Monday in Washington, March 28, 2016

2015 GLOBAL MONITORING REPORT: DEPTH, BREADTH AND SHARED PROSPERITY. 3/28, 8:30am-1:00pm. Sponsors: George Washington University (GWU); World Bank. Speakers: Philip Schellekens, Lead Author and Manager of the Global Monitoring Report, World Bank; Stephen C. Smith, Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy, GWU; Francisco Ferreira, Senior Advisor, Development Research Group, World Bank; Sabina Alkire, Professor of Economics and International Affairs, GWU; Joao Pedro Azevedo, Lead Economist, Poverty and Equity, World Bank; Luis Felipe Lopez-Calva, Co-Director of the World Development Report 2017; Danny Leipziger, Professor of International Business, GWU; James Foster, Professor of Economics and International Affairs, GWU.

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE 2016 NUCLEAR INDUSTRY SUMMIT. 3/28, Noon-1:00pm. Sponsor: Global America Business Institute (GABI). Speaker: Jack Eldow, President, Eldow International.

PLUTONIUM AND HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM 2015. 3/28, Noon-2:00pm. Sponsor: Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS). Speakers: David Albright, President and Founder, ISIS; Serena Kelleher-Vergantini, Research Analyst, ISIS.

ASSESSING THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP: INNOVATIONS IN TRADING RULES. 3/28. Noon-2:00pm, Webcast. Sponsor: Peterson Institute for International Economics (IIE). Speakers: Jeffrey J. Schott, Peterson Institute for International Economics; Robert Z. Lawrence, Peterson Institute for International Economics; Cathleen Cimino-Isaacs, Peterson Institute for International Economics; Lee G. Branstetter, Peterson Institute for International Economics.

COUNTERING TAJIK-AFGHAN BORDER INSECURITY. 3/28, 12:30-2:00pm. Sponsor: Open Society Foundations. Speakers: Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, Research Associate, Peace Research Institute, Oslo; Derek Westfall, Deputy Director, Office of Central Asian Affairs, U.S. State Department.

WOMEN, WATER AND SUSTAINABILITY. 3/28, 12:30-2:00pm. Sponsor: SAIS, Johns Hopkins. Speakers: Karin Krchnak, Director of the Freshwater Program, World Wildlife Foundation; Marjorie Mulhall, Senior Legislative Counsel, Earthjustice.

CHINA'S “BELT AND ROAD” INITIATIVE AND IMPLICATIONS FOR GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT. 3/28, 2:00-3:30pm. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Ziad Haider, Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs, Bureau of Economics and Business Affairs, U.S. Department of State; John Hurley, Director, International Debt and Development Policy, U.S. Department of the Treasury; Olin Wethington, Chairman and Principal, Wethington International LLC; Christopher Johnson; Senior Advisor and Chair in China Studies, CSIS.

FROM PYONGYANG TO TEHRAN: U.S. AND JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES ON NUCLEAR DEALS. 3/28, 2:00-5:30pm. Sponsor: Carnegie. Speakers: Nobumasa Akiyama, Professor of Law, Hitotsubashi University; Robert Gallucci, Distinguished Professor of Diplomacy, Georgetown University; George Perkovich, Vice President for Studies, Carnegie; James L. Schoff, Senior Associate, Carnegie's Asia Program; Koichiro Tanaka, Managing Director, Institute of Energy Economics of Japan; Suzanna Maloney, Deputy Director of Foreign Policy Program, Brookings; James M. Acton, Co-Director, Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie.

PREDICTING THE HEALTH CONSEQUENCES OF NUCLEAR TERRORISM SCENARIOS. 3/28, 4:00-5:00pm. Sponsor: CSIS. Speaker: Timothy Jorgensen, Associate Professor and Director, Health, Physics and Radiation Protection Program, Georgetown University.

THINK TANKS – WHAT DO THEY REALLY CONTRIBUTE? 3/28, 6:00pm. Sponsor: Project for the Study of the 21st Century. Speakers: Andrew Selee, Executive Vice President, Wilson Center; Peter Apps, Global Affairs Columnist, Reuters; Maria Stephen, Senior Policy Fellow, United States Institute of Peace.

CHALLENGES OF “NOW” AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE U.S. ARMY. 3/28, 6:00-8:00pm. Sponsor: RAND Corporation. Speaker: Author Dr. David Johnson, Senior Political Science and Senior Historian, RAND Corporation.

Japan's path to the terrors of the past

The pretext of counterterrorism covers many sins
By Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies, Temple University Japan and APP member

The Japan Times, Mar 19, 2016

The Japanese government’s track record on respecting civil liberties and the rule of law is suspect, as I detailed in last week’s Counterpoint.

In 2002, the former Defense Agency, which is now a full-fledged ministry, spied on people who filed information disclosure requests, while the police and courts railroaded antiwar protesters on dubious charges of trespassing after they passed out flyers encouraging members of the Self-Defense Forces to oppose deployment in Iraq as war raged there in 2004.

These weren’t the only cases. A Buddhist priest was also apprehended while passing out antiwar flyers (imagine that, a peace-loving monk!), and the police kept a tail on one civil servant so they could catch him distributing copies of the Communist Party newspaper — arresting him even though it was on his day off. Don’t the cops have anything better to do than harass ordinary citizens exercising their constitutional rights? Is this how they pretend to keep the nation safe from terrorists?

In any society governed by the rule of law, it is essential to protect civil liberties by applying reasonable limits to police surveillance powers. In battling terrorism, such limits are portrayed by critics as handcuffing the police and other security agencies and thus endangering public safety. Unlike despotic societies defined by tyranny and the denial of human rights, however, democracies depend on ensuring that civil liberties are not trampled and human rights are respected. Debating the balance between an individual’s privacy and the state’s desire to pry strengthens a democracy and the rule of law — but this is a project that is never fully realized and depends on constant vigilance and an ongoing commitment.

As Japan wades ever further into the “war on terror,” it is important to ask what protections should be accorded to ethnic and religious minorities. It is evident that the police have zeroed in on Japan’s tiny Muslim community, seeing it as a potential hotbed of terrorism. But can this profiling of an entire community based on religious belief be justified? Is it not a violation of fundamental rights such as freedom of religion and privacy? Are such discriminatory practices consistent with democratic norms?

The it-can’t-be-helped school of thought asserts that terrorists don’t abide by any rules, so democratic societies are vulnerable and therefore sometimes need to curtail civil liberties and discriminate for the greater good.

Germany, however, has found that such blunt instruments are ineffective. According to a report by the U.N. Human Rights Commission, a German profiling program known as Rasterfahndung gathered information on 32,000 Muslim residents in Germany, but failed to identify any suspected terrorists.

There are an estimated 100,000 Muslims in Japan and it has been reported that the government has compiled dossiers on 70,000 of them. It has so far failed to identify a single terrorist, but has succeeded in indiscriminately invading privacy. The courts have sided with the police, affirming their right to conduct surveillance based on profiling alone without an iota of evidence suggesting criminal activities or terrorist inclinations.

Back in 2010 there was a leak of documents from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department that revealed just how intrusive this surveillance is, prompting a lawsuit that accused the police of violating constitutional rights to privacy and religion, and protections against discrimination. In 2014 the court awarded token damages for the leak of personal information, but dismissed the constitutional claims and held that the police surveillance was necessary and inevitable. This means it is open season for the police to collect personal information and conduct surveillance of designated groups of people based on ethnicity or religion, absent any concrete evidence justifying intrusions of their privacy and human rights.

So, with judicial backing, the police can take the picture of everyone who enters a mosque in Japan and intercept the communications of any resident solely based on the individual’s faith. As Japan boosts tourism in the run-up to the 2020 Olympics it is attracting many Muslim tourists, but are they all being tracked as potential terrorists? Can customers of halal restaurants expect special scrutiny? That’s a sinister twist on the welcoming spirit of omotenashi.

