THE EDWIN O. REISCHAUER CENTER FOR EAST ASIAN STUDIES THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN IN GLOBAL CONTEXT: 2015 THE PAUL H. NITZE SCHOOL OF ADVANCED INTERNATIONAL STUDIES THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY Washington, D.C. Edwin O. Reischauer October 15, 1910 – September 1, 1990 Yearbook Class of 2015 From Left to Right: Sung Hui “Sophie” Yang, Jeffrey Bond, Ju Hyung Kim, Luoxi Dao, Ji Won Kwon, Malcolm Whitehead, Michael Wakcher, Professor William Brooks, Evan Sankey, Benjamin Garton, Ian Hamilton, Michael Kotler, Waichiro Katsuda, Yiwei “Jenny” Pan TABLE OF CONTENTS The Year at the Reischauer Center 1 Reischauer Center Events, 2014-2015 7 Introduction 10 William L. Brooks For U.S.-Japan Relations, the JET Program Is a Hidden National Treasure 46 Malcolm Whitehead U.S.-Japan Cultural Exchange in a New Era of Public Diplomacy 73 Michael Wakcher New U.S.-Japan Partnership in Disaster Management and Japan’s Role 95 Waichiro Katsuda India and the US-Japan Alliance 113 Evan Sankey Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Central Asia Strategy: Is it Effective? 129 Ian Hamilton Trilateral security cooperation in Northeast Asia 157 Ju Hyong Kim Japan’s Trade Agreement Strategies: Three Case Studies 172 Ji Won Kwon Changing Trade Patterns among the U.S., Japan and China: Does Politics Trump Market Forces? 205 Jenny Iwei Pan Impact of “Abenomics” on Mergers and Acquisition Trends in Japan 222 Luoxi Dao Japan’s Long Road to Corporate Governance Reform 240 Ben Garton Building Japan’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem 258 Jeff Bond Class Research Trip to Tokyo, March 2014: Photo Album 281 1 THE YEAR AT THE REISCHAUER CENTER The 2014-2015 academic year, during which the Reischauer Center celebrated its thirtieth anniversary, was a historic one--for the Center, SAIS, and for trans-Pacific relations. Internationally, the Center co-sponsored three conferences—an all-time record. At home in Washington, it hosted an unusually large and cosmopolitan group of nine Visiting Scholars from four nations, including its first two scholars from European universities, and convened 35 events of great variety. The alumni network expanded steadily to new corners of the globe, with former Visiting Fellows serving in international locations ranging from Hanoi and Manila to Teheran, as well as Tokyo and Washington. The Center also hosted student interns from Japan and South Korea, as well as the United States. One special highlight of this year was the award to Reischauer Center Director Kent Calder of the Order of the Rising Sun with Gold Rays and Neck Ribbon, one of the highest honors awarded to foreign nationals by the Japanese government, for his contribution to academic research on Japan in the United States, and to the US-Japan relationship. A student of Professor Edwin O. Reischauer at Harvard University, Calder has published eleven books dealing with Japanese politics and comparative political economy in Asia, eight of which have appeared in both English and Japanese. He has also served as Special Advisor to the US Ambassador to Japan, Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, first Executive Director of the Harvard University US-Japan Program, Lecturer on Government at Harvard, and as a tenured professor at Princeton University, before moving to SAIS in 2003. Professor Calder received his award from Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae, at a special ceremony at the Japanese Ambassador’s residence in Washington, on October 17, 2014. Professor Calder is pictured here at the awards ceremony, together with his wife Toshiko, as well as Ambassador Sasae. 2 The award to Professor Calder was noteworthy, not so much for his personal accomplishments, as for the remarkable record it set in the broader world of Japan Studies. Calder was the fifth faculty associate of the Reischauer Center to receive the Order of the Rising Sun, in the short thirty-year history of the Center, with his faculty colleague Rust Deming having received the same award the previous year. Before Calder and Deming, George Packard, founder of the Reischauer Center and SAIS Dean; William Sherman, former Deputy Chief of Mission at US Embassy Tokyo; and Nathaniel Thayer, former Public Affairs Officer (PAO) at US Embassy Tokyo, all had previously received the Order of the Rising Sun. Few if any universities—let alone research centers within universities—can match that record. The Reischauer Center’s achievements go far beyond career contributions to trans-Pacific relations. In early fall, an unusually able group of nine Visiting Scholars arrived at the Reischauer Center for the academic year. They included representatives from Japan’s Ministries of Finance, Defense, and METI, as well as from the private sector, media organizations as well as major universities. A