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Flyer for session 3 in the series "Reexaminations of Major Issues in Modern Japanese Politics and Diplomacy" with a headshot of speaker Shinich Kitaoka

This lecture is the first installment in the Japan Program's spring 2025 seminar series, Reexaminations of Major Issues in Modern Japanese Politics and Diplomacy.

Session 3: Surrender and Occupation

What was the purpose of the United States? What did unconditional surrender mean? Why were the atomic bombs dropped? How was the constitution written and the Tokyo International Tribunal conducted? The legacies of occupation will also be discussed.

 

Join us for our Spring Quarter Seminar Series featuring Shorenstein APARC Visiting Scholar and Japan Program Fellow Dr. Shinichi Kitaoka, Emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo and a distinguished scholar in modern Japanese politics, presents his new interpretations of six major issues in modern Japanese politics based on recent studies in Japan and his own experience as the Ambassador to the United Nations and the President of Japan International Cooperation Agency.

This seminar series re-examines several important and well-known issues in modern Japanese politics and diplomacy from the late 19th century to the 21st century based upon the lecturer’s recent research and experience within the government. Major topics are, Meiji Restoration as a democratic revolution, resilience of Taisho Democracy, Military as a bureaucracy, Surrender and the American Occupation, Yoshida Doctrine and the Regime of 1955, Development of ODA policy, and recent development of Security Policy in the 21st Century.

Catered dinner will be served at seminar sessions.

 

Speaker:

Headshot photo of Shinichi Kitaoka

Shinichi Kitaoka is the former President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA: 2015-2022) and Emeritus Professor, University of Tokyo. Previous posts include President of the International University of Japan (2012-2015), professor at University of Tokyo (1997-2012), Professor of National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) (2012-), Professor of Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, the University of Tokyo (1997-2004, 2006-2012), Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations (2004-2006), and Professor of College of Law and Politics, Rikkyo University (1985-1997).

Dr. Kitaoka’s specialty is modern Japanese politics and diplomacy. He obtained his B.A. (1971) and his Ph.D. (1976) both from the University of Tokyo. He is Emeritus Professor of the University of Tokyo and Rikkyo University. He received many awards including the Medal with Purple Ribbon for his academic achievements in 2011.

Philippines Conference Room
Encina Hall, Third Floor, Central, C330
616 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305

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Visiting Scholar, Japan Program Fellow, 2025
kitaoka_photo.jpg Ph.D.

Professor Shinichi Kitaoka joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as Visiting Scholar, Japan Program Fellow for the spring quarter of 2025. He serves as Special Advisor to the President (former President) of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), as well as Emeritus Professor of the University of Tokyo and Rikkyo University. Previously, he was President of JICA. Dr. Kitaoka’s career also includes President of the International University of Japan (2012-2015), Professor of National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) (2012-), Professor of Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, the University of Tokyo (1997-2004, 2006-2012), Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations (2004-2006), and Professor of College of Law and Politics, Rikkyo University (1985-1997).

Dr. Kitaoka’s specialty is modern Japanese politics and diplomacy. He obtained his B.A. (1971) and his Ph.D. (1976) both from the University of Tokyo.

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Shinichi Kitaoka, Visiting Scholar at APARC and Japan Program Fellow, 2025
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Visiting Student Researcher, 2024-2025
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Huiyi Lyu joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as a visiting student researcher from January to April 2025. She is currently a doctoral student in International Relations at Tsinghua University. While at APARC, she conducted research on U.S.-Asia relations, particularly the U.S.-China narrative competition in the information age, with the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL).

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Visiting Scholar at APARC, 2025
joong_seop_kim.jpg Ph.D.

Joong-Seop Kim joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as visiting scholar for the 2025 calendar year. He currently serves as Emeritus Professor in the Department of Sociology at Gyeongsang National University in Korea. While at APARC, he conducted research on human rights and racism in East Asia.

He has written and edited numerous books and articles on social movements, human rights, and historical sociology. His notable publications include The Hyongpyong (Egalitarian) Movement in Retrospect: Commemorating the Centennial Anniversary of the Hyongpyongsa (2025); Hyongpyong Movement and the Era of Human Rights (co-ed., 2023); Localization of Human Rights: For the Implementation of Human Rights in Everyday Life (2016); Toward an Egalitarian Society: A Comparison between Korean Hyongpyongsa and Japanese Suiheisha (2015); The Korean Paekjong under Japanese Rule: The Quest for Equality and Human Rights (2003, in English); Hyongpyong Movement (2001, 2003 in Japanese); The Era of Social Movements: Historical Sociology of Local Community under Japanese Colonial Rule (2012); The Outlook for Human Rights in the Era of Globalization (co-ed., 2004; 2004 in Japanese); A Study of Hyongpyong Movement: Social History of Paekjong Under Japanese Rule (1994). (All works are in Korean unless otherwise indicated.)

After earning his BA and MA from Yonsei University in Korea, he completed his PhD at Hull University in the United Kingdom in 1989.