You only need to look at South Korea for an example of a nation struggling to prevent the wholesale expansion of police powers under the pretext of cracking down on terrorism. President Park Geun-hye’s ruling Saenuri Party is pushing through an antiterrorism bill that would give her country’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) sweeping new powers that are “justified” by the “security emergency” associated with North Korea’s recent nuclear test — despite a lack of concrete evidence that shows Pyongyang is preparing terrorist attacks on South Korea.

There are concerns that the law would primarily serve to repress internal dissent in line with Park’s efforts to tame the press and intimidate critics, including educators. Opposition parties tried to block the new law by mounting a record-breaking filibuster because there is no pressing need to expand the extensive snooping powers the NIS — an organization indelibly associated with terrible excesses under a succession of authoritarian governments — already enjoys.

Moreover, the NIS has been implicated in a dirty tricks campaign that helped Park win elections in 2012 by a slim margin, and oversight mechanisms remain feeble. One can understand why security agencies seek indiscriminate authority to collect intelligence, tap wires, conduct investigations, track financial transactions, delete online posts and impose travel bans — that is the nature of the beast. But giving them a blank check is perilous to civil liberties and constitutional rights. Rather than unleashing the NIS, it needs to be reformed and subject to more extensive monitoring to prevent abuses. As Japan ratchets up its counterterrorism capabilities, the NIS provides a worrying example.

Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Sanae Takaichi has gained notoriety for her comments warning that the government could suspend broadcasting rights if programs are deemed “politically biased. “Problematically, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s idea of bias seems to be defined as criticism of its policies — an essential element of democratic societies. So it’s not enough that media firms have ousted several newscasters critical of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policies, or that they have hired relatives of Abe (a nephew at Fuji TV) and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso (a nephew at TBS), now they are being warned that in the coming battle over revising the Constitution, the government is taking off the gloves.

These developments are having a chilling effect on freedom of the press and expression in Japan, and raise real concerns about expanding police powers under the guise of counterterrorism. Attempts to muzzle the media while subverting the public’s right to know through the new state secrets law imperils democratic freedoms and highlights the need to strike a virtuous balance between ramped-up counterterrorism, civil liberties and accountability.

Monday in Washington, March 21, 2016

NEWSMAKER PANEL EXAMINES SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTE – WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? 3/21, 10:00am. Sponsor: National Press Club. Speakers: Gregory Poling, Asian Maritime Security Initiative, CSIS; Dr. Yann-huei Song, Center for Asia-Pacific Area Studies; Capt. Donald Marcus, President, International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots; Dr. Larry M. Wortzel, U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

RUNNING TOWARDS A BREXIT? UNDERSTANDING THE TRANSATLANTIC IMPLICATIONS OF THE UK REFERENDUM. 3/21, 10:00-11:00am. Sponsor: CSIS. Speaker: The Rt. Hon. Dr. Liam Fox, Member of British Parliament and Former UK Defense Secretary.

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AMERICA'S INVISIBLE WARS. 3/21, 11:00am-12:30pm. Sponsor: Cato Institute. Speakers: Emma Ashford, Visiting Research Fellow, Cato; Bronwyn Bruton, Deputy Director, Africa Center, Atlantic Council; Charles Schmitz, Professor, Towson University; Moeed Yusuf, Director, South Asia Programs, United Institute of Peace.


THE GRAND STRATEGY THAT WON THE COLD WAR: ARCHITECTURE OF TRIUMPH. 3/21, Noon-1:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Heritage Foundation. Speakers: author Dr. Douglas E. Streusand, Professor of International Relations, Marine Corps Command and Staff College; Dr. Francis H. Marlo, Associate Professor of International Relations, Marine Corps Command and Staff College; Dr. Norman A. Bailey, Professor of Economics and National Security, University of Haifa. 

CHINA’S AUTHORITARIAN ECONOMIC MODEL: TEMPORARY HICCUP OR IN TERMINAL DECLINE? 3/21, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: Hudson Institute. Speakers: Leland Miller, President, China Beige Book International; John Lee, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute.

WOMEN, TERRORISM, AND VIOLENT EXTREMISM: THE MISSING LINKS. 3/21, Noon-2:00pm. Sponsor: Women in International Security. Speakers: Amb. Claudia Fritsche, Embassy of Liechtenstein in Washington, DC; Sanam Anderlini, International Civil Society Action Network; Dr. Kathleen Kuehnast, U.S. Institute of Peace; Dr. Paul Pillar, Georgetown University; Dr. Lorenzo Vidino, George Washington University.

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ARE WE READY FOR THE NEXT RECESSION? 3/21, 2:00-4:00pm. Sponsor: Brookings. Speakers: David Wessel, Director, The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy; Wendy Edelberg, Assistant Director for Economic Analysis, Congressional Budget Office; Ben Spielberg, Research Associate and Project Manager for Full Employment, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; Philip Swagel, Professor, University of Maryland School of Public Policy; Richard Clarida, Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Columbia University; Jon Faust, Professor of Economics, Johns Hopkins University; Jared Bernstein, Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

THE DIPLOMACY OF MIGRATION: TRANSNATIONAL LIVES AND THE MAKING OF U.S.-CHINESE RELATIONS IN THE COLD WAR. 3/21, 4:00-5:30pm. Sponsor: Wilson Center. Speaker: Author Meredith Oyen, University of Maryland.

THE GLOBAL FUTURE OF SECURITY: A CONVERSATION WITH FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY CHUCK HAGEL. 3/21, 4:00-5:15pm. Sponsor: Georgetown University (GU). Speaker: Chuck Hagel, Former Secretary of Defense.

Monday in Washington, March 14, 2016

DEFENSE REFORM IN THE 21ST CENTURY. 3/14, 8:30-11:30am. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: John Hamre, CSIS President and CEO; Rudy deLeon, Former Deputy Secretary of Defense; Michael Donley, Former Secretary of the Air Force; Sean O'Keefe, Former Secretary of the Navy; Jamie Gorelick, Former General Counsel of the Department of Defense; Adm. William Fallon (Ret.), Former Commander, U.S. Central Command; Gen. Norton Schwartz (Ret.), Former Chief of Staff of the Air Force; Andrew Hunter, Director, Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group, CSIS; Mark Cancian, Senior Advisor, International Security Program, CSIS; Todd Harrison, Director, Defense Budget Analysis and Senior Fellow, International Security Program, CSIS.

DIRECTOR'S FORUM: A CONVERSATION WITH H.E. MOSHE YA'ALON, MINISTER OF DEFENSE OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL. 3/14, 9:00-1:00am. Sponsor: Wilson Center. Speakers: The Hon. Joseph Gildenhorn, Wilson Center; His Excellency Moshe Ya'alon, Minister of Defense of Israel; Aaron David Miller, Vice President for New Initiatives and Distinguished Fellow.

JAPAN AS A “PEACE ENABLER”: VIEWS FROM THE NEXT GENERATION. 3/14, 10:00am-Noon. Sponsor: Stimson Center. Speaker: Col. Michio Suda, Japan Ground Self-Defense Force; Kazuo Tase, Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting; Kazuto Tsuruga, Osaka University; Yuji Uesugi, Waseda University.

UNITING OR DIVIDING? MEDIA AND POLITICS IN THE ARAB WORLD. 3/14, 11:00am-1:00pm. Sponsors: Peacetech Lab; BBC Media Action. Speakers: Alexandra Buccianti, Project Manager, BBC Media Action; Marc Lynch, Professor of Political Science and International Relations, George Washington University; Sarhang Hamasaeed, Senior Program Manager; Middle East and North Africa Programs, USIP; Joyce Karam, Washington Bureau Chief, Al-Hayat Columnist.

