Monday, September 27, 2010

Japan Matters

Prime Minister Naoto Kan has just been reelected leader of the Democratic Party of Japan. The support numbers for his newly appointed Cabinet are sky high. Does this mean that Japan is out of the woods, politically, and that we can expect more consistent and dramatic action coming out of Japan? Or will Japan's numerous problems and complex political situation drag down the newly invigorated Kan and his government? 

CAN THE UNITED STATES REVITALIZE RELATIONS WITH JAPAN AND KOREA? 9/28, 2:30-4:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: AEI. Speakers: John Park, United States Institute of Peace; L. Gordon Flake, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, Michael Auslin, AEI; Moderator, Nicholas Eberstadt, AEI.

STRAIGHT TALK FROM TOKYO: OBSERVATIONS ON JAPANESE POLITI.CS 9/29, Noon-2:00pm, Brown Bag Lunch, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Reischauer Center, SAIS. Speaker: Michael T. Cucek is a Research Associate in Tokyo with the MIT Center for International Studies and an independent analyst of Japanese politics. Location: Rome Building, Room 640, 1619 Massachusetts Ave., NW. Contact: RSVP to Ms. Yoshikawa.

REPORT BY JAPAN’S COUNCIL ON SECURITY AND DEFENSE CAPABILITIES IN THE NEW ERA: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT. 10/7, 3:30–5:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsors: Stimson Center, INSS. Speaker: Yoshihide Soeya, Director, Keio Institute of East Asian Studies, Keio University. Location: 1111 19th St., NW, 12th Floor. Contact: Kent Mullen, by 5pm 10/4.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The History Card

To Order

It did not matter much which DPJ candidate was elected party president. And it is unlikely that Ozawa’s challenge was serious. It may have been more a tactic than strategy. The result of the DPJ presidential election is that Japanese voters now know exactly what the DPJ is about, in all its permutations.

Another result was that it snuffed out the opposition parties. During the last few weeks there has hardly been news out of any of the opposing parties. The LDP remains lacking ideas and is essentially moribund. There is no going back. The election was less about choice than about solidifying DPJ governance. The DPJ wins the election, no one else.

If there were any doubts about this, they were dispelled by Monday, September 12th's apology by Foreign Minister Okada to the American former POWs of Japan. This public acknowledgement of responsibility, impossible under the LDP, definitively put distance between the DPJ and Japan’s conservative former leaders. The historic apology also helps further identify and isolate reactionary forces both in and out of the DPJ. 

Apologizing to the American POWs was one of Okada's last official acts as Foreign Minister. He did what his successor, Seiji Maehara who is a member of the ultra-right Nippon Kaigi, would never do. But now, Maehara cannot ignore or retreat from this new policy.

What some American policymakers feared would destabilize the DPJ government—bringing up the history issues and unleashing conservative outrage—in the end strengthens it. The DPJ is moving forward, not pushing the unpleasant under the rug.

The American POWs met with Okada on the first day of their trip organized by the Foreign Ministry to promote friendship between American POWs and Japan. Japan has long had these programs for all Allied POWs, with the exception of Americans. This 8-day program was the first. The six POWs are in their 90s.

The group includes survivors from the Army, Army Air Corps, and the Marines who were on Bataan and Corregidor. They survived the death camps on the Philippines, the Bataan Death March, Hellships, and forced labor in brutal conditions for private Japanese companies in China and Japan. The men were forced to work for no pay at facilities owned by Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Nittetsu, Nippon Steel, and Showa Denko.

The Foreign Ministry’s warm reception of the POWs and the deep bow by the Foreign Minister who expressed “his heartfelt apologies” for their “inhumane treatment” was a dramatic break from the past. No Foreign Minister has ever apologized to any POW of Japan. And never had television crews captured such a dramatic Japanese act of official contrition.

There is no doubt who is in charge of Japan. It is the DPJ. And don’t you forget it.


HERE is POW delegation leader Lester Tenny’s response to the Japanese Foreign Minister Okada's government apology.

9/15 - Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy hosts the opening of the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Corridor on at the Pentagon, third floor, A ring, between the 6th and 7th corridors. 

