Day 1 of the 2022 CJEB Annual Tokyo Conference
(Live Webinar) Day 1, 2022 CJEB Annual Tokyo Conference - Japan in the Uncertain World
Date and time
Location
Online
About this event
2022 CJEB Annual Tokyo Conference
Japan in the Uncertain World: Security, Economic Security, Diversity, and Governance
Day 1
Wednesday, May 25, 2022 | 8:00 – 9:35 AM (Japan Time)
Tuesday, May 24, 2022 | 7:00 – 8:35 PM (EDT)
Language(s): Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in English and Japanese.
Keynote: Challenges Facing Japanese Diplomacy
Yoshimasa Hayashi
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Government of Japan
Moderator:
Merit Janow
Dean Emerita, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA); Professor of Practice in International Economic Law and International Affairs, Columbia University
Panel: East Asia’s Shifting Geopolitical and Security Landscape: What It Means for the U.S.-Japan Alliance
Panelists:
Thomas J. Christensen
Interim Dean; James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations, SIPA; Director, Columbia-Harvard China and the World Program
Michael J. Green
Senior Vice President for Asia and Japan Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Kenichiro Sasae
President, Japan Institute of International Affairs; Former Ambassador to the United States of America
Susan A. Thornton
Senior Fellow and Visiting Lecturer, Yale Law School
Opening Remarks:
David E. Weinstein
Director, CJEB; Carl S. Shoup Professor of the Japanese Economy, Columbia University
About the Panelists:
Thomas J. Christensen is James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations and Director of the China and the World program in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University (SIPA). Beginning in January 2022, he will be Interim Dean of SIPA. From 2006 to 2008, he served as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, with responsibility for relations with China, Taiwan, and Mongolia. He is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and editor of the Nancy B. Tucker and Warren I. Cohen book series on the United States in Asia at the Columbia University Press. He received a Distinguished Public Service Award from the United States Department of State.
His research and teaching focuses on China’s foreign relations, the international relations of East Asia, and international security. Previously, he taught at Princeton University, MIT, and Cornell University. He received his bachelor’s from Haverford College, his master’s in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania, and a doctorate in political science from Columbia University.
Michael Jonathan Green is senior vice president for Asia, Japan Chair, and Henry A. Kissinger Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and director of Asian Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He served on the staff of the National Security Council (NSC) from 2001 through 2005, first as director for Asian affairs with responsibility for Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, and then as special assistant to the president for national security affairs and senior director for Asia, with responsibility for East Asia and South Asia. Before joining the NSC staff, he was a senior fellow for East Asian security at the Council on Foreign Relations, director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center and the Foreign Policy Institute and assistant professor at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses, and senior adviser on Asia in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He also worked in Japan on the staff of a member of the National Diet.
Dr. Green is also a nonresident fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, a distinguished scholar at the Asia Pacific Institute in Tokyo, and professor by special appointment at Sophia University in Tokyo. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Strategy Group, the America Australia Leadership Dialogue, the advisory boards of Radio Free Asia and the Center for a New American Security, and the editorial boards of the Washington Quarterly and the Journal of Unification Studies in Korea. He also serves as a trustee at the Asia Foundation, senior adviser at the Asia Group, and associate of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Dr. Green has authored numerous books and articles on East Asian security, including most recently, By More Than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia Pacific Since 1783 (Columbia University Press, 2017). He received his master’s and doctoral degrees from SAIS and did additional graduate and postgraduate research at Tokyo University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his bachelor’s degree in history from Kenyon College with highest honors. He holds a black belt in Iaido (sword) and has won international prizes on the great highland bagpipe.
Kenichiro Sasae joined the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs after graduating from The University of Tokyo in 1974. His distinguished and illustrious diplomatic career includes prestigious assignments as Executive Assistant to the Prime Minister, Director-General of the Economic Affairs Bureau, Director-General of the Asian & Oceania Affairs Bureau, and Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs. During his period of service in Tokyo, he represented the Japanese Government in the Six-Party Talks on North Korean issues. He also worked as Political Director for the G-8 Summit. From 2012-2018, he was Ambassador of Japan to the United States. Subsequently, in June 2018, Ambassador Sasae was appointed President of The Japan Institute of International Affairs to head Japan’s premier foreign affairs think tank.
Susan A. Thornton is a retired senior U.S. diplomat with almost three decades of experience with the U.S. State Department in Eurasia and East Asia. She is currently a Senior Fellow and Visiting Lecturer in Law at the Yale University Law School Paul Tsai China Center, Director of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Security at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Until July 2018, Thornton was Acting Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State and led East Asia policy making amid crises with North Korea, escalating trade tensions with China, and a fast-changing international environment. In previous State Department roles, she worked on U.S. policy toward China, Korea and the former Soviet Union and served in leadership positions at U.S. embassies in Central Asia, Russia, the Caucasus and China.
Thornton received her MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins SAIS and her BA from Bowdoin College in Economics and Russian. She serves on several non-profit boards and speaks Mandarin and Russian.
Admission and Contact:
This is a free event. You must register for the webinar to receive the login details. This is Day 1 of our 4-Day Tokyo Conference. Please note you must register for each date separately to get the link to access that day of the conference. Registration links for the other 3 days are Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4.
If you have questions about the event, please contact us at cjeb@gsb.columbia.edu.
For more information about other CJEB events, visit our website or contact cjeb@gsb.columbia.edu.
Organized by
Established at Columbia Business School in 1986 under the direction of its founder, Professor Hugh Patrick, and led currently by its director, Professor David Weinstein, the Center on Japanese Economy and Business (CJEB) promotes knowledge and understanding of Japanese business and economics in an international context. CJEB is a research organization widely recognized for its vigorous research activities, international symposia, conferences, and lectures, held in New York City and Tokyo, which provide prominent speakers from the public and private sectors a forum for collaboration and reflection on Japan, the United States, and the global economy.