INDIA-PAKISTAN CRISES AND THE AMERICAN ROLE. 3/14, 1:30-3:00pm. Sponsor: United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Speakers: Daniel Markey, Director of Global Policy Program, SAIS; Polly Nayak, Independent Consultant; Edward Wittenstein, Executive Director, Yale University Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy.

LAWFARE: LAW AS A WEAPON OF WAR. 3/14, 4:30pm. Sponsor: Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). Speakers: Author Orde F. Kittrie, Senior Fellow, FDD; Alyza D. Lewin, Lewin & Lewin LLP; Nathan Lewin, Former Assistant to the Solicitor General, Department of Justice; Steve Perles, Senior Attorney and Founder, Perles Law Firm; Juan C. Zarate, Chairman and Senior Counselor, FDD's Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance.

LGBT DIPLOMACY: SECURING A MORE INCLUSIVE FUTURE. 3/14, 5:30pm. Sponsor: Atlantic Council. Speakers: Damon Wilson, Executive Vice President, Programs and Strategy, Atlantic Council; Regina Jun, President, GLIFAA; The Hon. Randy Berry, Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons, U.S. Department of State; Kerri Hannan, Incoming U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission to Luxembourg, U.S. Department of State; Mira Patel, Senior Advisor, Global Development Lab. USAID; Mario Škunca, Deputy Chief of Mission of Croatia, Republic of Croatia Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.

The ever-shifting sands of Japanese apologies

By Tessa Morris-Suzuki, an ARC Laureate Fellow based at the School of Culture, History and Language, at the College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University and an APP member.

East Asia Forum, 22 February 2016

On 16 February, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida signed a ‘Strategy for Co-operation in the Pacific’, in which both countries emphasised their shared values of ‘democracy, human rights and the rule of law’.

As they were doing so, Japanese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Shinsuke Sugiyama was in Geneva addressing a meeting of the UN committee which oversees the implementation of one of the world’s key human rights accords: the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). On the agenda was the Japanese government’s treatment of the problems of memory, justice and redress arising from the imperial military’s mass recruitment of women (the so-called ‘comfort women’) to military brothels during the Pacific War.

It was a great opportunity for the Abe administration to follow up its 28 December 2015 joint statement with South Korea on ‘comfort women’. In the December statement Foreign Minister Kishida acknowledged ‘an involvement of the Japanese military authorities at that time’ and passed on Prime Minister Abe’s ‘sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women’.

The December statement committed the Japanese government to contributing to a fund to assist surviving South Korean former ‘comfort women’, but its rather curious wording left some observers unsure just what Japan had apologised for.

Since coming to power the Abe administration has told the world that it is continuing to uphold — or (in the Japanese version) to ‘inherit’ (keisho suru) — the 1993 Kono Declaration. In that declaration, issued after an extensive study by the Japanese government, Japan acknowledged that ‘in many cases [‘comfort women’] were recruited against their own will, through coaxing, coercion, etc., and that, at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments’. The Japanese government also promised to ‘face squarely the historical facts as described above instead of evading them, and take them to heart as lessons of history’.

If the Abe administration has indeed ‘inherited’ the Kono Declaration, one would assume that Abe’s December ‘sincere apologies and remorse’ were apologising for the historical fact that many ‘comfort women’ were recruited and held against their will, and a reaffirmation of Japan’s determination to take the lessons of history to heart.

But oddly, neither Abe nor any of his ministers or spokespeople has ever been heard to echo the key words of the Kono Declaration. Instead, when challenged on the question of state responsibility for the ‘comfort women’ issue, they repeatedly respond with a formula developed during the first Abe administration of 2006–2007: ‘in the documents discovered by the Japanese government, none confirmed the forcible taking away of comfort women’.

This statement is extremely significant. It treats official Japanese government and military documents (the most incriminating of which were deliberately burnt in the closing days of the war) as the only reliable source of information on the topic. It entirely discounts the testimony of surviving former ‘comfort women’. This includes testimony collected and taken into account by the Japanese government at the time of the Kono Declaration. By implication, this formula says to the survivors that their testimony is at best unreliable evidence and at worst lies.

So the key question about the 28 December deal was this: when Foreign Minister Kishida referred to ‘an involvement of the Japanese military authorities at that time’, was he speaking about the involvement of the military in recruiting, transporting and holding women against their will? Was he upholding the promises of the Kono Declaration? If so, then the December accord was indeed a major step forward in Japan–South Korea relations. If not, it starts to look uncomfortably like a move that was motivated less by a desire to bring justice and redress to the victims than to buy their silence.

Foreign Ministry official Sugiyama’s response to the CEDAW committee on 16 February made the answer to these questions disturbingly plain. Pressed on the comfort women issue, he replied ‘in the documents discovered by the Japanese government, none confirmed the forcible taking away of comfort women’. He added that the notion that comfort women had been forcibly recruited was a misconception based on fabricated testimony by a former Japanese labour recruiter named Yoshida Seiji, and that this misinformation had been disseminated by the liberal newspaper Asahi Shimbun, which later retracted the claims.

This statement by Sugiyama is entirely misleading. The Yoshida testimony (which was reported in the early 1990s by almost all the Japanese mainstream media, not just Asahi Shimbun) has been known to be unreliable for more than a decade. And it has had no significant influence on the ‘comfort women’ debate in recent years. More importantly, it is far from the only evidence. The evidence that women were recruited against their will comes from a mass of testimonies from survivors and other eyewitnesses as well as evidence given to war crimes trials and court cases, alongside other historical material.

Australian survivor Jan Ruff-O’Herne, who was marched out of an internment camp and into a military brothel at gunpoint during the war, has never received an apology. Nor have many others forcibly recruited in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

It is time for Japan’s friends and allies, particularly those like Australia who plan to cooperate with Japan in protecting human rights around the region, to ask the hard questions. Will Prime Minister Abe and his cabinet repeat the words of the Kono Declaration loud and clear? Or will they admit that they have abandoned the declaration? They cannot have it both ways. Sugiyama insisted to the CEDAW committee that the Japanese government is not ‘denying history’. Now we need an answer to the follow-up question: which history are they not denying?

Monday in Washington, March 7, 2016

INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS BANKERS ANNUAL WASHINGTON CONFERENCE. 3/7-8. Speakers include: Hon. Nathan Sheets, Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs, who will give the opening keynote address; Hon. Lael Brainard, Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, who will give the keynote luncheon address; Hon. Thomas Curry, Comptroller of the Currency; Hon. Martin Gruenberg, Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Hon. Timothy Massad, Chairman, Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Alex Brazier, Executive Director for Financial Stability Strategy and Risk, Bank of England. Program. 

THE FY2017 DEFENSE BUDGET AND STRATEGIC OUTLOOK. 3/7, 9:00-11:30am. Sponsor: CSIS International Security Program. Speakers: Mike McCord, Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer; Jamie Morin, Director, Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation; Robert Scher, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans and Capabilities; Andrew Hunter, Director, Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group; Mark Cancian, Senior Advisor, International Security Program, CSIS; Shawn Brimley, Executive Vice President and Director of Studies, Center for a New American Security; Roger Zakheim, Visiting Fellow, American Enterprise Institute.

U.S.-JAPAN RELATIONS AND SOUTHEAST ASIA: MEETING REGIONAL DEMANDS. 3/7, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: East-West Center. Speakers: Tsutomu Kikuchi, Professor, Aoyama Gakuin University; Satu P. Limaye, Director, East-West Center Washington.

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DISCIPLES: THE WORLD WAR II MISSIONS OF THE CIA DIRECTORS WHO FOUGHT FOR WILD BILL DONOVAN. 3/7, Noon-1:00pm. Sponsor: Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. Speaker: Author Douglas Waller.

