US-Japan Relations under Donald Trump and Shinzo Abe

Keynote by Glen S. Fukushima

Comments by Koichi Nakano and Tilman Schmit-Neuerburg

US-Japan relations form a core element in Asian regional security and a central pillar of the international trade regime. The quality of the relationship has always been shaped by the personalities representing the two countries. Shinzo Abe, Japan’s now longest-serving prime minister, has been keen to establish good personal ties with Donald Trump, whose “America First” policy implied a major shift in the US approach to regional and global issues. This roundtable will discuss the changes that US-Japan relations underwent since the beginning of Trump’s presidency and analyze the regional and global implications.

Our keynote speaker, Glen S. Fukushima, is one of the most knowledgeable experts on US-Japan relations. Having served as Director for Japanese Affairs (1985-1988) and Deputy Assistant United States Trade Representative for Japan and China (1988-1990) at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), he held various senior business executive positions in Asia with multinational corporations (1990-2012) and was also elected for two terms as President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. Today, Mr. Fukushima is Senior Fellow at the Center of American Progress, a public policy think tank in Washington, D.C., where he focuses on US-East Asia relations. He holds degrees from Stanford University and Harvard University.

Koichi Nakano is Professor of Political Science and Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Sophia University. He has graduated from the University of Tokyo and the University of Oxford, and obtained his Ph.D. from Princeton University. A frequent media commentator, he has contributed an op-ed on the authoritarian turn under Prime Minister Abe entitled “The Leader Who Was ’Trump Before Trump’” to the New York Times in May 2019.

Tilman Schmit-Neuerburg, Ph.D., heads the Political Affairs section as Minister Counsellor at the German Embassy to Japan. He is a career diplomat with stations in Poland, Belarus and Italy. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin he held various positions and served as Deputy Head of the Southern and Southeastern Europe Department before being stationed to Tokyo. He will represent and comment on the German perspective of the changing security tectonics in the region and the implications of the fluid relations under Trump for Europe.