 

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Visiting Scholar at APARC, 2025
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Peng Chen joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as visiting scholar for the 2025 calendar year. He currently serves as Associate Professor at Beijing Normal University's School of Sociology. While at APARC, Professor Chen conducted research on the organizational mechanisms of community governance in megacities.

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Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow on Contemporary Asia, 2024-2025
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Yingqiu Kuang joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as 2024-2025 Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow on Contemporary Asia beginning January 2025. She is a political scientist specializing in the comparative and international political economy of China and East Asia. Her research interests lie at the intersection of technology, law, and global governance. Her book project, “A Mosaic of Mundane Innovations: Emerging Powers, Multinational Firms, and Global 5G Technology Rules,” examines the emergence of latecomer economies like China and South Korea as key agents in the global technology governance regime. Using a mixed research method and an original, novel dataset, the project aims to explain why East Asian firms appear more effective in 5G rule-making on transnational platforms than traditional technology giants, and how the diverse behavior of these firms are reshaping global institutions.

At APARC, Yingqiu worked on expanding and revising her book manuscript. She also continued to pursue her wider scholarly agenda, which concerns the economic engagements between China, East Asia, and the world. She was particularly interested in how technological unpredictability is changing the landscape of economic governance in the region and the world.

Yingqiu completed her PhD in Political Science at the University of British Columbia. She also holds a master’s degree in political science from UBC. She developed her interest in political science and international relations in East Asia while an undergraduate student at Peking University and Waseda University in China and Japan. As a policy and technology specialist, she has also worked with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, the National Energy Board of Canada and others on trade, investment, and clean energy issues.

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Shorenstein APARC's annual report for the academic year 2023-24 is now available.

Learn about the research, publications, and events produced by the Center and its programs over the last academic year. Read the feature sections, which look at the historic meeting at Stanford between the leaders of Korea and Japan and the launch of the Center's new Taiwan Program; learn about the research our faculty and postdoctoral fellows engaged in, including a study on China's integration of urban-rural health insurance and the policy work done by the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL); and catch up on the Center's policy work, education initiatives, publications, and policy outreach. Download your copy or read it online below.

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Visiting Scholar at APARC, 2024-2025
China Policy Fellow, 2024-2025
tiejun_yu_2024_headshot.jpg Ph.D.

Professor Yu Tiejun joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as China Policy Fellow for the 2024 fall quarter. He currently serves as President of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IISS) and Professor at the School of International Studies (SIS), all at Peking University (PKU). Previously, he studied at the University of Tokyo in 1998-2000. He served as visiting fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University in 2005, and also as visiting scholar at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University in 2005-06.

Dr. Yu has co-edited The Sino-Japanese Security and Defense Exchange: Past, Present, and Prospect (Beijing: World Affairs Press, 2012, with Zhu Feng and Akiyama Masahiro). He is also the Chinese translator of Myths of Empire by Jack Snyder (2007) and Discord and Collaboration: Essays on International Politics by Arnold Wolfers (2006). His research interests include International Security, China-U.S.-Japan Relations, and China’s National Defense Policy. He won the Excellent Teaching Award of Peking University in 2010. Dr. Yu received his Ph.D., M.A. and B.A. from Peking University.

While at APARC, he conducted research on contemporary China affairs and U.S.-China policy.

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Visiting Scholar at APARC, 2024-2025
Stanford Next Asia Policy Fellow, 2024-2025
brandon_yoder_2024_headshot.jpg Ph.D.

Brandon Yoder joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as Stanford Next Asia Policy Fellow for the 2024-2025 academic year. He currently serves as Senior Lecturer at Australian National University in the School of Politics and International Relations, Australian Centre on China in the World, as well as non-resident Research Fellow at National University of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Centre on Asia and Globalisation. While at APARC, he worked with the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL) on U.S.-Asia relations.

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Visiting Student Researcher, 2024-2025
xinxin_lu_2024_headshot.jpg

Xinxin Lu joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as visiting student researcher in the fall of 2025 until winter 2026. She is currently a doctoral student in Sociology at Tsinghua University. Her dissertation focuses on "The Dying and the Chinese Family: The Economic, Moral, and Cultural Logic of End-of-Life Care in China."

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Visiting Scholar at APARC, 2024-2026
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Matthew Dolbow joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as visiting scholar from 2024 to 2026 from the U.S. Department of State.  Before coming to APARC, Mr. Dolbow strengthened U.S. military deterrence capabilities in Asia as the U.S. Consul General in Okinawa, Japan.  As Chief of Staff in the U.S. National Security Council’s international economics office during the first Trump administration, Mr. Dolbow helped compile the 2017 U.S. National Security Strategy, which declared for the first time that "economic security is national security," and thus helped to establish a new bipartisan U.S. consensus on innovative trade, investment screening, and energy policies that increased U.S. competitiveness and secured the U.S. defense industrial base. As head of economic strategy at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing from 2013 to 2016, Mr. Dolbow created a Department of State-wide training program that taught colleagues to track and assess China's Belt and Road Initiative projects.  While at APARC, he will be conducting research on competition with China related to technology, innovation, human capital, and national security.

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