COLD WAR LEGACIES: LESSONS FROM U.S.-JAPAN MILITARY STRATEGIES IN THE PACIFIC. 3/7, Noon-1:30pm,Washington, DC. Sponsor: Wilson Center. Speakers: Narushige Michishita, Japan Scholar; Peter Swartz, Center for Naval Analyses; David Winkler, Director of Programs, Naval Historical Foundation.

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THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND THE IMPERIAL ORDER: CONTEST OR COLLUSION. 3/7, 4:00-5:30pm. Sponsor: National History Center of the American Historical Association and the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. Speaker: Susan Pedersen is Morris Professor of British History at Columbia University, historian of British and international politics, author, The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire.

EUROPE, A PERFECT STORM OF CRISES? 3/7, 3:00pm. Sponsor: Project for the Study of the 21st Century. Speakers: Sir Michael Leigh, Former Director General for E.U. Enlargement, European Commission; Heather Conley, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau for European and Eurasian Affairs; Simona Kordosova Lightfoot, Campaigns Manager, Future Europe Program, Atlantic Council.

A DISCUSSION WITH SAHAR NOWROUZZADEH, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL DIRECTOR ON IRAN. 3/7, 7:00-9:00pm. Sponsor: George Washington University. Speaker: Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, National Security Council Director on Iran.

Asia in Washington Week of February 29-March 4, 2016

A DEBATE: THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH VS. CONGRESSIONAL PREROGATIVES IN NATIONAL SECURITY DECISIONS. 2/29, 11:00am-1:00pm. Sponsor: American Foreign Policy Council. Speakers: Louis Fisher, Former Congressional Research Service Senior Specialist in Separation of Powers; Robert Turner, Former U.S. Senate Staffer and Executive Branch Official, Co-Founder, Center for National Security Law, University of Virginia; Michael Chertoff, Former Secretary of Homeland Security; Jon Kyl, Former Minority Whip of the U.S. Senate.

HOW AGGRESSIVE IS CHINA? 2/29, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: George Washington University (GWU). Speakers: Robert Sutter, Professor of Practice of International Affairs, GWU; Robert Daly, Director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United Sates, Wilson Center; Amitai Etzioni, Professor of International Affairs, GWU; Mike Mochizuki, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, GWU.

ON THE PHENOMENON OF MISPLACEMENT IN THE CHINA U.S.-RELATIONS. 2/29, 12:30-2:00pm. Sponsor: SAIS, Johns Hopkins University. Speaker: Li Haidong, China Foreign Affairs University.

CHINA'S “INTERNET SOVEREIGNTY” INITIATIVE: ORIGINS AND CONSEQUENCES. 2/29, 2:00-3:30pm. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: James A. Lewis, Director of the Strategic Technologies Program, CSIS; Xiao Qiang, Adjunct Professor, School of Information, UC Berkley; Amy Chang, Staff Director, Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives; John Lenhart, Director of Global Policy, Information Technology Industry Council.

U.S.-R.O.K.: CIVIL NUCLEAR COOPERATION. 2/29, 2:30pm. Sponsor: James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Speakers: Scott Snyder, Senior Fellow for Korea Studies and Director of the Program on U.S.-Korea Policy, Council on Foreign Relations; Miles Pomper, Senior Fellow, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies; Toby Dalton, Co-Director for Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment; Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, Scientist-in-Residence, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

2016 CONGRESSIONAL TRADE AGENDA. 3/1, 8:30-10:00am. Sponsor: Washington International Trade Association (WITA). Speakers: Angela Ellard, Chief International Trade Counsel (Majority), House Ways and Means Committee; Jason Kearns, Chief Trade Counsel (Minority), House Ways Committee; Everett Eissenstat, Chief International Trade Counsel (Majority), Senate Finance Committee; Jayme White, Chief Advisor on International Competitiveness and Innovation (Minority), Senate Finance Committee.

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UNFINISHED APOLOGIES: IMPERIAL JAPAN’S SEX SLAVES OF WARTIME ASIA. 3/1, 8:30-3:00pm. Sponsors: US-Korea Institute, SAIS, Johns Hopkins; Asia Policy Point. Speakers: Taina Bien-Aimé, Executive Director, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women; Dr. Caroline Norma, Associate Professor in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, author, The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery during the China and Pacific Wars (2016); Katharine (Kathy) H.S. Moon, inaugural holder of the SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies and senior fellow at the Brookings Center for East Asia Policy Studies; author, Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations (1997); Griselda Molemans, Dutch investigative researcher and journalist, founder of the Task Force for Dutch Indies War Reparations (Dutch acronym: TFIR; Task Force Indisch Rechtsherstel); Hilde Janssen, Dutch journalist and anthropologist, author Schaamte en Onschuld [Shame and Innocent] and Troostmeisjes/Comfort Women (2013); Peipei Qiu, Professor of Chinese and Japanese on the Louise Boyd Dale and Alfred Lichtenstein Chair, Vassar College, author Chinese Comfort Women: Testimonies from Imperial Japan's Sex Slaves (2014); M. Evelina Galang, Professor of English, University of Miami, author, Angel de la Luna and the 5th Glorious Mystery (2013) and the forthcoming nonfiction Lolas’ House: Women Living with War; Dr. Yukiko Hanawa, Senior Lecturer, Department of East Asian Studies, New York University.

BEYOND 2016: SECURITY CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE NEXT ADMINISTRATION. 3/1, 9:00am-4:15pm. Sponsor: Brookings Institution. Speakers: John R. Allen, Co-Director, Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence; E.J. Dionne, Jr., Senior Fellow, Governance Studies; Col. Barry Huggins, USA, Federal Executive Fellow, Brookings; Col. Valery Keaveny, Jr., USA, CSA Senior Fellow, Center for a New American Security; Lt. Col. Victor H. Sundquist, USAR, Army Reserve Fellow, Georgetown Institute for the Study of Diplomacy; Lt. Cmdr. Katie Jacobson, USN, Federal Executive Fellow, RAND Corporation; William McCants,Director, U.S. Relations with the Islamic World, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Center for Middle East Policy; Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Karen Meeker, USA, U.S. Army War College Fellow, The Institute of World Politics; Lt. Col. Tracy Onufer, USAF, Military Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies; Lt. Col. Kathleen Turner, USA, U.S. Army War College Fellow, United States Institute of Peace; Ben FitzGerald, Senior Fellow and Director, Technology and National Security Program, Center for a New American Security; Col. Ché Bolden, USMC, Federal Executive Fellow, Brookings; Col. Hiroyuki Sugai, JASDF, International Security Fellow, Brookings; Cmdr. Greg Smith, USN, Federal Executive Fellow, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory; John R. Allen, Co-Director, Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence; Hon. Michèle Flournoy, Chief Executive Officer, Center for a New American Security; Michael E. O'Hanlon, Co-Director, Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, Director of Research, Foreign Policy; Capt. Frances Messalle, USCG, Federal Executive Fellow, Brookings; Cmdr. Garrett Campbell, USN; Federal Executive Fellow, Brookings; Lt. Col. Christopher MacAulay, USAF, Federal Executive Fellow, Brookings; Col. John A. O'Grady, USA, Military Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies.

LAUNCH: THE MILITARY BALANCE 2016. 3/1, 10:00-11:00am. Sponsor: The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Speakers: Bastian Giegerich, Director of Defense and Military Analysis, IISS; James Hackett, Senior Fellow for Defense and Military Analysis, IISS; Ben Barry, Senior Fellow for Land Warfare, IISS; Douglas Barrie, Senior Fellow for Military Aerospace, IISS; Nick Childs, Senior Fellow for Naval Forces and Maritime Security, IISS; Giri Rajendran, Research Associate for Defense and Economics, IISS.

