YCAPS-SPF Community Conversations Series (via Zoom)

22 June 2022 – 19:00 (Japan)

YCAPS & the Sasakawa Peace Foundation are pleased to announce the return of the Community Conversations seminar series in Okinawa. The inaugural event will feature Mr. Tsuneo Watanabe. Mr. Watanabe has observed Japanese security policy and politics as a researcher in both US and Japanese thinktanks for decades. He will discuss the history of Japanese security policy and politics in the context of the US military facility in Okinawa.

YCAPS Community Conversations (in-person, Sasebo)

Wednesday, November 13, 2024 – 17:30 (JST)

YCAPS is excited to announce our next event in Sasebo. This event will feature Dr. Chisa Masuo who will lead us in a discussion on China's Maritime Strategy relating to Taiwan. We will also be joined by Dr. John Bradford who will add perspective as a discussant.

On February 14, 2024, not long after Lai Ching-te won Taiwan's presidential election, a collision between a Taiwanese coast guard and a Chinese fishing boat occurred near Taiwan-administered Kinmen Island. Since then, China has been increasing pressure on Taiwan from the sea, including the participation of Chinese coast guard vessels in joint exercises surrounding the island of Taiwan. China has begun applying the same salami-slicing strategy against Taiwan that it used against the Philippines and Japan . How will China's Taiwan policy change in the future? What impact will China's actions have on international relations in the Indo-Pacific? In this seminar, we will consider these issues together with the participants.

For more information, please see the event page.

Community Conversations Series (Tokyo In-Person)

Saturday, August 31, 2024 – 10:30 (Japan)

Jeff Mazziotta will lead a YCAPS trip to visit the famous Korakuen Hall in Suidobashi, Tokyo to experience a Japanese Pro-Wrestling “プロレス” show. Japan is just as famous for its プロレス as it is for Sumo or Baseball and wrestlers and fans from around the world come to Japan every year to experience it.

For this experience, YCAPS has teamed with Japanese promotion Gatoh Move, which is based in Ichigaya, to offer a great opportunity to experience this unique aspect of Japanese culture. Thanks to this partnership, YCAPS can offer a limited number of free tickets to attend Gatoh Move’s “For the Future” show. This show will be Gatoh Move’s first event at the legendary Korakuen Hall in over 8 years and a major statement from the family friendly promotion.

For more information, please see the event page. 

Comunity Conversations Series (Fussa In-Person)

Wednesday, July 17, 2024 – 18:15 (Japan)

Russia's military invasion of Ukraine in 2022 took a great many observers and specialists by surprise. Though Russia's actions may have been unexpected, its behavior was nothing new. Conquest, the taking of another's territory and possessions, has been a foreign policy option for millennia and continues to be one, despite what modern international relations thinking often teaches. Moreover, how states look at territory and boundaries is not uniform, and these differences in perspective often complicate our attempts to analyze or predict state behavior. For example, China views maritime territory completely differently than the West, which changes the state's calculus and complicates diplomacy between China and others.

This talk will examine conquest and its implications on international relations today, with an eye on reminding the specialist and the geopolitical enthusiast that conquest has not gone away, nor will it fall out of style any time soon

For more information, please see the event page.

Community Conversation Seminar (Sasebo In-Person)

Monday, June 24, 2024 – 17:45 (Japan)

Sino-Russian relations have always had a deep impact on both countries, and the rise and fall of their alliance during the Cold War even significantly shaped the history of Xi's own family.

In this talk, Professor Joseph Torigian will compare that earlier era of the relationship to the present day across three issue areas. First, although the two countries are no longer tied by Marxist ideology, they share a distaste for western democracy and a hope that the world will become safer for authoritarian regimes. Second, during the Cold War, China's use of force often led to tensions with the USSR - now, it is Russia's aggressive behavior that stresses the relationship. Third, the Putin-Xi friendship is an anomaly in the history of the relationship, as previous leaders often mistrusted or disrespected one another. An appreciation for these differences suggests that although the relationship is not as close as it was at the height of the Sino-Soviet alliance and that neither side will fully sacrifice its interests for the other, in some ways the relationship today is better capable of managing centrifugal forces.

For more information, please see the event page.

