Monday in Washington June 23, 2014

AGE OF AMBITION: CHASING FORTUNE, TRUTH, AND FAITH IN THE NEW CHINA. 6/23, 8:30-10:00am. Sponsors: Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, and Asia Program, Wilson Center. Speaker: Evan Osnos, Author, and Reporter, The New Yorker.

 
THE IRANIAN NUCLEAR DEAL AND THE IMPACT ON ITS NEIGHBORS. 6/23, 9:30am-12:30pm. Sponsor: Middle East Program, Wilson Center. Speakers: Abdullah Baabood, Director, Gulf Studies Program, Qatar University; Salah Eddin Elzein, Director, Al Jazeera Center for Studies, Al Jazeera Media Network; Bijan Khajehpour, Managing Partner, Atieh International; David Ottaway, Senior Scholar and Middle East Specialist, Wilson Center; Marina Ottaway, Senior Scholar, Wilson Center; and Afshin Molavi, Senior Research Fellow, American Strategy Program, New America Foundation. 

ECONOMIC REFORMS IN CAMBODIA. 6/23, 10:00-11:00am. Sponsor: South East Asia Studies, CSIS. Speaker: Sun Chanthol, Minister of Commerce, Kingdom of Cambodia; amd Murray Hiebert, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies, CSIS.

ECONOMIC PROSPECTS IN POST-ELECTION INDONESIA. 6/23, 10:00-11:30pm. Sponsor: Asia Program, Carnegie. Speakers: James Castle, CEO, Castle Asia; and Vikram Nehru, Senior Associate, Asia Program, Carnegie.

FINANCING DEVELOPMENT AND THE ROLE OF INFRASTRUCTURE. 6/23, 12:15-1:30pm. Sponsor: Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). Speakers: Bertrand Badre, Managing Director and CFO, World Bank Group; Heidi Crebo-Rediker, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations; and Yasushi Sunouchi, Chief Representative, Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

PROSPERITY, SECURITY, AND THE ASIA REBALANCE: CONSIDERATIONS FOR CONGRESS. 6/23, 1:00-2:00pm. Sponsor: Center for National Policy (CNP). Speakers: Steve Glickman, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and former Director for International Economic Affairs, White House; Ziad Haider, Associate, International Investments and National Security, White & Case LLP, and Co-Director, Asia Expert Group, Truman National Security Project; Anka Lee, Director, Albright Stonebridge Group; and Scott Bates, President, Center for National Policy.

TAIWAN’S LEGISLATIVE YUAN: OVERSIGHT OR OVERREACH? 6/23, 1:00-4:15 pm. Sponsor: Center for East Asia Policy Studies, Brookings. Speakers: Richard Bush, Senior Fellow and Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies and Director, Center for East Asia Policy Studies, Brookings; Su Chi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Taipei Forum; Michael Thies, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles; Sarah Binder, Senior Fellow, Brookings; Wu Chung-li, Research Fellow, Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica; David Brown, Adjunct Professor in China Studies, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University; Nathan Batto, Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica; and Jacques deLisle, Steven A. Cozen Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania. 

MANAGING THE RISKS POSED BY UNAUTHORIZED RETRANSFERS OF ARMS. 6/23, 2:00-3:30pm. Sponsor: Managing Across Boundaries Initiative, Stimson. Speakers: Paul Holtom, University of Coventry; Jonah Leff, Conflict Armament Research; Judd Stitziel, US Department of State, Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance; Rachel Stohl, Senior Associate, Managing Across Boundaries Initiative, Stimson.

ACCORD 25: PURSUING PEACE THROUGH LEGITIMACY. 6/23, 2:00-4:00pm. Sponsors: United States Institute of Peace (USIP); and the Alliance for Peacebuilding. Speakers: Alexander Ramsbotham, Head, Accord, and Series Editor, Conciliation Resources; Jean Arnault, Author, Accord 25, and Former Professor of Practice, Paris School of International Affairs Sciences Po Paris; Jeffrey Helsing, Associate Vice President, Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding, USIP; and Melanie Greenberg, President and CEO, Alliance for Peacebuilding. 

Womenomics - A Conference June 17th

onna bugeisha

At this year's World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe personally committed to closing his country's gender gap and making Japan a place where "women shine." Substantial challenges lie ahead. Japan’s current performance on gender parity is sobering: in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2013, (October 25, 2013), Japan ranked 105 out of 136 countries.

Skeptics of Abe's new feminism also cite his long advocacy of traditional gender roles and opposition to Japan's constitutional rights for women. He has not supported the right of women to retain their own names or female succession to emperor. Even his position on Comfort Women is framed in traditionalist notions of women. Nevertheless, Abe has made "womenomics," a concept first penned by Goldman Sachs' Kathy Matsui in 2000, a key component of his Abenomics.

On June 3rd, the WEF Forum released Closing the Gender Gap in Japan. The report identifies three areas, in particular, where Japan is falling behind.

First, the participation gap: Japan has one of the lowest female labour participation rates among OECD countries. Only 63% of women work, compared to 85% of men; female employees are more than three times as likely as male employees to work part-time. Goldman Sachs estimates that closing the participation gap could boost Japan’s GDP by 13%. It is especially necessary given the country’s demographic outlook – the labour force is shrinking, the old age dependency ratio is growing and the fertility rate is one of the world’s lowest.

The second gap that needs to be addressed is the remuneration gap: on average, women earn only slightly over half of what men earn. This can only partially be explained by women working disproportionately in lower-paying professions; Japan ranks 87th globally in wage gaps for similar work, according to a survey of executives.

Finally, there is the advancement gap: while women comprise nearly half of all professional and technical workers, they make up only 9% of legislators, senior officials and managers. Encouragingly, investments already made in closing the education gap – women’s rate of enrolment in tertiary education now nearly matches that of men – mean that Japan is ideally poised for efforts to close the advancement gap.

The US-Asia Institute will hold a timely conference in Washington on June 17th that is open to the public to discuss all these issues.