THE DEMAND FACTOR IN THE GLOBAL SEX TRADE: HUMAN TRAFFICKING AS A HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS. 3/1, 10:30am-Noon. Sponsor: Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in Conjunction with Exodus Cry and Shared Hope International. Speakers: Taina Bien-Aimé, Executive Director, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW); Kubiki Pride, Advocate and Mother of Survivor; Ernie Allen, Allen Global Consulting; Withelma “T” Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, Survivor Advocate; Sean Reyes, Attorney General, Utah; Rev. Dr. Marian Hatcher, Human Trafficking Coordinator, Cook County Sheriff’s Office, Illinois; Moderator, Rep. Randy Hultgren, Executive Committee, Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.

RETHINKING ARMAGEDDON: PLANNING SCENARIOS FOR THE SECOND NUCLEAR AGE. 3/1, 11:30am-1:00pm. Sponsor: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA). Speakers: Congressman Mac Thornberry; Congressman Jim Cooper; Andrew Krepinevich, President, CSBA; Jacob Cohn, Senior Analyst, CSBA.

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ONE CHILD: THE STORY OF CHINA'S MOST RADICAL EXPERIMENT. 3/1, 12:30pm. Sponsor: Georgetown University. Speaker: Author Mei Fong, Journalist.

INTERNATIONAL HISTORY SEMINAR: ITALIAN PRISONERS OF WAR, 1940-1950: WHAT WE LEARN FROM STUDYING DEFEAT. 3/1, 6:00-7:30pm. Sponsors: Georgetown University (GU) Institute for Global History; Mortara Center for International Studies. Speaker: Ruth Ben-Ghiat, New York University.

PROMOTING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN SOUTH ASIA. 3/2, 10:30am-Noon. Sponsor: Heritage Foundation. Speakers: David N. Saperstein, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, U.S. Department of State; Farahnaz Ispahani, Former Member of the Pakistani Parliament; Pervez Rafique, Executive Director, Bleeding for Belief; John Sifton, Asia Advocacy Director, Human Rights Watch; Olivia Enos, Research Associate, Asian Studies Center, Heritage; Lisa Curtis, Senior Fellow for South Asia, Heritage.

TAIWAN-U.S. INTERNATIONAL ENGAGEMENT: THE GLOBAL COOPERATION TRAINING FRAMEWORK AND BEYOND. 3/2, Noon-2:00pm. Sponsor: Elliot School, George Washington University. Speakers: Lyushun Shen, R.O.C. Representative to the U.S.; Bruce Linghu, Deputy Foreign Minister, Taiwan; Kurt Tong, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Josh M. Cartin, Chief, Economic Section, American Institute in Taiwan; Randall Schriver, President and CEO, Project 2049 Institute; Vincent Wang., Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences, Professor of Political Science, University of Richmond

KOREA: OUTLINE OF A CIVILIZATION. 3/2, 12:30-1:45pm. Sponsor: Georgetown University. Speaker: Author Ken Wells, Professor, University of Canterbury.

THE KOREAN PENINSULA ISSUES. 3/2, 1:30-4:30pm. Sponsor: Institute for Korean-American Studies (ICAS). Speakers: Synja P. Kim, President and Chairman, ICAS; Daniel Russel, Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Gary Samore, Executive Director of Research, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University; Joseph Bosco, Senior Associate, CSIS; Peter Huessy, President, GeoStrategic Analysis; Tong Kim, Washington Correspondent, Korea Times; David Maxwell, Associate Director, Security Studies Program, Georgetown University; Larry Niksch, Senior Associate, CSIS.

EVENING WITH JAPAN EXPERTS. 3/2, 5:30am-7:00pm. Sponsor: Saskawa Peace Foundation. Speakers: TBA, By Invitation Only. To be held on Capitol Hill.

BEYOND THE TOOLKIT: SUPPORTING PEACE PROCESSES IN ASIA. 3/3, 9:30-11:00am. Sponsor: The Asia Foundation. Speakers: Patrick Barron, Regional Director for Conflict and Development, Asia Foundation; Steven Rood, Country Representative to the Philippines, Asia Foundation; George Varughese, Country Representative to Nepal, Asia Foundation.

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RESEARCHING AND DOCUMENTING THE COMFORT WOMEN HISTORY. 3/3,12:45-2:00pm. Sponsor: Sigur Center, George Washington University. Speakers: Christopher Simpson, professor of journalism, School of Communications, American University, adviser to the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group of the National Archives; Griselda Molemans, Dutch investigative journalist and researcher, founder of the Task Force for Dutch Indies War Reparations (Dutch acronym: TFIR; Task Force Indisch Rechtsherstel); Hilde Janssen, Dutch journalist and anthropologist, author Schaamte en Onschuld [Shame and Innocent] (2010) and Troostmeisjes/Comfort Women (2013) with photographer Jan Banning, bilingual Dutch and English photo book; M. Evelina Galang, professor of English, University of Miami, author, Angel de la Luna and the 5th Glorious Mystery (2013) and the forthcoming Lolas’ House: Women Living with War; Host/moderator: Mike Mochizuki, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, Japan-U.S. Relations Chair in Memory of Gaston Sigur, George Washington University.

COUNTER TERRORISM IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC. 3/3, 1:30-3:00pm. Sponsor: Asia Society Policy Institute. Speakers: Kevin Rudd, President of the Asia Society Policy Institute; Patrick Cronin, Senior Advisor and Senior Director, Asia-Pacific Security Program, Center for a New American Security; Joseph Chinyong Liow, Chair in Southeast Asia Studies and Senior Fellow, Brookings Center for East Asia Policy Studies.

A NEW DAWN FOR JAPAN'S RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES? JAPAN'S EVOLVING SECURITY AND ECONOMIC CHALLENGES BEYOND ITS BORDERS. 3/3, 3:00-4:30pm. Sponsor: Wilson Center's Asia Program. Speakers: Fumiaki Kubo, Former Japan Scholar, Wilson Center; Asuka Matsumoto, Research Fellow, Japan Institution of International Affairs; Akihiko Yasui, Head of Research, Mizuho Research Institute.

THE U.S.-JAPAN ALLIANCE AND MARITIME SECURITY IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION. 3/4, 3:00-5:00pm. Sponsors: CSIS Japan Chair; Japan Institute of International Affairs. Speakers: Michael J. Green, Senior Vice President for Asia and Japan Chair, CSIS; Yoshiji Nogami, President, Japan Institute of International Affairs; Vice Adm. Umio Otsuka, President, Japan Maritime Self Defense Force Command and Staff College; Shin Kawashima, Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo; Adm. Gary Roughead, USN (Ret).

Comfort Women "Her"story in Washington

Korean, Chinese, Filipino, Dutch former sex slaves

On December 28, 2015, the Foreign Ministers of Japan and South Korea issued a joint statement on the issue of ‘comfort women’. In the December statement, Japan acknowledges that the Comfort Women existed because of “an involvement of the Japanese military authorities at that time” and passed on Prime Minister Shnizo Abe’s “sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.” 

The statement committed the Japanese government to contributing to a fund to assist surviving South Korean former ‘comfort women’. South Korea, in turn, pledged to refrain from discussing the Comfort Women issue in public and, possibly, to remove from the entrance of the Japanese embassy in Seoul a statue symbolizing the Comfort Women. The agreement is to ensure that “this issue is resolved finally and irreversibly.”

The statement ,which reflects no written agreement, is controversial. It will not be approved by the Japanese Cabinet, thus it exists in the same legal limbo as the Kono Statement, a 1993 apology to the Comfort Women. It is unclear when the funds will be delivered to South Korea, whether the survivors will accept it, and whether there will remain any survivors. In addition, the agreement is not applicable to all the other survivors throughout Asia (at least 27 nationalities) who were forced into becoming sex slaves.