Community Conversations Series (Iwakuni In-Person)

Saturday, May 25, 2024 – 12:30 (Japan)

YCAPS is excited to announce the next event in the Community Conversations seminar series in the Iwakuni Community featuring Dr. Robert Mizo of the University of Delhi, who will guide us in a discussion on Climate Change and Maritime Security: Concerns for the Indo-Pacific.

Maritime security is one of the most vulnerable domains of security in the face of changing climate. The physical impacts can derail existing security mechanisms and strategies of countries and collectives. For instance, the Quad's goal of securing a 'free and open Indo-pacific' stands to be disrupted in several ways by the direct and indirect impacts of climate change. This talk aims to analyse these threats and deliberate on ways to cooperate to deal with these challenges in the Indo-pacific region.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Fussa)

8 March 2024 - 18:15-20:30 (JST)

For over 30 years, China has sustained high-level growth of its defense budget without transparency, engaging in broad, rapid improvement of its military power in qualitative and quantitative terms with focus on nuclear, missile, naval and air forces. Bolstering these capabilities will reinforce China’s “Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD)" capabilities and lead to the establishment of operational capabilities further afield. Additionally, while implementing a development strategy of civil-military fusion across the board, China is striving to develop and acquire cutting-edge technologies that can be used for military purposes. These technologies (esp. artificial intelligence) include game changing technologies that would dramatically alter future warfare.

LCDR Ueno will address the security environment surrounding Japan and then speak about development and regulatory trends of AI weapons.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Misawa - Hybrid)

28 February 2024 - 17:45-20:00 (JST)

With the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia demonstrated that it poses a major threat to European security. However, what about in East Asia? This talk assesses the threat that Russia poses to Japanese security, not only in terms of military security, but also in terms of espionage and cyber security. James D.J. Brown, Professor of Political Science at Temple University, Japan Campus, will lead us in this discussion.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversations Series (Iwakuni)

8 February 2024 - 17:45-20:00 (JST)

Amidst the flux of the rule-based world order, Japan’s public diplomacy, which relies solely on its cultural uniqueness, is inadequate. Professor Yasushi Watanabe of Keio University proposes new principles for an age where the diplomatic sphere is expanding from reality-shaping to agenda-setting and rulemaking. In this presentation, Professor Watanabe reviews the trajectory of and possibilities.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Sasebo)

25 January 2024 - 17:30-19:45 (JST)

In December 2022, Japan's three security documents were released. This document outlines Japan's new security policy, which calls for further strengthening of the Japan-U.S. alliance. One year will soon have passed since the documents were released. During the past year, maritime actions have been taken to strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance based on this policy. This presentation will discuss how the JMSDF has been conducting exercises and trainings to strengthen the alliance and also to strengthen cooperation with like-minded countries, which are the twin pillars of the alliance, using "The Indo-Pacific Deployment 2023 (IPD23)" of the JMSDF in the Indo-Pacific as a case study. RADM Yasuhiro Kawakami (JMSDF), Ret. will lead us in this discussion.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Okinawa)

20 January 2024 - 13:45-15:45 (JST)

Faced with threats from revisionist states, Japan currently promotes a “free and open international order (FOIO),” basing it on the rule of law among nations. The FOIO’s advocacy often overshadows the more familiar “free and open Indo-Pacific (FOIP),” which, illustrating Tokyo’s geostrategic reasoning, became a code for a rules-based regional order. Amid global security challenges, this lecture will focus on Japan’s evolving strategic messaging from FOIP to FOIO and its prospect of reaching the Indo-Pacific and beyond. Professor Kei Hakata of Seikei University will lead us in this discussion.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Yokosuka)

17 January 2024 - 17:30-19:45 (JST)

Since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe introduced the idea, four countries have promoted the QUAD. Why do we need it? As a strategy to sustain a 'Free and Open Indo-Pacific', the QUAD has a huge potential and decides order in this region. Dr. Satoru Nagao, a fellow (non-resident) at Hudson Institute, will lead us in this discussion.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Sasebo)

5 December 2023 - 17:30-19:45 (JST)

The emerging great power competition in the western Pacific has prompted gradual qualitative changes to the alliance structure in the region. Alliances are increasingly being regarded as a means to create military power. Japan, for example, has been upgrading its security strategies in order to strengthen the U.S.-Japan alliance. Moreover, the growing U.S.-Japan-South Korea trilateral security relationship as underscored in the Camp David Summit in mid-August illuminates these major changes in the way alliances are operationalized in the region. By examining this trilateral security relationship, this seminar will explore the evolving nature of the U.S. alliance system in East Asia as well as its implications for the region and beyond.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Iwakuni)