Mindy Kotler
Director, APP

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Monday Events


IMPACT OF U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS IN ASIA: REGIONAL VIEWS. 9/20, 8:30am-5:30pm, Washington, DC. Sponsors: Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, Asia Program, Kennan Institute. Speakers: James Steinberg, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State; J. Stapleton Roy, Director, Kissinger Institute; Seiichiro Takagi, Professor, Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo; Gilbert Rozman, Professor, Princeton University; Fyodor Lukyanov, Editor, Global Affairs, Moscow; Bruce Parrott, Professor and Director, Russian and Eurasian Studies Program, Johns Hopkins University-SAIS; William Pomeranz, Deputy Director, Kennan Institute; Simon Tay, Chairman, Singapore Institute of International Affairs, Singapore; Ernest Bower, Director, Southeast Asia Program, CSIS; Douglas Spelman, Deputy Director, Kissinger Institute, Wilson Center; Brahma Chellaney, Professor, Center for Policy Research, New Delhi; Robert Hathaway, Director, Asia Program, Wilson Center; Douglas Paal, Vice-President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment (Professor Yuan Ming, Peking University, was unable to attend at the last minute, but has provided notes of her presentation.

CHINA’S NEW TALENT POLICY IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT. 9/20, 9:30-11:30am sitylakeWashington, DC. Sponsor: Brookings Institution. Speakers: Kenneth G. Lieberthal, Director, Brookings John L. Thornton China Center; Cheng Li, Director of Research, John L. Thornton China Center; Huiyao Wang, Visiting Fellow, Foreign Policy, John L. Thornton China Center; Devesh Kapur, Associate Professor and Director, Center for the Advanced Study of India, The University of Pennsylvania; Denis Fred Simon, Professor and Director, Program in U.S.-China Technology, Economic and Business Relations, Pennsylvania State University.

GLOBAL GOVERNANCE 2025: AT A CRITICAL JUNCTURE: U.S.-E.U. JOINT REPORT ON LONG-TERM PROSPECTS FOR GLOBAL GOVERNANCE. 9/20, 10:30am-Noon, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Atlantic Council.Speakers: Fred Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council; Mathew Burrows, counselor at the U.S. National Intelligence Council; Giovanni Grevi, senior researcher at FRIDE and former senior research fellow at the European Union Institute for Security Studies; William Burke-White, policy planning staff member at the State Department; Banning Garrett, director of the Program on Asia at the Atlantic Council; and Alvaro de Vasconcelos, director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies.

CAN SANCTIONS ON IRAN CREATE THE LEVERAGE WE NEED? 9.20, 3:00-4:30pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: CSIS. Speaker: Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Engaging Asia

This week ends with one hearing and two programs on that status of US policy toward Asia.

Next Steps in Engaging the Asia-Pacific Region was the topic of Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell's speech to the US Peace Institute on Wednesday, September 15th. You can watch the program HERE.

KOREAN PENINSULA SECURITY SITUATION 
9/16
- 9:30am, 106 Dirksen Senate Office Building. Senate Armed Services Committee Full committee hearing on the current security situation on the Korean Peninsula. Witnesses: Assistant Defense Secretary for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Wallace Gregson; Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell; and Army Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of the United Nations Command, commander of Republic of Korea - United States Combined Forces Command, and commander of United States Forces Korea.

ENGAGING ASIA: FUTURE OF US LEADERSHIP. 9/17, 8:45am-12:30pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: NBR. Speakers: Michèle Flournoy, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, US Dept of Defense; Robert D. Hormats, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs, US Dept of State; David M. Lampton, Dean of Faculty, George and Sadie Hyman Professor of China Studies; Director of China Studies at SAIS; Cheng Li, Director of Research and Senior Fellow, John L. Thornton China Center, Brookings.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

China's Currency

This week's big discussion in Washington is China’s currency. There will be two hearings held by the House Ways & Means Committee and one at the Senate Finance Committee. Prior to the hearings, the Heritage Foundation held a seminar examining congressional options. The video can be found HERE. All the hearings will be webcast.