Also concerning is the Japanese Government’s statement on February 16 to the meeting of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) that no documentation exists describing the forcible taking of women, that the women were not sex slaves, and that the Japanese military was not responsible for recruitment. The Japanese government response is significant as it is likely the first time that such a senior Japanese government official has addressed CEDAW.

In addition, eight ad hoc Japanese Comfort Women denier groups submitted their opinions for the record to the CEDAW meeting. These are less cautious, often racist repeats the government position. Four groups also spelled out what the Japanese government meant when it said it found no documents regarding the Comfort Women in the U.S. National Archives. This is a reference to an inaccurate interpretation of the work of the Congressionally-mandated Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group at the National Archives.

A number of prominent scholars who research the history, sociology, and politics of the Imperial Japan’s sex slave system will be in Washington, DC the week of February 29th to participate in a series of seminars and programs. In addition to private briefings on Capitol Hill and a private screening of the Song of the Reed, a documentary on Taiwanese Comfort Women hosted by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Organization (TECRO), they will speak at Johns Hopkins University, SAIS and George Washington University on March 1 and 3. The schedule is as follows:

Unfinished Apologies

Imperial Japan’s Sex Slaves of Wartime Asia

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

8:30am-3:00pm

Johns Hopkins University, SAIS

REGISTER HERE 

WEBCAST through this link

Speaker Biographies

8:30-9:00am – Registration/light breakfast, purchase books

9:00-9:15am – Welcome
Jae Ku – Director US-Korea Institute, SAIS
Mindy Kotler – Director, Asia Policy Point

9:15-10:30am - Framing the Comfort Women History – Japanese Comfort Women and their Antecedents

Dr. Caroline Norma, Associate Professor in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, author, The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery during theChina and Pacific Wars (2016)

Discussant: Dr. Katharine (Kathy) H.S. Moon - inaugural holder of the SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies and senior fellow at the Brookings Center for East Asia Policy Studies; author, Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations(1997)

10:30-10:45am – Break

10:45am-12:30pm – The Comfort Women of Japan’s Occupied Asia

Dutch, Indonesian, Australian, British and American – Ms. Griselda Molemans, Dutch investigative reporter and researcher, founder of the Task Force for Dutch Indies War Reparations (Dutch acronym: TFIR; Task Force Indisch Rechtsherstel) author of Erfgenamen van Indië [Heirs of the Dutch East Indies] (2004), Zwarte huid, Oranje hart [Black Skin, Orange Heart] (2010), and Opgevangen in andijvielucht [Welcomed by the Smell of Endive] (2014), and the forthcoming Levenslang oorlog [A Lifetime of War] (end of 2016)

Indonesian/Dutch – Ms. Hilde Janssen, Dutch journalist and anthropologist; author Schaamte en Onschuld [Shame and Innocent] (2010) and Troostmeisjes/ComfortWomen with photographer Jan Banning, bilingual Dutch and English photo book (2013)

China – Dr. Peipei Qiu, Professor of Chinese and Japanese on the Louise Boyd Dale and Alfred Lichtenstein Chair, Vassar College, author ChineseComfort Women: Testimonies from Imperial Japan's Sex Slaves (in collaboration with Shanghai Normal University professors Su Zhiliang and Chen Lifei, 2014)

Philippines – Ms. M. Evelina Galang, Professor of English, University of Miami, author, Angel de la Luna and the 5th Glorious Mystery (2013) and the forthcoming nonfiction Lolas’ House: Women Living with War

Pacific Islands – Dr. Caroline Norma, Associate Professor in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University, Australia

Taiwan -  Daniel Kuo-ching Chen, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the United States.

Moderator: Dr. Yukiko Hanawa, Senior Lecturer of East Asian Studies at New York University

12:30-2:00pm - Lunch & Keynote

1:15 - Keynote: Women in Warfare, how far have we come? Taina Bien-Aimé, Executive Director, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
Introduction: Dr. Jae Ku, US-Korea Institute

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2:00-3:00pm - Book signing of Speakers’ books Norma, Qiu, Janssen, Galang, and Stetz/Oh books

The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery during the China and Pacific Wars – Caroline Norma

Chinese Comfort Women: Testimonies from Imperial Japan's Sex Slaves – Peipei Qiu

Troostmeisjes/Comfort Women - Jan Banning, with an introduction by Hilde Janssen, bilingual Dutch and English photo book

Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II – Co-editors: Margaret D. Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies and Professor of Humanities at the University of Delaware and Bonnie B.C. Oh, retired as the Distinguished Professor of Korean Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the University’s Main Campus Ombuds Officer, and a past director of Women’s Studies at Georgetown University. (2001)

Angel de la Luna and the 5th Glorious Mystery – M. Evalina Galang

Researching and documenting 

the Comfort Women History

What documents exist and where; 

how one analyzes them; working with oral history

Thursday, March 3, 2016

12:45-2:00pm

Sigur Center, George Washington University

Register Here

Researching Japanese
War Crimes, NARA
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Mr. Christopher Simpson, professor of journalism, School of Communications, American University, adviser to the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial GovernmentRecords Interagency Working Group of the National Archives; editor of the Holmes & Meier series on Science and Human Rights of which the first book was Comfort Women Speak (edited by Christopher Simpson and Sangmie Choi Schellsted), contemporary photographs by Soon Mi Yu.

Ms. Griselda Molemans, Dutch investigative reporter and researcher, founder of the Task Force for Dutch Indies War Reparations (Dutch acronym: TFIR; Task Force Indisch Rechtsherstel) author of Erfgenamen van Indië [Heirs of the Dutch East Indies] (2004), Zwarte huid, Oranje hart [Black Skin, Orange Heart] (2010), and Opgevangen in andijvielucht [Welcomed by the Smell of Endive] (Amsterdam: Quasar Books, 2014), and the forthcoming Levenslang oorlog [A Lifetime of War] (end of 2016)

Ms. Hilde Janssen, Dutch Journalist and anthropologist, author Schaamte en Onschuld [Shame and Innocent] (2010) and Troostmeisjes/Comfort Women (2013) with photographer Jan Banning, bilingual Dutch and English photo book

Ms. M. Evelina Galang, professor of English, University of Miami, author, Angel de la Luna and the 5th Glorious Mystery (2013) and the forthcoming Lolas’ House: Women Living with War

Host/moderator: Mike Mochizuki, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, Japan-U.S. Relations Chair in Memory of Gaston Sigur, George Washington University

Monday in Washington, February 15, 2016

RUSSIA'S FOREIGN POLICY: NEW SPHERES OF INFLUENCE? 2/22, 9:00am-3:00pm. Sponsor: SAIS, Johns Hopkins. Speakers: John Herbst, Director, Eurasia Center, Atlantic Council; Ivan Vejvoda, Vice President, German Marshall Fund; Caroline Vicini, Deputy Head, Delegation of the European Union to the United States; Dan Hamilton, Executive Director CTR, SAIS; Anna Borshchevskaya, Fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Marie Mendras, Senior Fellow, Transatlantic Academy; Mark Katz, Professor, George Mason University; Daniel Serwer, Director, Conflict Management Program, SAIS.

RUSSIA'S ECONOMY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR RUSSIA'S FUTURE. 2/22,10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: CSIS. Speaker: Vladislav Inozemtsev, Professor of Economics (Moscow).

TRENDS IN RUSSIAN PUBLIC OPINION UNDER PUTIN: NEW FINDINGS. 2/22, Noon-2:00pm. Sponsor: George Washington University (GWU). Speakers: Theodore P. Gerber, Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin; Henry E. Hale, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, GWU; William Mishler, Professor of Government and Public Policy, University of Arizona; William Reisinger, Professor of Political Science, University of Iowa; Donna Bahry, Professor of Political Science, Pennsylvania State University; Peter Rollberg, Director, Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, GWU.

