Australia and Japan: Stepping Up the Strategic Partnership

Japan has been characterised as one of Australia’s closest regional partners. In recent years, both nations have taken unprecedented steps to overhaul their strategic posture –including record increases in defence spending. Yet despite such advances, an increasingly volatile Indo-Pacific will require deeper bilateral collaboration to respond to the pressing security challenges of our time.

Our panellists, Professor Kyoko Hatakeyama (Asia Society Australia-Japan Fellow), Dr Thomas Wilkins (Australian Strategic Policy Institute), Hayley Channer (United States Studies Centre), and Ryosuke Hanada (Macquarie University), on how we can elevate the Australia-Japan strategic partnership in the Indo-Pacific.

Tokuda Shuichi, Consul-General of Japan in Sydney, will deliver a special introduction to the proceedings.  

Attendees will have the opportunity to network and join a light lunch following the panel discussion. 

Date: February 23 2023
Time: 11:45am arrival for a 12:00pm start. Panel discussion concludes at 1:00pm followed by a networking lunch.
Venue: Ashurst, 11/5 Martin Pl, Sydney NSW 2000
Registration link: https://invtdu.to/_d03gl

Registration is essential and in-person places are limited. For any enquiries, please contact programaustralia@asiasociety.org  

Australia-Japan: Stepping up a Special Strategic Relationship in Asia is supported by the Commonwealth through the Australia-Japan Foundation, which is part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. 

This event is in partnership with Ashurst. 

About our Speakers 

Tokuda Shuichi, Consul-General of Japan in Sydney

Mr Tokuda is a career diplomat who joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of Japan in 1990. He assumed his current role, as the Consul-General of Japan in Sydney, in September 2022.

Prior to arriving in Australia, Mr Tokuda was the Deputy Assistant Minister and Deputy Director-General of the European Affairs Bureau at MOFA Headquarters in Tokyo. His previous overseas postings include the Embassy of Japan in the United Kingdom as First Secretary in the Political Section from 2003-2005, and the two postings at the Embassy of Japan in Russia as Counsellor, Economic and General Affairs, from 2005-2008, and again as Minister, Head of the Political Section from 2018-2020. He has also held various position within MOFA in the International Cooperation Bureau and Foreign Policy Bureau and also in the Ministry of Finance’s Budget Bureau and International Bureau.

Mr Tokuda speaks Russian and English. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Tokyo in 1990.

Professor Kyoko Hatakeyama, Asia Society Australia-Japan Fellow

Kyoko Hatakeyama is a Professor of International Relations at the Graduate School of International Studies and Regional Development, University of Niigata Prefecture. Prior to this position, she served as a Research Analyst in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and Kansai Gaidai University. Her research interests include Japan’s foreign and security policy, international relations in Asia, and international relations theory.

Currently, she focuses on a new project on maritime security and regional order in Asia. She has published widely on Japan’s foreign and security policy, middle power diplomacy, maritime security and regional order in Asia. She has been frequently invited as a guest speaker to meetings and symposiums in Japan and overseas and has contributed to public debates on international relations. 

Professor Hatakeyama’s recent publications include “A Middle Power’s Roles in Shaping the East Asian Security Order: Analysis of Japan’s Engagement from a Normative Perspective,” Australian Journal of Politics and History 65 (3) 2019 and Japan’s Evolving Security Policy: Militarisation within a Pacifist Tradition, Routledge, 2021.

She holds BA in political science from Keio University and MA in international relations and PhD in political science from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

Thomas Wilkins, Senior Fellow and Associate Professor, Australian Strategic Policy Institute and University of Sydney 

Dr Wilkins is a Tenured Associate Professor in International Security at the University of Sydney and Senior Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). He is also affiliated with The Pacific Forum (Honolulu) and Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) as a non-resident Senior Fellow. His work focuses on regional security in the Indo-Pacific included security architecture, plus Japanese and Australian Foreign policies. He has published widely on these subjects, including his latest monograph – Security in the Asai-Pacific – and ASPI Special Report: Japan’s Security Strategy. He has just completed a Fellowship at Japan’s National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS).

Hayley Channer, Director of Economic Security, United States Studies Centre 

Hayley Channer is the Director of the Economic Security Program with the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Hayley has led a diverse background having worked as an Australian Government official, Ministerial adviser, think tank analyst, and represented global non-profit organisations.

Immediately prior to her current role, Hayley was a Senior Policy Fellow with the Perth USAsia Centre. In this position she published analysis on China’s Belt and Road Initiative, infrastructure and investment in the Indo-Pacific, and multilateral economic frameworks. She also provided policy guidance to senior Australian and US government officials on how to better engage the private sector.

In an earlier role, Hayley was an Assistant Director within the Strategy, Policy and Industry Group at the Australian Department of Defence. With Defence, she produced and implemented international policy and advised senior military personnel, including on exercise. For Exercise Talisman Sabre 2017, Hayley was selected as the Australian Policy Adviser to the Commander, US Third Fleet in San Diego and worked under simulated wartime conditions.

Hayley has written extensively on the Australia-Japan strategic relationship including making the case to hasten defence cooperation, activate the Australia-Japan-US trilateral infrastructure partnership, and operationalise the Quad. While with the Department of Defence, Hayley worked on the Japan desk during Australia-Japan Reciprocal Access Agreement negotiations and worked at the Australian Embassy Tokyo. She has been a Visiting Fellow with Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS) and was an Organising Committee Member for the inauguration of the Australia-Japan Youth Dialogue. Hayley is an alumnus of the German Marshall Fund's Japan Young Strategists Forum. 

Ryosuke Hanada, Researcher and Academic, Macquarie University 

Ryosuke Hanada is PhD student at Department of Security Studies and Criminology of Macquarie University. He was a Research Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), researching Japan’s foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific region from 2016 to 2020. He also worked for the Council of Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) Japan.

Hanada experienced several fellowship programs, including Japan-US Partnership Program of the Research Institute of Peace and Security (RIPS), Young Strategist Forum of the German Marshall Fund (GMF), Strategic Japan Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Indo-Pacific Fellow of the Perth USAsia Centre.

He holds Master of Research from Macquarie University, MA from the University of Warwick and BA in Law from Waseda University.