THEGLOBAL IMPACT OF THE POWER OF WOMENOMICS

June 17, 2014 

10:30am- 2:00pm 

Washington, DC 

Sponsor
US-Asia Institute 

Location

Capitol Visitors Center 203-02 

Special Guests 

His Excellency Kenichiro SASAE, Ambassador from Japan

Ambassador Constance A. Morella, President, U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress

Keynote Speaker

Ms. Rui MATSUKAWA 

Director, Gender Mainstreaming Division, Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Panel 1: Women in the Workplace: What Lessons and Challenges Do We Share
Featuring: Dr. Stephan DANNINGER, Senior Economist, International Monetary Fund
Ms. Tracey DOI, Group Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc.
Mr. Terry TERASAWA, Chief Representative, The Bank of Tokyo
MODERATOR: Ambassador Constance MORELLA, President, U.S. Association of Former members of Congress

Panel 2: US-Japan Development Cooperation: Assistance for the Empowerment of women in Developing Countries
Framing the Discussion/Moderator: Ms. Manisa SINGH, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Respondents: Mr. Hajime TAKEUSHI, Chief Representative, JICA, USA Offices,
Ms. Sheila SMITH, Senior Fellow for Japan Studies, Council on Foreign Relations,
Mme Gouri MIRPURI, Founder, Learning Farm/HUB

Monday in Washington, June 16, 2014

THE US-RUSSIA FORUM: TOWARDS A CONSTRUCTIVE AGENDA FOR US-RUSSIA RELATIONS. 6/16-17. Sponsor: Eurasia Center. Speakers: Sergei Kislyak, Russian Ambassador to Washington; James Carden, Contributing Editor, American Conservative; Steven Cohen, New York University & Princeton; Leonid Gozman, Rosnano; Thomas Graham, Kissinger Associates (TBC); Robert Legvold, Columbia University; Jack Matlock, Former US Ambassador to Moscow; Wayne Merry, Former State Department and Pentagon Official; Mark Ritchie, Secretary of State, MN; Matthew Rojansky, Director, Kennan Institute; and Michael Stopford, Former NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Strategic Communications. 

TRANSPARENCY, OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE UN SYSTEM: PROBLEMS AND HOW TO FIX THEM. 6/16, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, Heritage. Speakers: Robert Appleton, Formerly Director of Investigations & Senior Legal Counsel, Global Fund, Chairman, United Nations Procurement Task Force, and Special Counsel to the UN Iraqi Oil for Food Investigation; Edward Patrick Flaherty, Senior Partner, Schwab Flaherty & Associates; James Wasserstrom, Senior Advisor on Anticorruption, U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Former Head of the Office for Oversight of the Publicly Owned Enterprises for the UN Mission in Kosovo; and Brett D. Schaefer, Jay Kingham Senior Research Fellow in International Regulatory Affairs.  

TRADE TALK ON THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE SNOWDEN NSA LEAKS.  6/16, 12:15-1:45pm. Sponsor: Association of Women in International Trade. Speaker: Katie Wheelbarger, Deputy Staff Director, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Location: Georgetown University Law Center, Eric E. Hotung International Law Building, Timothy & Linda O’Neill Alumni Welcome Center, 550 1st St., NW. Contact: 

THE NEW MIDDLE EAST COLD WAR: U.S. MIDDLE EAST POLICY AND THE REGION'S ONGOING BATTLE OVER THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD.6/16, 12:30-2:00pm. Sponsor: Center for American Progress (CAP). Speakers: Haroon Ullah, Member, State Department Policy Planning Staff; Peter Mandaville, Professor, George Mason University; Brian Katulis, CAP Senior Fellow; and Hardin Lang, CAP Senior Fellow.

INDIA'S NUCLEAR POLICY AND REGIONAL STABILITY. 6/16, 12:30-3:00pm. Sponsor: South Asia Program, Stimson. Speakers: P.K. Singh, Director, United Service Institution of India; Michael Krepon, Director for South Asia, Stimson Center; A.K. Singh, Former Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command, India; Vinay Shankar, Former Director General of Artillery, Indian Army; Michael Krepon, Director for South Asia, Stimson Center; Jayant Prasad, Former Indian Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament; Vikram Singh, Vice President for National Security and International Policy, Center for American Progress; and Joshua T. White, Deputy Director for South Asia, Stimson Center. 

BENGHAZI: THE DIFFERENCE IT MAKES IS ACCOUNTABILITY. 6/16, 1:00-5:00pm. Sponsors: Heritage Foundation and Benghazi Accountability Coalition. Speakers: Andrew McCarthy, Chairman, Benghazi Accountability Coalition; Chris Plante, Radio Talk Host, WMAL; Joe diGenova, Former U.S. Attorney; and Founding Partner, diGenova & Toensing; Clare Lopez, Member, Citizens' Commission on Benghazi, and Vice President for Research and Analysis, Center for Security Policy; and Brigitte Gabriel, Founder, President and CEO, ACT; Dan Bongino, Former U.S. Secret Service Agent; W.G. "Jerry" Boykin, Retired Army Lt. Gen.; Thomas McInerney, Retired Air Force Lt. Gen.; Frank Gaffney, President, Center for Security Policy; Tom Fitton, President, Judicial Watch; James Jay Carafano, Vice President of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, Heritage; and Victoria Toensing, Former Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney General, and Founding Partner, diGenova & Toensing.

HOW TO UNWIND IRAN NUCLEAR SANCTIONS. 6/16, 2:00-3:00pm. Sponsor: South Asia Center, Atlantic Council. Speakers: Kenneth Katzman, Specialist, Middle East Affairs, Congressional Research Service; Cornelius Adebahr (via Skype from Berlin), Associate, Europe Program, Carnegie; and Barbara Slavin, Senior Fellow, South Asia Center, Atlantic Council.

THE U.S.-JAPAN ALLIANCE: NEXT STEPS AND FUTURE VISION. 6/16, 3:00-5:00pm. Sponsor: Japan Chair, CSIS. Speakers: Shinichi Kitaoka, Former Acting Chairman, Advisory Panel on Reconstruction of the Legal Basis for Security; Michael Green, Senior Vice President for Asia and Toyota Japan Chair, CSIS; Noboru Yamaguchi, Lieutenant General, Japan Ground Self Defense Force (Ret.), and Director for International Programs and Professor or Military History and Strategy, National Defense Academy of Japan; Yoji Koda, Vice Admiral, Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (Ret.); Robin H. Sakoda, Partner, Armitage International, L.C.; Sheila Smith, Senior Fellow for Japan Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; and Tsuyoshi Sunohara, Secretary-General for U.S.-Japan Project, Japan Center for Economic Research (JCER).

MANAGING CONFLICTS IN INDIA: POLICIES OF COERCION AND ACCOMMODATION. 6/16, 3:30-5:00pm. Sponsor: Carnegie. Speakers: Bidisha Biswas, Professor of Political Science, Western Washington University, former policy adviser of South Asia, US State Department; Joshua White. Deputy Director of South Asia program, Stimson Center, former Senior Advisor for Asian and Pacific Security, Office of Secretary of Defence.

A WARMING ARCTIC: REGIONAL DRAMA WITH GLOBAL CONSEQUENCES. 6/16, 4:00-5:30pm. Sponsor: Europe Program, CSIS. Speakers: Jan-Gunnar Winther, Director, Norwegian Polar Institute; and Heather Conley, Director and Senior Fellow, Europe Program, CSIS.