18 November 2023 - 12:30-14:45 (JST)

The Japanese tea ceremony, an icon of Japanese culture often depicted in a feminine image today, began as a masculine practice, at least in official spheres, around the 15th and 16th centuries. Deeply gendered, the tea ceremony has always been a self-empowering activity for ambitious social groups. This lecture overviews the history of the tea ceremony from its legendary birth in the feudal era to the present, with a special attention to modern times, exploring why it became women’s culture through the two historical moments: the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century and Japan’s loss in World War II. Dr. Etsuko Kato of International Christian University, Tokyo, wil lead us in this discussion.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Okinawa)

15 November 2023 - 17:45-19:45 (JST)

Since 2021, China has formulated and started to implement the new “Territorial and Spatial Program” over its claimed territories and “jurisdictional waters”. Under this, it has been developing and installing new types of maritime observation and surveillance infrastructures as well as other related facilities in the South and East China Seas that can impact American supremacy in Maritime Domain Awareness in the long run. What are Chinese motivations? How fast will they spread to other waters in the world? Dr. Chisako T. Masuo of Kyushu University will lead us in this discussion.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Misawa)

4 November 2023 - 12:30-14:45 (JST)

Given its friendly relations with all the regional countries and beyond, Mongolia has been actively seeking to contribute to Northeast Asian security issues through multilateral dialogues since the late 1980s. Eventually, it has been playing an important role in peace and security in Northeast Asia in recent decades. Landlocked between Russia and China, Mongolia is perceived as small in terms of population and economic capacity but influential in terms of its proactive diplomacy and its glorious history. Mr. Otgonbaatar Byambaa, diplomat and First Secretary at the Embassy of Mongolia in Tokyo, will lead us in this discussion.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Yokosuka)

25 October 2023 - 17:30 - 19:45 (JST)

Capt. (Ret.) Teruaki Aizawa of the National Defense Academy of Japan will discuss the transition and development of Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” policy. This talk will focus on its significance in building a new international order based on the "rule of law", with the management of relations with China in mind.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversations Series (Sasebo In-Person)

19 Oct 2023 – 17:30 (Japan)

More than twenty years have passed since the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties (DOC) in 2002 launched an official negotiation towards signing of a binding code of conduct. The negotiation intermittently slowed and picked up pace as various events in the SCS and the changes in broader strategic contexts inevitably affected the negotiation. This talk will raise issues and consider whether China's intentional foot-dragging is the main cause of the prolonged negotiation. Dr. Yoichiro Sato will lead us in this discussion.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Fussa)

4 October 2023 – 18:15-20:45 (JST)

Captain Kentaro Furuya will provide a comprehensive overview of the Japan Coast Guard Control Guideline, recently formulated in April. Furthermore, he will delve into the emerging challenges that the Government of Japan presently confronts in this realm.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversations Series (Iwakuni)

26 September 2023 – 17:45-20:00 (JST)

Most Japanese people believe that the Japan Self-Defense Forces(JSDF)’s most important and primary mission is domestic disaster relief operations. The JSDF’s ardent commitment to domestic disaster relief works has been highlighted in the media regularly, projecting it as a national hero in this disaster-prone country. JSDF members have also been engaged in emergency relief activities abroad in cooperation with other militaries, civilian agencies, and International NGOs. Dr. Kiba will discuss this important role of the JSDF in this talk.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversations Series (Misawa)

11 September 2023 – 17:30-20:00 (JST)

With the introduction of three security policy documents in December 2022, Japan became committed to the defense of Taiwan and ready to build the capabilities necessary to achieve that goal. If war breaks out across the Taiwan Strait, Japan will provide bases to the U.S. forces fighting for Taiwan and commit the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to defend Taiwan. However, China will likely do everything to prevent Japan from helping Taiwan in case of war. What would this mean for the U.S.-Japan Alliance? This event will feature Dr. Narushige Michishita will discuss both the opportunities and challenges involved in Japan's decision to defend Taiwan.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Okinawa)

