Asia Policy Events, Week of August 16, 2026

Asia Policy Point is on summer recess, like the U.S. Congress until August 31. We will, however, post some events weekly for our readers and members. If you want to receive these directly to your mailbox, you have to become a "member" of APP. An individual, nonshareable membership is only $105/year and includes our occasional papers of on Japanese politics and access to our office while visiting Washington. SIGN UP HERE.

Week of August 16, 2026

8/3~16 - Beidaihe Annual Summer Chinese leadership meetings, Qinhuangdao, Hebei, PRC. The list of invitees to the annual gathering, as reported by state media, suggests that China’s leaders are placing a heavy emphasis on science, innovation and entrepreneurship, 
8/10-14 - Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby visits Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia. First official trip to Southeast Asia as Under Secretary of War for Policy. MANILA SPEECH, PRESS CONFERENCE.
8/12 - South Korea's Supreme Court confirms a decision requiring Japan's Nippon Steel to compensate the relatives of a Korean national who endured forced labor under Japan's occupation at its Kamaishi Steelworks. 
8/13 - Russian President Vladimir Putin makes his first visit to one of four Russian-held western Pacific islands (Iturup, known in Japan as Etorofu) seized after WWII that Japan calls its Northern Territories.
8/14 – Memorial Day for Japanese Forces’ Comfort Women Victims, South Korea.
8/14 – 1991. South Korean comfort woman victim Kim Hak-sun became the first to give public testimony about her experience.

8/15 - 1945. Imperial Japan accepts the Potsdam Declaration and ceases combat operations. Shūsen-kinenbi (Memorial Day for the End of the War in Japan). National Memorial Service for the War Dead at the Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo with the Emperor and prime minister. 
     As expected, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi did not make her usual visit Yasukuni Shrine and sent an offering instead. However, Upon arriving at Nippon Budokan hall to attend her first war memorial ceremony since taking office last year, Takaichi turned toward the Yasukuni Shrine across the road and bowed twice, clapped twice and bowed once in an apparent act of Shinto worship from a distance. She did visit the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery for War Dead down the street from the Yasukuni Shrine. Her Memorial statement also made no mention of "remorse." [APP wrote about Prime Minister Ishiba's reinsertion of "remorse" in the annual memorial statement after its removal by Prime Minister Abe.] Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, Minoru Kiuchi, economic and fiscal policy minister, Kimi Onoda, economic security minister, and Hitoshi Kikawada, in charge of issues related to Okinawa and the Northern Territories did visit the Shrine. Senior LDP officials -- Secretary General Suzuki, Haruko Arimura, head of its General Council, and Yasutoshi Nishimura, head of its Election Strategy Committee -- went to the Shrine as well. On the same day, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung emphasized in his remarks for Liberation Day "that Korea-Japan cooperation is more important than ever, The light of the new Korea-Japan relationship that we will create is To those who are still enduring pain in the shadows of history It must be able to be a source of warmth." 

8/15 -  USS George Washington departs the Pacific and expected to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East leaving the Western Pacific without an American aircraft carrier. Next day Trump orders the scaling back of the upcoming U.S.-South Korea exercises.
15 – Annual Far Eastern Prisoners of War (FEPOW) Day in Taiwan hosted by Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society. 
8/15-16 - Panda Fest DC 2026, Washington, DC, outdoor Asian food festival with experiential activities, tastings, and market fairs.
8/17 - 1926. Centenary of the birth of late Chinese leader Jiang Zemin. Xi to speak at commemoration.
8/17 – Independence Day, National Holiday, Indonesia.
8/17-27 - 26th Annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise with the U.S. and South Korea held in South Korea. On the 16th, Trumps tells Hegseth to scale them back!!
8/19 – 1945. Several dozen British, Dutch, and American senior officers including Lieutenant Generals Jonathan Wainwright and A.E. Percival located by the OSS at the Hsian POW camp, 150 miles north of Mukden (today's Shenyang, China).
8/20-21 - Religious Freedom in Asia: Representation, Restrictions and Rights hosted by the Asia Centre Bangkok.
8/21 – 1945. Japanese authorities decide to set up the Recreation and Amusement Association (RAA) for the benefit of Allied occupation troops modeled on the military government’s long-established Comfort Women system.

8/22-23 - Freedom 250 Grand Prix street circuit: NTT INDYCAR SERIES. First-ever automotive race around the National Mall and the historic streets of Washington, DC. Veterans of the NTT trade wars will be amused that Japan's NTT is now encircling the National Mall. 
8/23 - Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong gives an annual address to mark the independence of the city-state. 
8/23-27 - World Water Week.