NORWAY'S GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR PEACE AND RECONCILIATION IN POST-CONFLICT SETTINGS. 6/16, 5:00-6:00pm. Sponsor: Foreign Policy, Brookings. Speakers: Borge Brende, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway; Strobe Talbott, President, Brookings Institution; and Michael O'Hanlon, Senior Fellow, Brookings.

Prime Minister of Japan's Schedule June 2-8, 2014

Monday, June 2, 2014

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
08:59 Depart from private residence
09:12 Arrive at Imperial Palace, register return to Japan
09:20 Depart from Imperial Palace
09:29 Arrive at office
09:48 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
10:18 End meeting with Mr. Seko
10:19 Meet with Director-General of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Ihara Jyunichi
10:33 End meeting with Mr. Ihara
10:34 Meet with Minister in charge of Civil Service Reform Inada Tomomi and Director General of the Bureau of Personnel Affairs Kato Katsunobu
10:50 End meeting with Ms. Inada and Mr. Kato
10:51 Meet with Minister in charge of Building National Resilience Furuya Keiji
11:02 End meeting with Mr. Furuya
11:03 Meet with Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka and Mr. Ihara
11:14 End meeting with Mr. Saiki and Mr. Ihara
11:15 Meet with Director of the National Security Council Yachi Shotaro, Mr. Saiki, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Sugiyama Shinsuke, and Director General of European Affairs Bureau Kozuki Toyohisa
11:38 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Saiki, Mr. Sugiyama and Mr. Kozuki.
11:39 Meet with Minister in charge of Information Technology Policy Yamamoto Ichita

PM
12:09 Ruling Party Liaison Conference
12:27 Ruling Party Liaison Conference ends
12:45 Meet with Mr. Seko, Mr. Sugiyama, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Nagamine Yasumasa and Mr. Kozuki
01:30 End meeting with Mr. Seko, Mr. Sugiyama, Mr. Nagamine and Mr. Kozuki
01:37 Administrative Reform Promotion Council meeting
01:45 Administrative Reform Promotion Council meeting ends
01:51 Depart from office
01:53 Arrive at Diet
01:54 Enter Upper House Chairman’s Reception Room
01:57 Leave Chairman’s Reception Room and enter Upper House Plenary Meeting Hall
02:01 Upper House Plenary Session convenes
04:12 Upper House Plenary Session adjourns, leave Upper House Plenary Meeting Hall
04:13 Depart from Diet
04:14 Arrive at office
04:24 Meet with Mr. Sugiyama, Mr. Nagamine, Mr. Kozuki, Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs Furusawa Mitsuhiro and Vice Minister for International Affairs in Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Ishiguro Norihiko
04:49 End meeting with Mr. Sugiyama, Mr. Nagamine, Mr. Kozuki, Mr. Furusawa and Mr. Ishiguro
04:57 Depart from office
04:59 Arrive at Diet
05:00 Enter LDP President’s Room
05:01 LDP Officers Meeting
05:12 LDP Officers Meeting ends
05:13 Meet with LDP Vice President Komura Masahiko and LDP Secretary General Ishiba Shigeru
05:15 End meeting with Mr. Komura and Mr. Ishiba
05:17 Leave LDP President’s Room
05:18 Depart from Diet
05:29 Arrive at live music house Nicofarre (ニコファーレ) in Tokyo, attend World Economics Forum Japan Meeting 2014
05:48 Leave Nicofarre
05:53 Arrive at office
06:05 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, Mr. Yachi, Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, Director-General of North American Affairs Bureau Tomita Koji, Director General of Bureau of Defense Policy Tokuchi Hideshi and Chief of Staff of Joint Staff Council Iwasaki Shigeru
06:46 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura, Mr. Yachi, Mr. Hiramatsu, Mr. Tomita, Mr. Tokuchi and Mr. Iwasaki
06:47 Meet with Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ohta Akihiro
07:08 End meeting with Mr. Ohta
07:12 Depart from office
07:13 Arrive at official residence

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
07:58 Depart from official residence
07:59 Arrive at office
08:07 National Resilience Promotion Headquarters meeting
08:16 National Resilience Promotion Headquarters meeting ends
08:24 Cabinet meeting
08:40 Cabinet meeting ends
08:44 Strategic Headquarters for the Promotion of an Advanced Information and Telecommunications Network Society meeting
09:01 Meeting ends
09:02 Meet with Cabinet Advisor Iijima Isao
09:11 End meeting with Mr. Iijima
09:12 Meet with Deputy Ministers for Foreign Affairs Sugiyama Shinsuke and Nagamine Yasumasa, Director General of European Affairs Kozuki Toyohisa, Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs Fursawa Mitsuhiro, Vice Minister for International Affairs in Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Harihara Hisao, and Vice-Minister for International Affairs in Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Ishiguro Norihiko
10:10 End meeting with Mr. Sugiyama, Mr. Nagamine, Mr. Kozuki, Mr. Furusawa, Mr. Harihara and Mr. Ishiguro
10:11 Meet with Japan Foundation President Ando Hiroyasu
10:16 End meeting with Mr. Ando
10:26 Met with Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization Amari Akira and Director General of Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau Sugawara Ikuro enter
10:56 Mr. Sugawara leaves
11:06 Mr. Amari leaves
11:07 Meet with Minister for Reconstruction Nemoto Takumi
11:20 End meeting with Mr. Nemoto
11:25 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru
11:55 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura
11:56 Meet with LDP Lower House member Kawai Katsuyuki

PM
12:09 Meet with LDP Regional Diplomatic and Economic Partnership Research Commission Chairman Komura Masahiko. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu also attend
12:22 End meeting with LDP Regional Diplomatic and Economic Partnership Research Commission
12:23 Meet with Mayor of Hofu City (Yamaguchi Prefecture) Matsuura Masato
12:28 End meeting with Mr. Matsuura
12:49 Meet with Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Eto Seiichi
12:53 End meeting with Mr. Eto
12:54 Meet with Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Kimura Taro
12:58 End meeting with Mr. Kimura
12:59 Meet with Cabinet Advisor Fuji Satoshi
01:03 End meeting with Mr. Fuji
01:04 Meet with Cabinet Advisor Kiso Isao
01:05 End meeting with Mr. Kiso
01:06 Meet with Cabinet Advisor Munakata Norio
01:12 End meeting with Mr. Munakata
01:27 Meet with LDP Vice President Komura Masahiko, LDP Tax System Research Commission Chairman Noda Takeshi and LDP Tax System Research Commission Subcommittee Chairman Nukaga Fukushiro
01:53 End meeting with Mr. Komura, Mr. Noda and Mr. Nukaga
01:55 Depart from office
02:05 Arrive at Federation of Economic Organizations [日本経団連：Nippon Keidanren] Meeting Hall in Otemachi, Tokyo, attend General Regular Meeting of Federation of Economic Organizations and deliver address
02:20 Depart from Federation of Economic Organizations Meeting Hall
02:41 Arrive at Haneda Airport
02:49 Interview open to all media: In response to asking about “your enthusiasm for foreign travel,” Prime Minister Abe Shinzo answers “looking from a global standpoint, I want to express Japan’s standpoint and my thinking”
02:51 Interview ends
03:19 Depart from Haneda Airport in a personal government airplane to attend a G7 Leaders Summit meeting in Belgium