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THE KOREAN PENINSULA ISSUES AND UNITED STATES NATIONAL SECURITY. 2/22, 1:30- 4:30pm. Sponsor: ICAS Liberty Foundation. Speakers: David Hoppe, Chief of Staff, Office of the Speaker of the House; Robert Daly, Director, Kissinger Institute on China and the US, Wilson Center; Peter Huessy, President, GeoStrategic Analysis; James A. Lewis, Senior Vice President and Program Director, CSIS, and others.

WILL SYRIA’S WAR EVER END? 2/22, 2:00-3:00pm. Speakers: Rasha Elass — Syrian American journalist and former Damascus-based reporter, PS21 Global Fellow; Andrew Tabler –Senior Fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

HUMAN SECURITY IN THE FACE OF VIOLENT EXTREMISM. 2/22, 4:00-5:30pm. Sponsor: Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, Georgetown University. Speakers: Zainab Hawa Bangura, U.N. Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict; Alissa Rubin, New York Times.


MINISTERS AT WAR: WINSTON CHURCHILL AND THE WAR CABINET.2/22, 4:00-5:30pm. Sponsor: Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. Speaker: Author Jonathan Schneer.

CHINA AND THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM: A CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS? 2/22, 5:00-7:00pm. Sponsor: SAIS China Forum, Johns Hopkins University. Speaker: Scott Kennedy, Director of Project on Chinese Business and Political Economy, CSIS.

BURDENS OF FREEDOM: WHY AMERICA LEADS. 2/22, 5:30-7:00pm. Sponsor: American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Speakers: Karlyn Bowman, Senior Fellow and Research Coordinator, AEI; Lawrence Mead, Visiting Scholar, AEI.

THE ROLE OF VOICE OF AMERICA AND VALUES JOURNALISM IN COMBATING PROPAGANDA AND VIOLENT EXTREMISM. 2/22, 6:30-8:00pm. Sponsor: George Washington University (GWU). Speakers: David Ensor, Executive Vice President, Atlantic Council; Frank Sesno, Director of the School of Media and Public Affairs, GWU.

Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule June 15-21, 2015

Monday, June 15, 2015

AM
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
09:44 Depart from private residence
09:58 Arrive at office
11:16 Accept an interview with the monthly magazine WiLL
11:51 Interview ends
11:52 Meet with Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy Yamaguchi Shunichi and Cabinet Office Director-General for Policies on Cohesive Society Morimoto Koichi
11:58 End meeting with Mr. Yamaguchi and Mr. Morimoto

PM
02:19 Accept an interview with a Hong Kong–based television broadcaster Phoenix Television
02:37 Interview ends
02:38 Meet with the President of Phoenix Television Liu Chang-le
02:51 End meeting with Mr. Liu
04:06 Meet with Minister of State for Regulatory Reform Arimura Haruko and Cabinet Office Director-General for Policies on Cohesive Society Habuka Shigeki
04:28 End meeting with Mr. Arimura and Mr. Habuka
04:32 Receive a courtesy call from members of the Wise-men Group on the Japan-Brazil Strategic Economic Partnership
04:43 Courtesy call ends
04:58 Depart from office
04:59 Arrive at the Diet
05:00 Enter LDP President’s Office
05:01 LDP Officers Meeting
05:22 Meeting ends
05:35 Leave LDP President’s Office
05:36 Depart from the Diet
05:38 Arrive at office
05:43 Meeting of the Ministerial Council on the Monthly Economic Report and Other Relative Issues
05:56 Meeting ends
05:57 Speak with Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira
05:58 Finish speaking with Mr. Amari
06:01 Meet with Chairperson of LDP Policy Research Council Inada Tomomi
06:19 End meeting with Ms. Inada
06:22 Receive a request to the Government on the return of the Northern Territories from Governor of Hokkaido Harumi Takahashi and others
06:32 Finish receiving the request
06:35 Depart from office
06:42 Arrive at Imperial Hotel in Uchisaiwai-Cho, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with Chairman of Japan Association of Corporate Executives Kobayashi Yoshimitsu, Vice-Chairman of Japan Association of Corporate Executives Ninami Takeshi and others
08:35 Depart from the hotel
08:51 Arrive at private residence

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
08:02 Depart from private residence
08:14 Arrive at office
08:29 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
09:05 End meeting with Mr. Seko
09:07 The fourth meeting of the National Resilience Promotion Headquarters
09:17 Meeting ends
09:24 Cabinet meeting
09:35 Meeting ends
09:36 Speak with Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Shiozaki Yasuhisa
09:39 Finish speaking with Mr. Shiozaki
09:53 Depart from office
09:55 Arrive at the Diet
09:56 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 21
10:00 Meeting of the Committee on Economy and Industry of the Upper House
11:58 Meeting adjourns. Leave Upper House Committee Room No. 21

PM
12:00 Depart from the Diet
12:01 Arrive at the office
12:02 Interview open to all media: when asked “the response to the eruption of Mount Asama,” Mr. Abe answers, “The government is strengthening safety measures and gathering relevant information. I hope to achieve perfection of safe measures.”
12:53 Depart from office
12:55 Arrive at the Diet
12:56 Enter Lower House Chamber
12:57 Speak with Chairman of LDP Election Strategy Committee Motegi Toshimitsu
12:59 Finish speaking with Mr. Motegi
01:00 Speak with LDP Executive Acting Secretary-General Hosoda Hiroyuki
01:01 Finish speaking with Mr. Hosoda
01:02 Lower House Plenary Session
01:21 Leave in the middle of Lower House Plenary Session
01:23 Depart from the Diet
01:24 Arrive at the office
01:30 Meet with Minister for Reconstruction Takeshita Wataru and Vice-Minister of Reconstruction Agency Okamoto Masakatsu
01:48 End meeting with Mr. Takeshita and Mr. Okamoto
02:44 Receive a courtesy call from a delegation led by Governor of the State of Hawaii David Ige. Chairman of Japan-Hawaii Parliamentarians’ Union, LDP Lower House member Kawamura Takeo also attends
03:09 Receive proposals from the Special Committee on Fiscal Rehabilitation of the Policy Research Council of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP); the Regulatory Reform Committee of the Headquarters for Japan's Economic Revitalization; and the Committee for Realizing a Positive Economic Cycle of the Headquarters for Japan's Economic Revitalization
03:43 Finish receiving proposals
03:50 Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira, Vice-Minister of Cabinet Office Matsuyama Kenji, and Cabinet Office Director-General for Policies on Cohesive Society Maekawa Mamoru enter
04:07 Mr. Matsuyama and Mr. Maekawa leave
04:18 Mr. Amari leaves
04:19 Meet with Minister in charge of Administrative Reform Arimura Haruko and Secretary-General of Headquarters for Promotion of Administrative Reform Takimoto Sumio
04:33 End meeting with Ms. Arimura and Mr. Takimoto
04:34 Meet with Chairman of General Assembly of LDP Members in House of Councillors Mizote Kensei
05:04 End meeting with Mr. Mizote
05:05 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
05:16 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
05:17 The 47th meeting of the Regulatory Reform Council
05:31 Meeting ends
05:37 Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro and Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru enter
05:45 Mr. Yachi leaves
06:00 Mr. Kitamura leaves
06:01 Meet with Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro, and Chief of Staff for Joint Staff Council Kawano Katsutoshi
06:27 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Kitamura, Mr. Kuroe, and Mr. Kawano
06:30 Depart from the office
06:31 Arrive at the official residence

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

AM
08:00 At the official residence (no morning visitors)
09:08 Depart from official residence
09:09 Arrive at the office
09:50 Depart from the office
09:55 Arrive at the Tokyo Metropolitan Hibiya Public Hall in Hibiya Park, Tokyo. Attend a Regular General Meeting of the National Association of Chairpersons of City Councils, deliver an address
10:13 Depart from the public hall
10:17 Arrive at the office
10:23 Meet with Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
10:36 End meeting with Mr. Seko