CHINA’S EXCHANGE RATE POLICY PART (I)
9/15 – 10:30am, 1100 Longworth House Office Bldg., House Ways and Means Committee Full committee hearing on "China's Exchange Rate Policy," including discussion of H.R.2378, the "Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act." (Part One). Witness: The Honorable Tim Ryan, Representative in Congress from the State of Ohio; The Honorable Adrian Smith, Representative in Congress from the State of Nebraska; The Honorable John A. Boccieri, Representative in Congress from the State of Ohio; The Honorable Lynn Jenkins, Representative in Congress from the State of Kansas; Dan DiMicco, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, NUCOR Corporation, North Carolina; C. Fred Bergsten, Ph.D., Director, Peterson Institute for International Economics; The Honorable Ira S. Shapiro, J.D., Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig, L.L.P. ; John R. Magnus, J.D., President, TRADEWINS L.L.C.; Leo W. Gerard, International President, United Steelworkers, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; John Frisbie, President, U.S.- China Business Council.

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC/EXCHANGE RATE POLICIES 
9/1
6 - 10:00 am, 538 Dirksen Senate Office Building. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Full committee hearing on "The Treasury Department's Report on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies." Witness: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; Dr. C. Fred Bergsten, Director, Peterson Institute for International Economics; Mr. Lynn Brown, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Hydro Aluminum; Mr. Charles Freeman, Freeman Chair in China Studies, CSIS.

CHINA’S EXCHANGE RATE POLICY PART (II) 
9/16 – 2:00pm, 1100 Longworth House Office Bldg., House Ways and Means Committee Full committee hearing on "China's Exchange Rate Policy." (Part Two). Witness: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testifies.

The History Issues

APP Member, Lester Tenney is in Japan this week leading the first group of American former POWs of Japan on a trip of remembrance and friendship. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited the men, their caregivers, and two descendants on a new program for American POWs.

Japan's Foreign Minister personally apologized to the POWs for their "inhumane treatment." This was a historic first. A Reuters video of Dr. Tenney describing his feelings about the apology and the humiliation he still felt because that the Japanese companies that used and abused the POWs have not apologized can be found HERE.

APP Director Mindy Kotler was interviewed by Feature Story on the importance of the apology and its historic significance, HERE

This week in Washington will also see two important meetings on the Northeast Asian history issues.

HISTORY AND ASIA: POLICY INSIGHTS AND LEGAL PERSPECTIVES. 9/17, 9:00am-5:00pm, luncheon; Washington, DC. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Victor Cha, CSIS Korea Chair and Director of Asian Studies, Georgetown University; Jae-jeong Chung, President of Northeast Asian History Foundation; Jin-Hyun Paik, Judge, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and Professor of Law, Seoul National University; James Feinerman, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center; Jon Van Dyke, Professor of Law, University of Hawaii; Tae-Hyung Kim, Associate Professor of FIELD, Daemen College; David Kang, Professor of International Relations, University of Southern California; John Perry, Director, Maritime Studies Program, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy; Charles Norchi, Professor of Law and Director of Marine Law Institute, University of Maine; Myron Nordquist, Professor and Associate Director, Center for Oceans Law and Policy; Seokwoo Lee, Professor of Law, Inha University; Katrin Katz, Consultant and former National Security Council Official; Alexis Dudden, Professor of History, University of Connecticut; Michael Green, CSIS Japan Chair and Associate Professor of International Relations, Georgetown University; Ina Masaki, Professor of Law, International Christian University, Tokyo; Wang Hanling, Professor of International Law and Marine Affairs, Chinese Academy of Social Science, Beijing.

GUESTS OF THE EMPEROR: THE SECRET HISTORY OF JAPAN'S MUKDEN POW CAMP. 9/17, Noon-1:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: United States Navy Memorial. Speaker: Author Linda Goetz Holmes will present her new book, Guests of the Emperor, followed by Q&A and a book signing. She examines Japan's largest fixed military prison camp where Mitsubishi's huge factory complex at Mukden, Manchuria operated with more than 2,000 American prisoners who were subjected to cold, starvation, beatings, and even medical experiments, while manufacturing parts for Zero fighter planes. Followed by a wreathlaying at the Navy Memorial for National POW/MIA Day.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Case of the Mondays

Election season has begun and experts are busy presenting themselves and their ideas to the political community. There are so many conferences and seminars this month that APP's newsletter to members on Monday evening will be extraordinarily long. Below are some of the events happening just on Monday, September 13th, which will not be captured by the newsletter.