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

AM
(In transit)

PM
(local time in Brussels)
In the evening:

Arrive at EU Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium
Conference with President of European Council Herman Van Rompuy and President of European Commission José Barroso
Conference with President of France François Hollande
Attend G7 Leaders Summit working dinner
In Brussels, interview open to all media
Stay the night at Steigenberger Grandhotel

Thursday, June 5, 2014

AM
(local time in Brussels)

Stand and speak with President of United States Barack Obama at EU Headquarters
Second day of G7 Summit discussions
Photo opportunity with G7 Summit leaders
Conference with Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel
More G7 Summit discussions

PM
(local time in Brussels, then Rome)

Working lunch with G7 Leaders
Press conference open to domestic and foreign media
Arrive at Leonardo da Vinci International Airport on the outskirts of Rome, Italy
Stay the night at Westin Excelsior Hotel, Rome

Friday, June 6, 2014

AM
(local time in Rome)

Conference with Pope Francis and Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin at the Vatican
View St. Peter’s Basilica

PM
(local time in Rome)

View Sistine Chapel
Conference with Prime Minister of Italy Matteo Renzi at Palazzo Doria Pamphilj
Informal talk with accompanying press group at Westin Excelsior Hotel, Rome
Conference with UN World Food Program Executive Director Ertharin Cousin
View Knights of Malta Gate
Informal talk with Rome’s Mayor Ignazio Marino at Rome City Hall
View Colosseum in Rome, Italy
Depart on personal government plane from Leonardo da Vinci International Airport

Saturday, June 7, 2014

AM
(In transit)

PM
(Japan time)

04:30 Arrive at Haneda Airport after completing attendance of G7 Leaders Summit talks
04:39 Depart from Haneda Airport
05:04 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Sunday, June 8, 2014

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
10:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
10:42 Depart from private residence
11:00 Arrive at wedding hall Angelion Au Plaza Tokyo in Kyobashi, Tokyo, attend wedding ceremony of an acquaintance. Abe Shinzo’s wife Akie also attends.

PM
12:49 Depart from Angelion Au Plaza Tokyo
01:02 Arrive at official residence
01:09 Meet with Director of the National Security Council Yachi Shotaro and Assistant Chief Cabinet Secretaries Kanehara Nobukatsu and Takamizawa Nobushige
02:35 Mr. Yachi, Mr. Kanehara and Mr. Takamizawa leave
04:01 Depart from official residence
04:14 Arrive at private residence
06:03 Depart from private residence
06:19 Arrive at Imperial Residence in Sanban-cho, Tokyo. Condolence call for Prince Katsura’s passing
06:21 Depart from Sanban-cho Imperial Residence
06:28 Arrive at Imperial Palace, condolence call for Prince Katsura’s passing and register return to Japan
06:37 Depart from Imperial Palace
06:47 Arrive at Akasaka Estate in Motoakasaka, Tokyo. Condolence calls at Residence of Prince and Princess Mikasa, Residence of Princess Takamado, and Residence of Princess Tomohito of Mikasa
07:00 Depart from Akasaka Estate
07:13 Arrive at private residence

Monday in Washington June 9, 2014

2014 MCAFEE REPORT ON THE GLOBAL COST OF CYBERCRIME. 6/9, 9:00-10:30am. Sponsor: Strategic Technology Program, CSIS. Speakers: Stewart A. Baker, Report Co-Author and Partner, Steptoe & Johnson LLC; and James Andrew Lewis, Report Co-Author and Director, Strategic Technologies Program, CSIS.

RE-THINKING DEMOCRACY PROMOTION AMID RISING AUTHORITARIANISM. 6/9, 9:30am-5:00pm. Sponsors: Freedom House; American Interest; and SAIS, JHU. Speakers: Charles Davidson, Publisher and CEO, American Interest and Board Member, Freedom House; Walter Russell Mead, Editor-at-Large, American Interest, and James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and the Humanities, Bard College; Elliott Abrams, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Michael Mandelbaum, Christian A. Herter Professor and Director of the American Foreign Policy program, SAIS; Richard Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations; Paula Dobriansky, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government and Board Member, Freedom House; Josef Joffe, Publisher and Editor of Die Zeit, and Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford; Robert Kagan, Senior Fellow, Brookings; Andrew Nathan, Professor, Columbia University, and Board Member, Freedom House; Zainab al-Suwaj, Co-founder and Executive Director, American Islamic Congress, and Board Member, Freedom House; Ruth Wedgwood, Edward B. Burling Chair, International Law and Diplomacy, SAIS, and Board Vice Chair, Freedom House; David J. Kramer, President, Freedom House; Carla Anne Robbins, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, and Clinical Professor of National Security Studies, Baruch College/CUNY; Carl Gershman, President, National Endowment for Democracy; Thomas Carothers, Vice President, Studies, Carnegie; Daniel Calingaert, Executive Vice President, Freedom House; Adam Garfinkle, Editor, American Interest.

A STRATEGIC APPROACH TO GLOBAL TUBERCULOSIS. 6/9, 10:00am-2:00pm. Sponsors: Global Health Council; and Global Health Policy Center (GHPC), CSIS. Speakers: Mr. Robert Clay, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Global Health, USAID; Dr. Thomas Kenyon, Director, Center for Global Health, CDC; Ms. Julia Martin, Deputy Global AIDS Coordinator, OGAC; Mr. Todd Summers (Moderator), Senior Adviser, CSIS; Dr. Mario Raviglione (Keynote), Director, Global TB Programme, World Health Organization; Ms. Joanne Carter (Discussant), Executive Director, RESULTS; Dr. Phil Nieburg (Moderator), Senior Associate, CSIS; Roundtable: Strengthening Long-Term R&D Partnerships; Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director, NIAID; Dr. Peter Small, Deputy Director TB Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Ambassador Eric Goosby, University of California-San Francisco; Dr. J. Stephen Morrison (Moderator), Senior VP and Director, Global Health Policy Center, CSIS.