KEIRIN: JAPAN'S WARRIORS ON BICYCLES. 8/17, 6:45pm (BST), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Japan Society-UK. Speakers: Joe Truman, British Track Cyclist; author, Justin McCurry, Japan and Korea correspondent, The Guardian, War on Wheels: Inside Keirin and Japan’s Cycling Subculture; Moderator: Jim McCafferty, Director, Reynolds Technology. PURCHASE BOOK. NB: Keirin is a major off-budget source of funding (managed by METI) for Japan’s electronics industry.

BEYOND PYONGYANG: REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, MODERNIZATION, AND INEQUALITY IN NORTH KOREA. 8/17, 8:00-9:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Stimson, 38 North. Speakers: Martyn Williams, Senior Fellow, 38 North Program; Iliana Ragnone, Research Analyst & Managing Editor, 38 North Program; Moderator: Jenny Town, Director, 38 North Program.

THE HORMUZ IMPLICATIONS FOR ENERGY POLICYMAKING: JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA. 8/18, 8:00-9:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: CSIS, Energy Security and Climate Change Program. Speakers: TERAZAWA, Tatsuya, Chairman and CEO, IEEJ, Japan; Jae-Seung Lee, Professor, Jean Monnet Chair in College & Graduate School of International Studies (CIS & GSIS), Korea University; Jane Nakano, Senior Fellow, Energy Security and Climate Change Program.

SOUTHEAST ASIA'S GENERATIONAL SHIFT: FOREIGN POLICY FUTURES. 8/18, 9:00-10:35am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR). Speakers include: Dante Schulz, Project Manager for Political and Security Affairs, NBR; Rohan Mukherjee, Assistant Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science; Rajni Gamage, Research Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore; Md. Tanvir Habib, Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka; Moderator: Christopher Clary, Associate Professor of Political Science, University at Albany.

THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ CLOSURE: WHAT HAPPENS TO TRADE AND SHIPPING? 8/19, 9:00-10:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). Speakers: Simon J. Evenett, Professor of Geopolitics and Strategy, IMD Business School, Founder of St Gallen Endowment for Prosperity through Trade, University of St Gallen Switzerland; Dorota Lost-Siemińska, Director Legal Affairs and External Relations, International Maritime Organization (IMO); Moderator: Cecilia Malmström , Nonresident Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International
Economics (PIIE).

GOLDEN DOME: EARLY ASSESSMENT AND OPEN QUESTIONS. 8/19, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Brookings. Speakers: David Mosher, Director of National Security Analysis - Congressional Budget Office; Steve Fetter, Professor, School of Public Policy - University of Maryland; Michael E. O’Hanlon, Director of Research - Foreign Policy, Director - Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology, Co-Director - Africa Security Initiative, Moderator: Melanie W. Sisson, Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology.

PRESS CONFERENCE: JAPAN'S SECURITY IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD. 8/19, 11:00-Noon (JST), 8/18, 10:00-11:00pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ). Speakers: Ken Jimbo, Research Institute for Advanced Innovation and GeoStrategy (RAIS); Tomoyuki Furutani, (RAIS).

DIGITAL TAIWAN LECTURE SERIES – TAIWAN’S ELECTORAL SYSTEM AND THE 2026 LOCAL ELECTIONS. 8/19, 4:00-5:00pm (TST), 4:00-5:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Institute for Security & Development Policy. Speakers: Dr. Ching-Hsin Yu, Research Fellow, Election Study Center, National Chengchi University; Moderator: Yi-Chieh Chen, Research Fellow, ISDP’s Stockholm Taiwan Center.

CAN THE UNITED STATES RETAIN ITS SCIENTIFIC TALENT? 8/20, 3:00-4:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). Speakers: Adriana Bankston, Consultant & Advisor; Scientific Research Policy; Advocacy & Government Relations; Donna Ginthe, Roy A. Roberts & Regents Distinguished Professor of Economics Director, Institute for Policy & Social Research, University of Kansas; Shalin Jyotishi, Founder and Director, Future of Work and Innovation Economy Initiative; Moderator: Trelysa Long, Policy Analyst, ITIF.

DOES AUKUS STRENGTHEN AUSTRALIA’S SECURITY? 8/20 6:00-7:15pm (AEST), 4:00-5:15am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Lowy Institute. Speakers: Sam Roggeveen, Program Director Lowy Institute’s International Security Program; Jennifer Parker, Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute, Adjunct Fellow in Naval Studies at the University of Western Australia; Mihai Sora, Director of Research at the Lowy Institute. Fee