CHINA’S ECONOMY: BOOM OR BUBBLE? 9/13, 4:30-6:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: China Studies, SAIS. Speaker: Robert Chovanec, associate professor at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management. 

JAPAN ECONOMIC OUTLOOK: FROM SWEET SPOT TO SWEET SPOT. 9/13, 5:00-7:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: International Economics, SAIS. Speaker: Robert Feldman, managing director of Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co., Ltd/Research. 

PAKISTAN'S ECONOMY: EDGING TOWARD AN ABYSS OR PULLING BACK? 9/13, 2:00pm-4:00pm,Washington, DC. Sponsor: Woodrw Wilson Center (WWC). Speakers: Shahid Javed Burki, senior scholar at WWC; Jehangir Karamat of the Institute of Public Policy Executive Council; and Parvez Hasan and Ziad Alahdad of the Institute of Public Policy Executive Council at Beaconhouse National University. 

THE OTHER SIDE OF WAR: WHY EMPOWERING WOMEN IS CRUCIAL: WHAT I HAVE LEARNED FROM IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, CONGO, AND BEYOND. 9/13, 3:00-4:00pm,Washington, DC. Sponsor: National Press Club. Speaker: Zainab Salbi, Founder of Women for Women International. 

AMERICA AND NEW NUCLEAR STRATEGY. 9/13, 7:00pm-9:00pm,Washington, DC. Sponsor: Elliott School of International Affairs, GWU. Speaker: Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), Ranking Member, U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. 

AIR AND SPACE CONFERENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EXPO. 9/13-9/15, 9:00am-4:30pm, National Harbor, MD. Sponsor: Air Force Association. Keynote Speakers: Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; Michael B. Donley, Secretary of the Air Force; General Norton A. Schwartz, USAF Chief of Staff; James A. Roy, Chief Master Sergeant of Air Force.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Ozawa ahead as Japan inches into the darkness

If the pundits are correct, Japan on September 14 may have a third Democratic Party of Japan prime minister in a year, assuming former DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa beats incumbent Prime Minister Naoto Kan in the party presidential race. This would also be Japan’s sixth prime minister since 2006 – not a healthy sign for Japan’s parliamentary democracy.

A Kyodo News tally shows Kan and Ozawa running neck-and-neck in the race. Among the party’s 412 Diet members, Ozawa has collected 170 votes, slightly more than Kan’s 160 votes, but the numbers are in flux. The rest reportedly remain undecided. Local party members and supporters have yet to weigh in. The survey reveals that Ozawa has so far failed to garner the full support of the 150 members in his party group or the 60 members of the group headed by former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who supports Ozawa.

But in a separate analysis for a weekly magazine (Sunday Mainichi, Sept. 12), political journalist Tetsuya Suzuki predicted Ozawa would win. The election formula allows two points each for the 412 DPJ Diet members, or a total of 826 points. Local party members and supporters voting in the election have 300 points. The total for the two groups is 1,226 points. Suzuki estimated that Ozawa would ultimately pick up most of the undecided votes and win with approximately 670 points to Kan's 550 points.

This is 68-year-old Ozawa's last chance to run and he knows it. Ostensibly, he stepped in to save the party from another train wreck, the first being the loss of control of the Upper House of the Diet in the July election. Supporters cite Ozawa’s strong leadership, compared to Kan’s meandering, and the policy “paralysis” that is likely to ensue under Kan due to the divided Diet. Only Ozawa seems to them capable of running the government under such adverse circumstances. But cynics would say that Ozawa's appetite for power has been whetted by the promise of constitutional immunity it brings from prosecutors hungry to bring him down over political contributions allegations. An Ozawa win would drive many in the DPJ to bolt the party. This scenario would be likely if Ozawa, like Kan in his cabinet and party selections, purged political enemies and their supporters, alienating a significant portion of the DPJ.