SINO-RUSSIAN RELATIONS AFTER THE XI-PUTIN SUMMIT: WHAT’S HAPPENING, AND WHAT’S NEXT? 6/9, 1:00-2:30pm. Sponsor: Freeman Chair in China Studies, CSIS. Speakers: Zbigniew Brzezinski, Counselor and Trustee, CSIS; Stapelton Roy, Distinguished Scholar and Founding Director, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, Wilson Center; Christopher K. Johnson, Senior Adviser and Freeman Chair in China Studies, CSIS.

TRANSPARENCY AND NATURAL RESOURCES: HOW THE U.S. CAN REGAIN ITS LEADERSHIP. 6/9, 4:00-6:00pm. Sponsors: Development Assistance and Governance Initiative, Brookings; and Revenue Watch Institute. Speakers: Daniel Kaufmann, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development, Brookings; Stephen Comstock Director, Tax & Accounting Policy, American Petroleum Institute; Bennett Freeman, Senior Vice President, Sustainability Research and Policy, Calvert Investments, Inc.; Simon Taylor, Founding Director, Global Witness; Dotun Oloko, Nigerian Anti-Corruption Campaigner; and Michelle Kosmidis, European Commission and EU Fellow, Fletcher School, Tufts University.

SHAPING THE FUTURE? THE ROLE OF THE REGIONAL POWERS IN AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN. 6/9, 9:00-10:00am. Sponsor: Asia Program, Wilson Center. Speakers: Roberto Toscano, Former Public Policy Scholar, Wilson Center, Senior Research Associate, Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB), and former Ambassador to Iran (2003-2008) and India (2008-2010); Emma Hooper, Senior Research Associate, Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB); Eduard Soler i Lecha, Research Coordinator, Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB).

THE RISE OF INNOVATION DISTRICTS: A NEW GEOGRAPHY OF INNOVATION IN AMERICA. 6/9, 9:30-11:30am. Sponsor: Metropolitan Policy Program, Brookings. Speakers: Benjamin R. Jacobs, Senior Advisor and Co-Founder, JBG Companies; Bruce Katz, Vice President and Director, Metropolitan Policy Program and Adeline M. and Alfred I. Johnson Chair in Urban and Metropolitan Policy; Lydia DePillis, Reporter, Washington Post; Kofi Bonner, Regional Vice President, Lennar Communities; Nicole Fichera, General Manager, Boston District Hall; John A. Fry, President, Drexel University; Julie Wagner, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Metropolitan Policy Program; Andy Berke, Mayor, Chattanooga, TN.

USAID ASSISTANCE APPROACHES AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO LARGER POLICY INTERESTS. 6/9, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: Stimson. Center Speakers: Rajiv Shah, USAID Administrator; and Lincoln Bloomfield Jr., Chairman, Stimson.

UNDERSTANDING THE GROWING ECONOMIC TIES BETWEEN INDIA AND CHINA. 6/9, 3:30-5:00pm. Sponsor: Wadhwani Chair in US-India Policy Studies, CSIS. Speakers: S. Jaishankar, Ambassador to the US, India; Anil Gupta, Chair, Smith School of Business, University of Maryland; Haiyan Wang, Managing Partner, China India Institute; Christopher Johnson, Senior Adviser, Freeman Chair in China Studies, CSIS.

RETHINKING RUSSIA: HISTORY, CURRENT CHALLENGES, AND FUTURE AMBITIONS. 6/9, 6:00-8:00pm. Sponsor: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL). Speaker: Paul Goble, Director of Research, Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, Vice Dean, Social Sciences and Humanities, Audentes University, Tallinn, Estonia.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT RUSSIA AND UKRAINE? (WEBCAST). 6/9, 6:15pm. Sponsor: Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Speakers: Karen Donfried, President, German Marshall Fund of the United States; Robert Kahn, Senior Fellow For International Economics, CFR; Stephen Sestanovich, Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies, CFR; and Richard Haass, President of CFR. Open only to press and members, webcast public.

A DISCUSSION WITH EVAN OSNOS AND THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN. 6/9, 6:00-7:30pm. Sponsor: Middle East Program, Carnegie. Speakers: Evan Osnos, Staff Writer, New Yorker, author, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China; Thomas L. Friedman, Foreign-Affairs Columnist, New York Times. 

Monday in Washington June 1, 2014

25th Anniversary of Tiananmen Massacre - June 4th 

70th Anniversary of D-Day - June 6th

THE EVOLUTION OF TREASURY'S NATIONAL SECURITY ROLE. 6/2, 8:30am-2:00pm. Sponsors: Department of the Treasury; and CSIS. Speakers: David Cohen, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Department of the Treasury: Jacob Lew Secretary, Department of the Treasury; John Hamre President, CEO, and Pritzker Chair, CSIS; Tom Donilon, Distinguished Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations and Former National Security Adviser; Stephen Hadley, Chairman of the Board, US Institute of Peace and Former National Security Adviser; Andrea Mitchell, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, NBC News; Stuart Levey, Chief Legal Officer, HSBC Holdings and Former Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence; Keith Alexander, Former Director of the National Security Agency; Jane Harman, Director, President, and CEO, Wilson Center and Former Representative (D-CA); Michèle Flournoy, CEO, Center for a New American Security and Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; David Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent, New York Times; Denis McDonough, White House Chief of Staff; Reuben Jeffery III, Senior Adviser, CSIS, CEO, Rockefeller & Co., and Former Undersecretary of State for Economic, Business, & Agricultural Affairs; and Juan Zarate, Senior Adviser, CSIS, Former Deputy National Security Adviser, and Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes.

THE BENGHAZI SELECT COMMITTEE: MANY QUESTIONS REMAIN UNANSWERED. 6/2, 10:00-11:00am. Sponsor: Heritage. Speakers: Peter Brooke, Senior Fellow, Heritage s; Helle Dale, Senior Fellow, Heritage; Hans von Spakovsky, Senior Legal Fellow, Heritage; and Nile Gardiner, Director, Center for Freedom, Heritage.

DEMOCRATIZING AND GLOBALIZING U.S.-KOREA RELATIONS. 6/2, 10:30am-Noon. Sponsor: Brookings, CEAP. Speakers: Katharine Moon, Senior Fellow and SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies, Center for East Asia Policy Studies, Brookings Institution; Moderator: Richard Bush, Director, Center for East Asia Policy Studies and Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, John Thornton China Center; Introduction: Strobe Talbott, President, Brookings Institution; Opening Remarks: Neung Koo Kim, President, SK USA, Inc.; Hyun-seok Yu, President, Korea Foundation; Discussant: Harry Harding, Dean, Professor of Public Policy and Politics, Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, University of Virginia; Closing Remarks: H.E. Ho-Young Ahn, Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Korea. 

