dr. Hunter-Chester resides in Kansas.
Yuki Tatsumi
Yuki Tatsumi is a Senior Associate with the Stimson Center’s East Asia program. Previously, Tatsumi worked as a research associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and as the Special Assistant for Political Affairs at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C. In September 2006, Tatsumi testified before the House Committee on International Relations. She is a recipient of the 2009 Yasuhiro Nakasone Incentive Award and earned the Letter of Appreciation from the Ministry of National Policy of Japan in 2012 for her contributions to advancing mutual understanding between the United States and Japan. A native of Tokyo, Tatsumi holds a B.A. in liberal arts from the International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan and an M.A. in international economics and Asian studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C.