The party is already split going into the election campaign that started September 1. The race is not so much a test of Kan’s premiership – he has only been in office a few months. The responsibility for losing the Upper House election must be shared with his predecessor Yukio Hatoyama, who resigned over a politics and money scandal, as did Ozawa in tandem, and for botching relocating the Futenma US Marine base in Okinawa.

Fearing a party rupture, Hatoyama, who supports Ozawa out of a sense of loyalty, arranged a meeting between Ozawa and Kan on August 31. The purpose was to persuade Ozawa to withdraw from the race in return for a plum post in the new government and other conditions. The meeting ended in rupture after 30 minutes, apparently over the demand from Ozawa that Kan remove from his lineup certain enemies of Ozawa like Chief Cabinet Secretary Sengoku, Secretary General Edano, and Seiji Maehara.

Such a backroom deal would have been seen by the public as reminiscent of the worst of Liberal Democratic Party politics of yore, when Ozawa was a main participant. Indeed, the public has no love for Ozawa and polls show an overwhelming 65 to 80% against having him as the next prime minister. They would rather stick to Kan. The rupture also ended for good the troika formula of party management – Ozawa, Kan, and Hatoyama – that has operated for years – a destabilizing factor that seems to portend the party’s possible split in the near future.

In his statement to the press after the meeting, Kan spoke of the need to keep the party “open” and “clean,” a not too veiled reference to Ozawa’s backroom politics and money scandals. He even brought up the Lockheed Scandal of the 1970s that brought chaos to Japanese politics. At the time Ozawa worked for Kakuei Tanaka, the LDP political boss who rose to become one of Japan’s most powerful premiers until forced to resign over the scandal and then arrested and convicted.

Though Ozawa claims he is the only candidate with enough strong leadership to overcome the divided Diet roadblock to passage of legislation, the Japanese electorate disagrees. Every opinion poll shows public support returning for the Kan administration since Ozawa announced his candidacy. The latest Asahi poll, for example, shows 49% approval rate for the Kan Cabinet, up 12 points in a month.

Kan could still confound the pundits. His strategy in campaigning and debating Ozawa in TV appearances is to woo the block of middle-of-the-roaders in the party. Many of the DPJ first-termers seem to be fence sitters amenable to persuasion. The press, though it traditionally does not endorse candidates, has long been unfriendly to Ozawa as a relic of the LDP’s power-politics past and is now much more critical of Ozawa’s positions in the campaign.

If Ozawa wins, however, it is rumored that he will pursue a coalition with the New Komeito, the LDP’s former partner. Such a strategy aims to cobble together enough Lower House votes to override by a two-thirds majority vote any bill rejected by the Upper House. But this plan assumes that the DPJ will hold together after the election. There is a possibility that the DPJLDP to form a new ruling party coalition, ousting the rump DPJ.

Far-fetched? Well, nothing is impossible in Japanese politics in which the traditional saying, one inch ahead is darkness, has often proved to be the rule rather than the exception.

Dr William Brooks
APP Fellow

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

US-Japan Research Institute Week



I. Cyber Security in East Asia and Policy Cooperation between Japan and  the United States 
 September 8, Wednesday, 10:30am-Noon
REGISTER 
Venue Ambassador Room, Hilton Washington Embassy Row, Washington, D.C.

                2015 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington DC, DC 20036

Moderator: Dr. Motohiro Tsuchiya, Associate Professor, Keio University

Panelist: Mr. David Hoffman , Director of Security Policy and Global Privacy Officer, Intel  Corporation

                  Dr. Lance J. Hoffman , Distinguished Research Professor, The George Washington University
                   Mr. Tomohiko Yamakawa , Producer of NTT Corporation, Cyber Security Project,
                   Research and Development Planning Department


Commentator: Mr. Greg Nojeim , Senior Counsel and Director, Center for Democracy and Technology


Topic: On the Independence Day of the United States in 2009 cyber attacks in a massive scale against major web sites broke out without warning. Soon thereafter, similar attacks began in South Korea and they continued in a wavelike fashion. Experts found that these attacks were conducted by the same group, but could not find who they were. As Japan maintains close relationships with both the United States and South Korea, these attacks made the Japanese government realize seriousness of emerging threats in cyberspace. In this session, they will discuss possible defense methods against cyber attacks, which are expected to increase in number in the near future, and necessary policy cooperation and coordination between Japan and the United States.