TELLING TRUTH TO POWER: OPPOSITION DUMA MEMBER ILYA PONOMAREV ON UKRAINE, RUSSIA, AND THE WEST. 6/2, Noon-1:00pm. Sponsor: Heritage. Speakers: Ilya Ponomarev, Member, State Duma of the Russian Federation; and Ariel Cohen, Senior Research Fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies and International Energy Policy, Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign and National Security Policy, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, Heritage.

Tuesday in Washington, May 27, 2014

5/26 - Memorial Day. US government closed, National Holiday.
5/26 - Annual ceremony in Tokyo for the war dead at Chidorigafuchi, attended by Prime Minster Abe.

NUCLEAR FLASHPOINTS: US-IRAN TENSIONS OVER TERMS AND TIMETABLES. 5/27, 9:30-11:00am, Washington, DC. Sponsors: Wilson Center (WWC); US Institute of Peace (USIP); Stimson Center; Arms Control Association (ACA). Speakers: Robin Wright, joint fellow, USIP and WWC; Stephen Hadley, chairman, USIP; John Wolfsthal, deputy director, Center for Nonproliferation Studies; Daryl Kimball, executive director, ACA; and Robert Litwak, vice president for scholars and academic relations, director of international security studies, WWC.

THE RUSSIAN GAS MATRIX: HOW MARKETS ARE DRIVING CHANGE. 5/27, 10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: Brookings. Speakers: James Henderson, Senior Research Fellow, The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies; Johnathan Stern, Chairman, Natural Gas Research Programme and Senior Research Fellow, The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies; Edward C. Chow, Senior Fellow, Energy and National Security Program; CSIS; Moderator: Charles K. Ebinger, Director, Energy Security Initiative, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy.

GERMANY’S RUSSIA POLICY: COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES AND CONSEQUENCES FOR TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONS. 5/27, Noon–1:30pm. Sponsor: American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University (AICGS). Speaker: Dr. Hannes Adomeit, political scientist and expert on Russian and East-Central European affairs.

THE FUTURE OF AFGHAN POLICING: SECURITY AFTER NATO WITHDRAWAL. 5/27, 1:00-3:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: US Institute of Peace (USIP). Speakers: Ali Jalali, former minister of the interior of Afghanistan and professor, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies; Catherine Royle, former head, International Police Coordination Board Secretariat and former British deputy ambassador, Kabul; Aziz Hakimi, co-author, Counterinsurgency, Local Militias, and Statebuilding in Afghanistan; Michelle Hughes, author, The Afghan National Police in 2015 and Beyond, founder, president and CEO, VALRAC Innovation LLC; Jonathan Goodhand, co-author, Counterinsurgency, Local Militias, and Statebuilding in Afghanistan; and Shawn Stith, former director of the International Security Assistance Force Ministry of Interior Ministerial Advisory Group.

IRAQ 2.0: WHAT COMES NEXT? 5/27, 1:30-2.45pm. Sponsor: American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Speakers: Brian Katulis, Center for American Progress; Douglas Ollivant, New America Foundation and Mantid International; Michael Rubin, AEI.

MAPPING CHANGES IN THE INDONESIAN ELECTORAL LANDSCAPE FROM 2009 TO 2014. 5/27, 2:30-4:00pm. Sponsor: United Sates-Indonesia Society (USINDO). Speaker: Sarah Shair-Rosenfield, Assistant Professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona State University.

ASIA IN THE WORLD: ECONOMIC, POLITICAL, MILITARY, AND SOCIAL CHALLENGES. 5/27, 3:00-5:00pm. Sponsor: Wilson Center. Speakers: David Shambaugh, Fellow, Professor of Political Science & International Affairs, Director of the China Policy Program, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies Program and Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, the Brookings Institution; Robert Sutter, Professor, International Affairs, George Washington University; Amitav Acharaya, Professor, International Affairs, American University. 

THE ALLURE OF NORMALCY: AMERICA’S LEADERSHIP IN THE WORLD AND PRESIDENT OBAMA’S FOREIGN POLICY. 5/27, 4:00-5:30pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Brookings. Speakers: David Brooks, columnist, New York Times; Robert Kagan, senior fellow, Brookings; Moderator: Leon Wieseltier, literary editor, New Republic.

Monday in Washington May 19, 2014

THE NAVY'S REBALANCE TO ASIA: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES. 5/19, 8:45-10:00am. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Jonathan Greenert, Chief of Naval Operations; John Hamre, President and CEO, CSIS; Michael Green, Senior Vice President for Asia, CSIS.

THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY? 5/19, 9:00am-5:30pm. Sponsor: Freedom House. Speakers: Scott Busby, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy; Ahmed Shaheed, Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS PRODUCTION AND WASTE CLEANUP ISSUES. 5/19, 9:30am. Sponsor: Alliance for Nuclear Accountability. Speakers: Marylia Kelley, Executive Director, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment; Ralph Hutchison, Coordinator, Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance; Scott Kovac, Operations and Research Director, Nuclear Watch New Mexico; Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore; Donna Busche, Whistleblower; Diane D'Arigo, Radioactive Waste Project Director, Nuclear Information & Resource Service.

DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPONS. 5/19, 10:00-11:30pm. Sponsor: George C. Marshall Institute. Speakers: Dr. Howard R. Meyer, Jr., Science Advisor, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, Department of Defense; Mr. Mark Gunzinger, Senior Fellow,
Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments; Ronald O’Rourke, Specialist in Naval Affairs,
Congressional Research Service.

THE RESULTS OF INDIA'S 2014 GENERAL ELECTION. 5/19, 10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: Brookings Institution. Speakers: Tanvi Madan, Fellow, Foreign Policy Director, The India
Project; Sadanand Dhume, Resident Fellow, AEI; Richard Rossow, Wadhwani Chair in U.S.-India Policy Studies, CSIS; Milan Vaishnav, Associate, South Asia Program, Carnegie. 

SUSUMU INAMINE, MAYOR OF NAGO, OKINAWA, A DISCUSSION. 5/19, 11:30am-1:30pm, Lunch. Sponsor: Cato Institute. Speaker: Mayor Susumu INAMINE, who recently won
reelection in Nago on Okinawa who is a steadfast opponent of the development of an U.S. air base at
Henoko. 

AFGHANISTAN: A VOLATILE STATE AT THE CROSSROADS. 5/19, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: Australian National University (ANU). Speaker: Amin Saikal, Professor of Political Science, ANU.

STRESS TEST: REFLECTIONS ON FINANCIAL CRISIS. 5/19, Noon. Sponsor: Politico. Speakers: Timothy Geithner, Former Treasury Secretary; Mike Allen, Chief White House Correspondent, Politico; Ben White, Chief Economic Correspondent, Politico.

