On Thursday, October 22, the 21st Century Japan Politics and Society Initiative (21JPSI*) hosted Professor Saori Katada from the University of Southern California for a public webinar and discussion about her 2020 book:,“Japan’s New Regional Reality: Geoeconomic Strategy in the Asia Pacific”.
In her opening remarks, Dr. Katada discussed the transformation of Japan’s foreign economic strategy since the 1990’s in response to its rapidly changing region; in particular, the rise of China and a shifting regional balance of power. Prof. Katada highlighted trade and investment, money and finance, and foreign aid and development as the three most important aspects of Japan’s geoeconomic strategy. Through these tools of statecraft, Dr. Katada argued, Japan has emerged as a “pivotal state” in the regional economic order.
After concluding her remarks, Dr. Katada engaged in a discussion with 21JPSI Director Adam Liff, followed by a Q&A with the audience. Over the course of the event, 75 attendees from universities and communities in Indiana and around the world tuned into the live webinar.
21JPSI programming note: Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, all events will be held exclusively online for the foreseeable future. To learn more, please check out our calendar of upcoming public webinars and sign up for our event announcement mailing list!
*The 21st Century Japan Politics and Society Initiative (21JPSI) was launched at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies in 2018. Under the leadership of Founding Director and HLS faculty member Adam Liff, 21JPSI aims to invigorate and expand research, teaching, and programming on contemporary Japanese politics, society, and international (esp. U.S.-Japan) relations, and to educate, raise awareness, and debate policy responses to the various political, social, and foreign policy challenges that Japan faces in this extremely dynamic era of 21st-century change. Supported by a generous $900,000 grant from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, in its first five years 21JPSI has enabled a new tenure-track faculty search; new courses on contemporary Japan; a speaker series on Japanese Politics and Society; biennial conferences and webinars on U.S.-Japan relations; graduate research fellowships, and faculty travel grants. For more information, please see https://jpsi.indiana.edu/ or write to jpsi@iu.edu