26 August 2023 – 13:30-16:00 (JST)

Today, Okinawa is the frontline of the great power rivalry in East Asia. How do Okinawan people see such international situations as well as thier thoughts on the US-Japan alliance? In this presentation, Dr. Fumiaki Nozoe will discuss Okinawa's view on the international order in East Asia after World War 2.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Yokosuka)

19 July 2023 – 18:00-20:00 (JST)

Along with the rise of China, the emergence of the quadrilateral security initiative (Quad) has been the most consequential geopolitical development in the Indo-Pacific in the last few decades. Yet, India's role in the Quad has come under great scrutiny, both on account of its capacity and motivations. Dr. Yogesh Joshi of the National University of Singapore will address both how the Quad fits into India's Indo-Pacific strategy and how India fits into the Quad.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Yokosuka)

18 July 2023 – 17:30-19:45 (JST)

Dr. Yurika Ishii of The National Defense Academy of Japan, will discuss recent developments concerning the cooperation between Japan and Pacific Islands countries. This talk will focus on its legal significance and the implication on the US-China power politics in the region.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Misawa)

28 June 2023 – 17:30-20:00 (JST)

Dr. Yusuke Anami of Tohoku University, who will lead an exploration of China's military build-up under Xi Jinping. China under the Xi Jinping regime is moving away from democratization and going back to individual dictatorship. Xi's close ties with the PLA is one major factor that allowed the concentration of power. Xi is determined to maintain China's military expansion. How did the PLA contribute to Xi's rise within the Chinese Communist Party? Why is Xi so eager to enhance the capabilities of the PLA? What is the condition of PLA's navy and air force? These are the questions that will be discussed during this talk. 

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Yokosuka)

21 June 2023 – 17:30-19:45 (JST)

In recent years, the military threats posed by China and North Korea are strengthening and changing in nature, leading to more complex implications for Japan. While Japan is taking some important steps in its defense planning under the National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy, and the Defense Buildup Plan issued last year, Tokyo still faces myriad challenges going forward in sharpening and strengthening its defense strategies and readiness – particularly in the context of joint operations. In this seminar, Dr. Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi will talk about the current and emerging threats and vulnerabilities for Japan, and more importantly, the key questions in its strategies and defense planning.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation Series (Okinawa)

9 June 2023, 17:30 - 19:45 JST

Taiwan and Okinawa have been purportedly among the sites over which great-power security competition is taking place and intensifying, with a likelihood of war in East Asia in the foreseeable future. How can we not only live with, but also think past, Westphalian international relations? In this seminar, Dr. Ching-Chang Chen of Ryukoku University will suggest that it is helpful to “turn international studies around,” i.e. to stop looking at the world only from the territorialized, state-centric, top-down, and great-powers-centered lens. The presentation will show that critical insights can be learned from a bottom-up orientation by turning our attention to the “margins” of sovereign states and excavating the discursive practices employed by relevant state and substate actors in framing, contesting, and (dis)assembling political claims over such “margins” as Okinawa and Taiwan. It will illustrate that post-Westphalian ways of thinking, doing, be(com)ing, and relating are already immanent/available in Okinawa-Taiwan relations.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversation (Iwakuni)

4 June 2023 – 12:30-15:00 (Japan)

The historic visit of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, Commander of U.S. East India Squadron on 8 July, 1853 marked a real turning point for Japan during the last part of a 600 year long feudal Shogunate reign. In this talk by Admiral Koda, he will look at some of the “behind the curtain” reasons why senior leadership and practical decision makers preferred the open nation policy. Admiral Koda will help to give us a more thorough understanding of some of the lesser known aspects at play behind the scenes during Admiral Perry’s historic visit and how without which, the Shogunate response to Perry’s visit could have been much worse and Japan itself could have fallen into unrepairable national separation.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversations Series (Fussa)

Thurs. May 18 2023 - 17:30 (Japan)

From Europe to East Asia, the U.S. alliance system has been going through major transformation in the past few years. In order to reconcile the challenges for great power rivalry and eroding military dominance, the creation of military power and strategy has increasingly become the central concern in alliance politics. The U.S.-Japan alliance is no exception. Japan unveiled three new security documents in December 2022, including the nation’s first National Defense Strategy that defines Tokyo’s security policy for the coming decade. The seminar will unpack the new documents to illustrate how they focus on enhancing the overall military effectiveness of the alliance by pursuing an integrated and resilient force structure between the two nations. Moreover, it illuminates how Japan’s updated security policy has broader implications on debates over the role of alliances in U.S. grand strategy while also touching upon some of the potential challenges in its implementation.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversations Series (Sasebo In-Person)

31 January 2023 – 18:30 (Japan)

YCAPS & the Sasakawa Peace Foundation are pleased to announce the next event in the Community Conversations seminar series focused on the Sasebo Community! This event will feature Dr. Kyoko Hatakeyama, of the University of Niigata who will lead us in a discussion around the importance and volatility of the Senkaku Islands.