ASSET MANAGEMENT AND RISKS TO US FINANCIAL STABILITY. 5/19, 12:45pm. Sponsor: Financial Stability Oversight Council. Speakers: Mary Miller, Treasury Undersecretary for Domestic Finance; Norm Champ, Director, Division of Investment Management, Securities and Exchange Commission.

FDR, THE JEWS, AND THE HOLOCAUST: RESOLVING THE CONTROVERSY. 5/19, 4:00-5:30pm. Sponsor: History and Public Policy Program, Wilson Center. Speaker: Co-Author Allan Lichtman, Professor of History, American University.

THE DEMOCRATIC ALTERNATIVE FROM THE SOUTH. 5/19, 4:30-6:00pm. Sponsor: Legatum Institute; Center for Development and Enterprise (CDE); National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Speakers: Ann Bernstein, Executive Director, Centre for Development and Enterprise, Johannesburg, South Africa; Simon Schwartzman, Senior Fellow, Instituto de Estudos do Trabalho e Sociedade, Brazil; Eswaran Sridharan, Academic Director, University of Pennsylvania Institute for the Advanced Study of India; Marc Plattner, Vice President, NED; John Sullivan, Executive Director, Center for International Private Enterprise; Anne Applebaum, Director of the Transitions Forum, Legatum Institute.

Japanese Comfort Woman Statue

Monday in Washington May 12, 2014

Washington Monument
Reopens this Week

35 YEARS LATER: ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE TAIWAN RELATIONS ACT. 5/12, 8:30am-3:00pm. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Representative Shen Lyushun, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office; Chris Nelson, Senior Vice President, Samuels International Associates; Carl Ford, President, Ford and Associates; David Lee, Chairman, Coordination Council for North American Affairs; Moderator: Richard Bush, Senior Fellow and Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies, Director, Center for East Asia Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution; Kevin Nealer, Principal, The Scowcroft Group; Randy Schriver, CEO and President, Project 2049; Partner, Armitage International; Andrew N.D. Yang, Assistant Professor, National Sun Yat-sen University, Former Minister of Defense, R.O.C.; Moderator: Bonnie Glaser, Senior Adviser, Freeman Chair in China Studies; Keynote: Chairman Raymond Burghardt, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, American Institute in Taiwan; Li Peng, Associate Director, Taiwan Research Institute, Xiamen University; Visiting Scholar, University of Maryland; David Wei-Feng Huang, Associate Research Fellow, Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica; Steven Goldstein, Sophia Smith Professor of Government, Smith College. Moderator: Christopher Johnson, Senior Adviser and Freeman Chair in China Studies, CSIS.

NIXON'S TRANSFORMATION OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL. 5/12, 10:00am. Sponsor: National Archives. Speakers: Former National Security Council Members Robert McFarlane, Winston Lord, Richard Allen, John Lehman Jr.; K.T. McFarland, National Security Analyst, Fox News. 

REGIONALISM IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD: PRESENTATION OF THE E-15 INITIATIVE ON REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS. 5/12, 11:00am-12:30pm. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Antoni Estevadeordal, Manager, Integration and Trade Sector, Inter-American Development Bank; Miguel Rodriguez, Senior Associate, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development; Kati Suominen, Senior Associate, Europe Program, CSIS; Moderator: Scott Miller, William M. Scholl Chair in International Business, CSIS.

IVORY TOWERS AND PALACE GUARDS: THE DISCONNECT BETWEEN OUTSIDE EXPERTISE AND POLICYMAKING. 5/12, 4:00-5:30pm. Sponsor: Kennan Institute, Wilson Center. Speaker: Suzanna Massie, Consultant and Author, Trust but Verify.

A TIME  TO ATTACK: THE LOOMING IRANIAN NUCLEAR THREAT. 5/12, 5:00-6:30pm. Sponsor: Atlantic Council. Speaker: Author, Matthew Kroenig, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, Atlantic Council.

ENERGY AND AMERICA'S LONG WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST. 5/12, 5:30-7:00pm. Sponsor: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University. Speaker: Toby Jones, Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University.

Creating the "Big Lie"

Mr. Stokes

An ancient and infirm former British journalist, Henry S. Stokes (76), has long been used by Japan's right-wing to lend some respectability to their more outrageous revisionist history. It is a peculiar form of racism. Simply by being a "white man," they believe, Stokes is credible. As such, his recent, Japanese-only book, Eikokujin Kisha Ga Mita Rengokoku Sensho Shikan no Kyomou [“Falsehoods of the Allied Nations’ Victorious View of History, as Seen by a British Journalist”] has become a national bestseller with over 100,000 copies sold since being released last Fall. ,

His "essays" pepper the English-language website of the Society of Historical Fact and he gave a recent presentation "Japan was the Light of Hope in Asia" for the 70th anniversary of the Greater East Asian Conference held on Nov. 5-6, 1943. He sees the believes that Japan was instrumental in helping "end of the curse of colonialism."

In an April interview with The Economist's David McNeil at the Foreign Correspondent's Club, Stokes makes it clear that he "sides with the staunchest revisionists in attributing the end of European colonialism in Asia to imperial Japan – “Asia’s light of hope,” he says. “It is largely as a result of Japanese shedding their blood that we entered a new world where colonies did not exist any more and there is racial equality.” 

He questions if “Is Japan the only criminal country?" in his second chapter and sees only “victor’s justice. Stokes', like all Japanese revisionists and the current Prime Minister, holds the view that the U.S., not Japan, bears the “prime responsibility” for the Pacific War."

Most interesting, however, is that McNeil gets him to admit "to not knowing exactly what’s between the pages of the book that carries his name – he says he reads little Japanese and an English translation has yet to be produced." This admission led another journalist (see below) to expose how the Japanese Rights perpetuates the "big lie" by all means.

Journalist backtracks on best-seller after Nanjing switcheroo Former Times bureau chief 'shocked' by revisionist conclusion of own book

BY BEN DOOLEY
KYODO, MAY 8, 2014

reprinted for scholarly analysis from The Japan Times

Former New York Times Tokyo bureau chief Henry S. Stokes should have reason to celebrate. His latest book “Eikokujin Kisha Ga Mita Rengokoku Sensho Shikan no Kyomou” (Falsehoods of the Allied Nations’ Victorious View of History, as Seen by a British Journalist) has moved 100,000 copies in the five months since its December release, according to its publisher Shodensha.

The mashup of journalistic anecdotes from the front lines of Japan’s modern history and hard-nosed arguments against its responsibility for World War II atrocities has made the 75-year-old Stokes a darling of the country’s resurgent right wing. With the slim volume popping up on best-seller lists across the nation, its author has found himself in the brightest spotlight of his career.

