On Monday, November 11th, the 21st Century Japan Politics and Society Initiative (21JPSI*) hosted a public lecture/Q&A by the Hamilton Lugar School Dean John Ciorciari as part of its multidisciplinary “Japan Politics & Society” public speaker series. Dean Ciorciari is a scholar of international politics and international law, with a particular focus on the Indo-Pacific region.
A packed house of roughly 50 IU faculty, staff, and students turned out on a sunny Monday morning to hear Dean Ciorciari discuss how Japan-Southeast Asia relations have evolved over time, as well as their basic dynamics today.
His talk was titled “The Courteous Power: Japan and Southeast Asia,” and drew largely from a volume he co-edited with Prof. Kiyoteru Tsutsui (Stanford University) of the same name.
In his public remarks, Dean Ciorciari highlighted four key themes: Japan’s “active and autonomous” roles in Southeast Asia; the “continuity and change in Japan’s approach” during the FOIP era; the importance of “non-state actors” in Japan-Southeast Asia relations; and Japan’s identity as a “courteous power.” He concluded that Japan’s “courteous” approach to Southeast Asia facilitates engagement and has succeeded in sustaining extraordinarily positive public perceptions of Japan across the region. However, it comes with both pros and cons when trying to shape other countries’ behavior.
Looking to the future, Dean Ciorciari highlighted both likely continuities (robust Japanese engagement with and respect for sovereignty in Southeast Asia; Southeast Asian interest in robust Japanese trade, aid, and investment) and the uncertainty about what comes next. The latter included new leaders taking office in both Japan and the United States, variable responses in Southeast Asia to China’s growing influence, and disagreements among Southeast Asian states on the best way forward.
Following his remarks, Dean Ciorciari engaged with audience and answered a half-dozen questions--primarily from IU students.
21JPSI is currently in need of external financial support to ensure the continuation of its mission. If you are an interested potential funder, please contact the Hamilton Lugar School’s Senior Director of Development.
For more information about 21JPSI, please see https://jpsi.indiana.edu/. To be informed about 21JPSI’s future public events, please 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. Seeded by a generous grant from the Japan Foundation, in its first five years 21JPSI enabled a new tenure-track faculty line in contemporary Japanese politics and society; facilitated the creation of four new courses on contemporary Japan; launched a new multidisciplinary speaker series on Japanese Politics and Society, national conferences and webinars on U.S.-Japan relations, and academic manuscript workshops; and funded graduate fellowships and faculty travel grants to support field research in Japan.