PM
02:52 Depart from the office
02:54 Arrive at the Diet
02:56 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
03:00 Party Leaders’ Debate
03:49 Party Leaders’ Debate ends
03:51 Leave Upper House Committee Room No. 1
03:53 Depart from the Diet
03:54 Arrive at the office
04:10 Meet with Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ohta Akihiro
04:32 End meeting with Mr. Ohta
04:45 Receive a courtesy call from Deputy Managing Director r of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Furusawa Mitsuhiro
04:59 Courtesy call ends
05:00 Meet with Minister of State for Special Missions Yamaguchi Shunichi and Secretary-General of Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters Yokoo Hidehiro
05:15 End meeting with Mr. Yamaguchi and Mr. Yokoo
05:23 The first meeting in FY2015 of the Forum for Consultations between the National and Regional Governments
05:32 Meeting ends
05:59 Reception for Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia Zoran Milanovic. Commemorative photo session
06:00 Commemorative photo session ends
06:01 A ceremony by the guard of honor
06:07 Ceremony ends
06:08 Japan-Croatia summit meeting with Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic
06:51 Summit meeting ends
06:53 Joint press announcement
07:04 Joint press announcement ends
07:05 Depart from office
07:06 Arrive at the official residence. Reception hosted by Prime Minister Abe
08:25 Send-off for Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic
08:26 Send-off ends

Thursday, June 18, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
07:09 Depart from official residence
07:10 Arrive at the office
07:11 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
08:15 End meeting with Mr. Kato
08:48 Depart from office
08:50 Arrive at the Diet
08:52 Enter Lower House Committee Room No.1
08:53 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro
08:55 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
08:56 Meeting of the Budget Committee of the Lower House

PM
12:02 Meeting adjourns
12:03 Leave Lower House Committee Room No.1
12:05 Depart from the Diet
12:06 Arrive at the office
12:53 Depart from the office
12:55 Arrive at the Diet
12:57 Enter Lower House Committee Room No.1
01:00 Meeting of the Budget Committee of the Lower House reopens
05:04 Meeting of the Budget Committee of the Lower House adjourns
05:05 Leave Lower House Committee Room No.1
05:07 Depart from the Diet
05:08 Arrive at the office
05:13 The 1st meeting of Service Productivity & Innovation for Growth
05:46 Meeting ends
05:48 The 17th meeting of the Administrative Reform Promotion Council
05:59 Meeting ends
06:06 The 10th meeting of the Council for Science, Technology, and Innovation
06:29 Meeting ends
06:30 Depart from the office
06:35 Arrive at the official residence of the Lower House Speaker in Nagata-Cho, Tokyo. Informal discussion with Lower House Speaker Oshima Tadamori, Lower House Vice-Speaker Kawabata Tatsuo, Chairman of LDP General Council Nikai Toshihiro, Chairperson of LDP Policy Research Council Inada Tomomi, and other LDP cadres
08:16 Depart from the official residence of the Lower House Speaker
08:33 Arrive at the private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Friday, June 19, 2015

AM
12:00 At the private residence (no visitors)
07:46 Depart from private residence
07:59 Arrive at the office
08:08 Meeting of the Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters
08:16 Meeting ends
08:20 Cabinet meeting
08:39 Cabinet meeting end
08:40 Speak with Minister of Justice Kamikawa Yoko
08:43 End speaking with Ms. Kamikawa
08:44 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
09:10 End meeting with Mr. Kato
09:24 Depart from the office
09:25 Arrive at the Diet
09:26 Enter Lower House Committee Room No.16
09:30 Meeting of the Committee on Health, Labour, and Welfare of the Lower House
10:33 Leave in the middle of the meeting
10:35 Depart from the Diet
10:36 Arrive at the office
10:37 Meet with former Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Masuda Hiroya
10:52 End meeting with Mr. Masuda
10:57 Meet with former Prime Minister Mori Yoshiro, Secretary-General of Japan-Korea Parliamentarians’ Union Kawamura Takeo
11:35 End meeting with Mr. Mori and Mr. Kawamura

PM
12:01 Meet with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide also attends
12:34 End meeting with Mr. Tanigaki
12:48 Meet with MOFA’s Director-General of North American Affairs Bureau Tomita Koji and Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro
01:08 End meeting with Mr. Tomita and Mr. Kuroe
01:29 Depart from the office
01:30 Arrive at the Diet
01:31 Enter the Lower House Chamber. Attend the Lower House Plenary Session
01:33 Speak with Minister in charge of Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy in Japan Ishiba Shigeru
01:36 Finish speaking with Mr. Ishiba
01:37 Speak with LDP Executive Acting Secretary-General Hosoda Hiroyuki
01:38 Finish speaking with Mr. Hosoda
01:43 Low House Plenary Session ends
01:44 Leave Lower House Chamber
01:45 Depart from the Diet
01:47 Arrive at the office
01:48 Meet with Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization Amari Akira and Acting Director of Bureau of Headquarters for Japan’s Economic Revitalization Sugawara Ikuro
02:08 End meeting with Mr. Amari and Mr. Sugawara
02:09 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru
02:33 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura
02:42 Depart from the office
02:55 Arrive at the Federation of Economic Organizations [Keidanren] Assembly Hall in Otemachi, Tokyo. Attend the Annual Meeting of the National Association of Shinkin Banks, deliver an address
03:20 Depart from the Hall
03:35 Arrive at the office
03:51 Meet with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro, Ministry of Finance (MOF)’s Deputy Vice-Minister Fukuda Junichi, and MOF’s Director-General of Budget Bureau Tanaka Kazuho, and MOF’s Director-General of Tax Bureau Sato Shinichi
04:23 Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira, Vice-Minister of Cabinet Office Matsuyama Kenji, and Cabinet Office Director-General for Policies on Cohesive Society Maekawa Mamoru, Cabinet Office Director-General for Policies on Cohesive Society Habuka Shigeki, and Cabinet Office Director-General for Policies on Cohesive Society Tawa Hiroshi enter
04:35 Mr. Matsyama, Mr. Maekawa, Mr. Habuka, and Mr. Tawa leave
04:44 Mr. Amari leaves
04:45 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
04:54 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
04:55 Meet with President of Japan-Korea Parliamentarians’ Union Nukaga Fukushiro
05:18 End meeting with Mr. Nukaga
05:26 Receive a courtesy call from participants of the High-Level Seminar on Peacebuilding, National Reconciliation and Democratization in Asia [3 minutes]

Tomorrow’s seminar is the first ever attempt to gather government representatives, members of international organizations, intellectuals, and members of NGOs who have been involved in the areas of peacebuilding, national reconciliation and democratization in Asian countries. I would like to conclude my address and expression of gratitude to you by stating my hope that this seminar will provide a means for all of you to have a meaningful exchange of opinions, and be an opportunity to communicate your collective wisdom to the international community as we work to build even greater peace and prosperity in Asia.

05:53 Courtesy call ends
05:54 Meet with the Founder and Executive Chairman of World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab and the Professor of Keio University Takenaka Heizō
06:03 End meeting with Mr. Schwab and Mr. Takenaka
06:33 Reception for President of the Republic of Niger Issoufou Mahamadou, commemorative photo session
06:34 Ceremony by the guard of honor
06:41 Ceremony ends
06:43 Japan-Niger Summit Meeting with President Issoufou
07:22 Summit meeting ends
07:24 Signing ceremony. Joint press announcement
07:44 Joint press announcement ends
07:45 Depart from the office
07:46 Arrive at the official residence. Reception dinner hosted by Prime Minster
08:44 Send off for President Issoufou
08:45 Send-off ends