There is just one problem — until a recent interview with Kyodo News, Stokes, a longtime resident of Tokyo, did not know what was written in his own book.

Now, the former reporter, who reads and writes only a little Japanese, says he is “shocked and horrified” by the book’s conclusion that the Chinese government fabricated the Nanjing Massacre, describing the claim as “straightforward right-wing propaganda.”

The book’s translator, Hiroyuki Fujita, “smuggled” the rogue passages into the work, Stokes says, adding that the conclusion was “just spooned into the text.” Fujita admits that he added his own language to the book but argues that he closely based his additions on Stokes’ own views.

Stokes, who suffers from advanced Parkinson’s disease and cannot easily type or use a pen or pencil, entrusted the book’s production to Fujita and Hideaki Kase, two men with close ties to the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact, a nonprofit educational group that advocates “revisionist” positions on Japanese history.

At Kase’s urging, Stokes sat with Fujita for over 170 hours of interviews about his journalistic career and his self-described “right of center” political views. He says the men told him that they would translate the interviews into Japanese and then shape them into a book.

Stokes agreed to participate in the project, despite warnings from family and friends to be wary of the men, whom he describes as “personal, close friends.”

According to Stokes, Fujita had assured him that “90 to 95 percent” of the book was based on their interview sessions. While Fujita reiterated these claims, he would not comment on what other additions he had made to the text and declined multiple requests to share the recordings.

“As I’m being interviewed by these people, I would trust them to stick by the record,” Stokes said. “And if they haven’t done that, they have let me down and let themselves down.”

The “record” of Stokes’ comments on Nanjing is decidedly mixed. On one hand, the claims made in Stokes’ book appear, almost word for word, in an article attributed to him in the March 2014 issue of WiLL, a hard right-wing Japanese magazine, edited by Kazuyoshi Hanada. Similar comments appear under Stokes’ name in a series of interviews in Yukan Fuji, a popular evening tabloid.

But, in the March issue of Voice Magazine, another Japanese-language publication, Stokes expresses a very different opinion on both subjects. In a translated response to a question about Nanjing by reporter Taka Daimaru, Stokes says that he “can’t support” right-wing arguments that the massacre never happened, because they “aren’t realistic.” Similar comments appear in an interview with journalist David McNeil that ran in the April issue of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan’s magazine Number 1 Shimbun.

Despite the contradictions, Fujita, Daimaru and McNeill all say that they have faithfully reproduced their conversations with Stokes. Hanada was not available for comment.

“In the process of compiling the Japanese version of course I summarized or interpreted basically what he said,” Fujita said, adding that the quotation marks around the words Nanjing Massacre make it clear that he intended to convey Stokes’ position that the Chinese government has exaggerated the scale of the massacre, not that it is an outright lie.

Japanese readers, however, have interpreted the text differently. In a tweet sent two days before the interview, for example, one wrote that Stokes claims “there is not even one piece of evidence that the Nanjing Massacre occurred.”

That conclusion could not be further from the truth, Stokes says.

Over the course of multiple interviews with Kyodo News beginning on April 5, Stokes repeatedly expressed a view on Nanjing that directly contradicts the remarks attributed to him in both his own book and the articles in WiLL and Yukan Fuji.

“I don’t come within ten-thousand miles of this stuff as a position,” he said, dismissing the view that Nanjing is a fabrication as “ludicrous,” “fatuous” and “utterly, utterly asinine.”
“The stance I take is that ghastly events occurred in Nanjing,” Stokes said, adding that he does, however, disagree with Chinese assessments that 300,000 people died during the six days when the Imperial Japanese Army overran China’s then capital. He also objects to the use of the term massacre, preferring the more anodyne “Nanjing Incident.”

Stokes’ claims are supported by one of the project’s transcriptionists, who resigned for “ethical concerns” stemming from what she described as major differences between Fujita’s interviews with Stokes and the book’s contents. The text, she said, takes out of context or deliberately ignores several of Stokes’ statements, especially on the subject of Nanjing and the comfort women.

Stokes’ career as Tokyo bureau chief for the left of center New York Times, where he worked from 1978 to 1983, makes him the perfect vehicle for providing credibility to historical revisionists’ arguments against Japan’s responsibility for wartime atrocities, according to Takesato Watanabe, a professor of media ethics at Doshisha University in Kyoto.

Fujita admits this was a consideration in producing the book. “If I wrote this,” Fujita said, “people would say that I’m right-wing or a revisionist, and the things I say can’t be trusted, because I’m defending Japan.”

“If a foreign correspondent says it for me,” he added, “no matter what the content . . . people will say it’s interesting.”

Although Fujita played a major role in the book’s production, “without Kase-sensei (Mr. Kase), this publication was not possible,” he said, adding that he had consulted with Kase on the book’s topics and what questions to ask Stokes.

While admitting that he introduced Stokes to the book’s publisher, Kase denied that he had any direct role in writing it or that he knew about Fujita’s additions. Kase wrote the book’s afterword.

Stokes met Kase, who describes himself as a “diplomatic critic,” in the late 1960s. In the years following, Kase became an adviser to former Prime Ministers Takeo Fukuda and Yasuhiro Nakasone.

Kase, 77, has stayed active in conservative political circles in Japan. In addition to his position as the chairman of the revisionist group, he has been involved with several other right-wing organizations, most notably as a “representative” and “auditor” to the board of directors of the Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference), a hard-right political group with links to the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

In November 2012, Kase’s name appeared alongside Abe’s in a full-page newspaper advertisement in the New Jersey newspaper The Star-Ledger that described comfort women as high-paid prostitutes and made a number of additional claims that closely resemble those found in Stokes’ book. The ad instructs readers “eager to look further into the truth” to visit the website of the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact.

This is not the first time that Kase’s name has appeared in connection with a literary sleight of hand. In the 1990s, a Korean journalist accused the prolific author of ghostwriting “Minikui Kankokujin” (“Ugly Koreans”), a Japanese best-seller that argues Japan’s occupation of Korea had been good for the country. The book’s original author later came forward and accused Kase of making substantial revisions to the text, which was published under a Korean pen name. Kase says he “corrected” the book, but denies writing it.

Stokes has requested that Fujita issue a correction to his book. Fujita says that he will correct the record in a forthcoming English edition, but there are currently no plans to amend the existing text.

Contacted by Kyodo News, the publisher said that he was “surprised” by the allegations and that if true a correction would be issued.

Despite his objections, Stokes refuses to assign blame for the book’s contents to the men he calls friends.

No matter how much he may disagree with the end result, “If I’ve been taken advantage of, it’s with my complicity,” Stokes said. “And, it’s my responsibility and my fault.”