special first this year was the participation of two visiting fellows from European universities—one from the Free University of Berlin, and a second from the University of London. The Fellows participated in academic seminars and conferences, while also presenting their own research at informal brownbag luncheons. These luncheons and related receptions also provided opportunity for informal dialogue with current and former officials in Washington, including Marc Knapper, Director of the Office of Indian Affairs, and Suzanne Basalla, former Special Assistant to US Ambassador to Japan John Roos; as well as prominent business people, such as Paul Sheard, Chief Economist of Standard and Poors. The Visiting Fellows, together with Reischauer Center staff, as well as MA students in Japan Studies, are pictured below. Lectures are a traditional part of the Reischauer Center’s academic activities, but this year was unique. The Center was pleased to have Japanese Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae deliver a special 3 Reischauer Memorial Lecture, dealing with “New Dimensions of US-Japan Cooperation”, on February 3, 2015. Ambassador Sasae is pictured below, as he was delivering his address at Kenney Auditorium, to be followed by a reception in his honor. Although Ambassador Sasae’s lecture was a policy highlight, the Reischauer Center also hosted numerous other major speakers across the year. A full list is appended to this volume. Among these contributions to the Center’s intellectual life, Charles Morrison, President of the East-West Center, and a SAIS alum, spoke on “Asia-Pacific Megatrends” (below). Michael Plummer, Director of SAIS Europe, spoke on “ASEAN Economic Cooperation and the Asia-Pacific Future”. And Louis Forster, former Senior Managing Director at Cerberus Capital Management Japan and a Johns Hopkins University Trustee, spoke on “Distressed Private Equity in Japan.” 4 International conferences were an unusually prominent dimension of Reischauer Center activities this year. On September 8, the Center hosted a major conference on “Korea, Turkey, and Eurasian Continentalism”, co-sponsored by Yonsei University, with support from the Korea Foundation, and keynoted by Korean Ambassador to the United States Ho-Young Ahn. On September 30, the Reischauer Center hosted a second major conference, dealing with the US- Japan alliance in the 21st century, and co-sponsored with the Japan Economic Foundation. Speakers included former Japanese Ambassador to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki, as well as recent International Energy Agency Director Nobuo Tanaka and senior current US officials from the US State Department and the US Treasury. Scenes from the conference are pictured below. 5 A third Reischauer Center international conference was perhaps the most historic. On June 22- 25, 2015, the Center, jointly with the National University of Mongolia, explored “Eurasian Continentalism”, at a gathering in Ulan Bator, Mongolia involving US, Russian, and Mongolian diplomats, as well as scholars from those three countries. This was reportedly the first academic conference ever to be held in Mongolia and sponsored by SAIS; the participants are pictured below. SAIS scholars were also active in an individual capacity outside Washington. Ambassador Rust Deming was involved in numerous gatherings in Japan, including the Mt. Fuji Forum, sponsored by the Japan Economic Research Center. Professor Bill Brooks spent the summer of 2014 in residence at Waseda University, conducting research. And Professor Kent Calder received the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Eagle on the Sun Award in November, 2014, and then spoke at its annual New Year’s Symposium in January, 2015. During this academic year the Reischauer Policy Research Fellowship Program, founded in May, 2013, began to take on stronger and stronger momentum. Chosen through a nationwide search, Fellows participate actively in major research projects at the Reischauer Center while also engaging more broadly with the Washington policy community. Fellows during this academic year included Michael Kotler of Claremont McKenna College, who did summer internship work with Morgan Stanley; Sung Hui Yang of Mt. Holyoke College, who participated in the historic Mongolia conference and worked actively on Eurasian continentalism as well as Japanese political economy; Yun Han, outstanding 2015 graduate of SAIS Japan Studies, researching 6 China-Europe relations; and most recently Katie Botto, Johns Hopkins ’15, working on global political cities. These new Reischauer Policy Research Fellows for the 2015 year are pictured below. Michael Kotler Sophie Yang Yun Han Kathryn Botto As it completes its thirtieth anniversary year, the Reischauer Center continues to emphasize student education and research, as it has since its foundation. This