Japan's New Security Strategy

The Cabinet of the Kishida government has adopted the new National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy, and the Defense Buildup Plan. These three documents are a significant departure from Japanese traditional thinking of security and defense, representing a new way of defining national interests and the methods to defend these interests. However, because these documents are designed from what is "needed" rather than what is "available", there are many shortcomings in the capabilities they outline. The success of the strategy in these documents depends on whether the government can overcome these shortcomings.

Speaker

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Kazuto Suzuki is Professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and Director of the Institute of Geoeconomics at International House of Japan.  He graduated from the Department of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University, and received Ph.D. from Sussex European Institute, University of Sussex, England.  He has worked in the Fondation pour la recherche stratégique in Paris, France as assistant researcher and the Associate Professor at the University of Tsukuba from 2000 to 2008 and served as Professor of International Politics at Hokkaido University until 2020.  He served as an expert in the Panel of Experts for Iranian Sanction Committee under the United Nations Security Council from 2013 to July 2015.  He currently serves as a member of the National Space Policy Committee of the Cabinet Office, the Government of Japan, and the President of Japan Association of International Security and Trade.  His research focuses on the conjunction of science/technology and international relations; subjects including space policy, non-proliferation, export control and sanctions.  His recent work includes Space and International Politics (2011, in Japanese, awarded Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities), Policy Logics and Institutions of European Space Collaboration (2003) and many others.