II.  How the LDP Was Defeated in 2009 and How the DPJ was Defeated in 2010 in Japan? 
September 8, Wednesday, 3:00-4:30pm
REGISTER 
Venue Ambassador Room, Hilton Washington Embassy Row, Washington, D.C.

                2015 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington DC, DC 20036

Moderator & Panelist: Dr. Aiji Tanaka, USJI Operating Adviser, Professor, Waseda University

Panelist: Dr. Michael A. Bailey, Professor, Georgetown University
                  Mr. Fred Hiatt, Editorial Page Editor, The Washington Post


Topic: In this short presentation, Prof. Aiji Tanaka is going to point out the following characteristics of Japanese voters in recent national elections. First, some macro data of the voters in Japan suggest that those unorganized voters who turned out to vote for the LDP led by Koizumi in 2005 were approximately the same unorganized voters who made the DPJ led by Hatoyama in 2009. Second, their public opinion data (Yomiuri Newspaper and Waseda University collaborated a series of nation-wide public opinion surveys from October 2008 through June 2010) show how disappointed those Japanese voters who supported the DPJ in 2009 were at the DPJ in 2010. Third, the same public opinion data also suggest how those unorganized voters felt toward the LDP, and suggest little possibility that the LDP may come back to the government.

III. Commitment to Development Index: Its Meaningfulness and Policy Implications
 September 9, Thursday, 10:30am-Noon
REGISTER 
Venue Ambassador Room, Hilton Washington Embassy Row, Washington, D.C.

                2015 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington DC, DC 20036

Moderator: Dr. Yoshiaki Abe, USJI Operating Adviser, Professor, Waseda University
Main Speaker: Mr. David Roodman, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development
Panelist: Mr. Hiroto Arakawa, Senior Special Advisor, Japan International Cooperation Agency JICA


Topic: The annually prepared index from 2003, the Commitment to Development Index, rates 22 rich countries on how their foreign aid, trade and other policies help or hurt development efforts of the developing countries. Japan US have been rated low. The key points are related to how to quantify various policies and how to weigh different policy execution.

IV.  The Partisanship and Bipartisanship in Contemporary US Politics
September 9, Thursday, 3:00-5:00pm
REGISTER 


Venue Ambassador Room, Hilton Washington Embassy Row, Washington, D.C.

                2015 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington DC, DC 20036

Moderator: Dr. Fumiaki Kubo, USJI Operating Adviser, Professor, the University of Tokyo


Lecturers: Ms. Ayako Hiramatsu, Ph.D Student, the Johns Hopkins University
     Presentation "Ideology Caucuses in the House of Representatives"
Mr. Rentaro Iida, Ph.D Candidate, Georgetown University
     Presentation "Interest Groups, Polarization, and the Structure of Abortion Debate"
Dr. Kazuyuki Sugawara, Associate Professor, Kushiro Public University of Economics
    Presentation "Did President Obama's Appointments Overcome Ideological
    Differences?"
Mr. Takeshi Umekawa, Fox International Fellow, Yale University
     Presentation "Presidential Signing Statement and Conservative lawyers"

Commentator: Dr. Shoko Kiyohara, Lecturer, Meiji University
                       Dr. Clyde Wilcox, Professor, Georgetown University


Topic: The ideological polarization is one of the most noteworthy features of contemporary American politics. At the same time, we should not ignore some of the real and earnest efforts to regain or pursue bipartisanship even in this hyper-partisan atmosphere, especially on such issues as foreign policy, fiscal policy, social security, or health care reform. In this perspective, four research designs and preliminary results will be presented on various topics ranging from Presidency, Congressional Caucus, to interest groups.

This seminar will be held as a midterm presentation of USJI research project.