In the fifth episode of Japan Memo season 3, Robert Ward hosts Dr Fukushima Akiko, senior fellow at the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research and non-resident fellow at the Lowy Institute.

Robert and Dr Fukushima delve into the history of Japan’s engagement with multilateralism and multilateral institutions, examine Japan’s role in multilateralism for the age of the great power competition, particularly its presidency of this year’s G7 summit, and analyse Japan’s strategic thinking towards multilateralism as a means to further enmesh itself across the globe.

Topic discussed include:

The importance of multilateralism and multilateral institutions to Japan’s national interests after the Second World War;
the significance of Japan’s 2023 G7 presidency;
Japan’s ability to work on numerous international security agendas as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council;
Japan’s deepening ties with NATO and its future with the security alliance; and
the value-added of Japan’s non-member participation in multilateral forums such as ASEAN.

The following literature is recommended by our guests to gain a clearer picture of the topics discussed:

Fukushima Akiko, ‘A New Logic of Multilateralism on Demand’, in: Hare, P.W., Manfredi-Sánchez, J.L., Weisbrode, K. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Diplomatic Reform and Innovation (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), 435-454
John D. Ciorciari and Kiyoteru Tsutsui, The Courteous Power: Japan and Southeast Asia in the Indo-Pacific Era (Ann Arbour: University of Michigan Press, 2021)
Amy Stanley, Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Japanese Woman and Her World (New York: Scribner, 2020).

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Date of Recording: 3 May 2023

Japan Memo is recorded and produced at the IISS in London.

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Ep 212 – Anthemis Managing Director, Ali Geramian