The Japan-US alliance is facing a new challenge: China’s growing military presence in the maritime domain. China’s assertiveness challenges the current regional order and Japan’s territory—the Senkaku Islands. Examining the impacts of the Senkaku issue on the alliance, Dr. Hatakeyama will argue that the Senkaku islands are strategically important for the alliance but are also a source of conflict.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversations Series (Yokosuka In-Person)

25 January 2023 – 17:30 (Japan)

How is China conducting cognitive domain operations and maritime gray zone operations? China has utilized non-military means such as psychological warfare and maritime paramilitary forces to achieve strategic and tactical goals. Most notably, the Xi regime has enhanced the use of such means through sweeping organizational reforms. Understanding these actions will provide a clearer view of the strategic challenges posed by China. Dr. Shinji Yamaguchi of the National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS) will lead us in a discussion on this important regional challenge.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversations Series (Misawa In-Person)

14 December 2022 – 17:30 (Japan)

YCAPS & the Sasakawa Peace Foundation are pleased to announce the next event in the Community Conversations seminar series focused on the Misawa Community! This event will feature Satoshi Miyata(Director) and Robert Jefferson (Narrator) of the 2014 documentary film "Mount Hakkoda".

In 1902, 210 soldiers of the 5th Infantry Regiment of the Japanese Imperial Army set out on a 12 mile winter march around Hakkodasan to Tashiro Hot Spring. This is not an arduous mountain route. It should have been an easy approach to the hot spring at Tashiro. However, at a mere altitude of around 2,000 feet, the 5th regiment met with a disaster that claimed the lives of 199 men. The location of this disaster is only 35 miles from Misawa. What happened in Hakkodasan? What was the real cause of this disaster?

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversations Series (Iwakuni In-Person)

10 December 2022 – 10:00 (Japan)

YCAPS & the Sasakawa Peace Foundation are pleased to announce the next event in the Community Conversations seminar series in the Iwakuni Community! This event will feature Professor Yuichiro Shimizu who will lead us on a journey through the role of Choshu in the modernization of Japan.

The Choshu-han has been said to have been the core power of the Meiji Revolution. So, what role did Choshu play in the nation-building process? Through discussing both prominent historical figures as well as major figures of the Meiji-born generation, Professor Shimizu will clarify the outsized role that Choshu has had in the development of modern Japan.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversations Series (via Zoom)

29 September 2022 – 19:00 (Japan)

Hiroshima was a symbol of Imperial Japan in the early 20th century. After August 1945, Hiroshima became a symbol of ambiguity for US-Japan relations. After former President Obama’s visit and now the coming G-7 summit, Dr. Koji Murata will discuss how Hiroshima may be poised to become a symbol of rapprochement between the two countries.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversations Series (via Zoom)

26 September 2022 – 19:00 (Japan)

In the 20th century, Japan was known as a land of technological innovation with its electronic "gadgets" fascinating the world. However, there is a sense that it has lost its innovative edge in the modern era. Yet, Japan still possesses remarkable resources in terms of technological and scientific know-how. Anna Nagamine, Manager of Business Development Section, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) will describe Japan's national policies to promote innovation and the roles of sci-tech "hubs" such as OIST. A native Okinawan, she will also describe the specific challenges and opportunities the current era of innovation pose for her prefecture.

YCAPS-SPF Community Conversations Series (via Zoom)

22 June 2022 – 19:00 (Japan)

YCAPS & the Sasakawa Peace Foundation are pleased to announce the return of the Community Conversations seminar series in Okinawa. The inaugural event will feature Mr. Tsuneo Watanabe. Mr. Watanabe has observed Japanese security policy and politics as a researcher in both US and Japanese thinktanks for decades. He will discuss the history of Japanese security policy and politics in the context of the US military facility in Okinawa.