ASPST #1 Professor Tomohiko Taniguchi

Jan 16, 2019

[Guest Speaker]

Professor Tomohiko Taniguchi

Special Advisor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet

Professor, Keio University Graduate School of System Design and Management (SDM)

Asia Society Japan Center was honored to host the first Asia Society Policy Salon Tokyo (ASPST) breakfast round-table meeting with guest speaker Prof. Tomohiko Taniguchi.

Prof. Taniguchi became Prime Minister Shizo Abe’s primary foreign policy speech writer in January 2013. He reflects on the three months following the PM’s visit to Yasukuni Shrine on 26 December 2013, the first anniversary of his second term of office, as the most critical period of his career. The visit outraged China, whose Ministry of Foreign Affairs encouraged embassies throughout the world  to take as many opportunities as possible to dub Japan to be challenging the post-war order,  intentionally preaching the Potsdam order.

These challenging times were overcome with the help of then Ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, who was very influential in convincing the many guests received from Washington D.C., visiting to discern the true personality of Shinzo Abe -whether he really was a revisionist, a reactionary or a post-war nationalist - before the Presidential visit scheduled in April. The celebrity ambassador would reassure her colleagues that choosing to work with Abe was the right decision, as few other Japanese politicians could take the U.S.-Japan alliance a far as he could. Obama’s visit proved to be very successful, marked by the first pledge in history made by the POTUS that the Senkaku Islands should be covered by U.S.-Japan joint security.

During the past six years in office, the PM has been focused on geopolitical and macro-economic issues. He is determined to widen Japan’s diplomatic horizons in order to stabilize Japan’s geopolitical position by strengthening U.S.-Japan alliance, dismissing ideas like “equilateral triangular relations” with the U.S. and China, which would in effect mean distancing our closest partner. The relief provided by the U.S. after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake cemented the alliance between our two countries, which has been further strengthened through the series of national security legislations passed by the Administration, enabling Japan to exercise collective defense with the U.S..  

Since his first brief time in office, the PM has also been keen to strengthen relations with likeminded Maritime democratic countries, such as Australia and India, and broadening its presence in the Indo-Pacific area. This picture has attracted renewed interest in Indo-Pacific affairs from British and French leaders. While the U.K and France may not come to the rescue in times of real contingency, those countries help maintain Japan’s good brand recognition that the country is a freedom-loving democratic maritime nation.

Ninety-eight percent of job-seeking college graduates are currently finding jobs, indicating how successful Abenomics has been. That Tokyo is hosting 2020 Olympic Games has also inspired young people to regain confidence in and expectation for their futures. Without Tokyo hosting the 2020 Olympic Games, we may not have seen visa requirements eased for the Vietnamese and Taiwanese or 340,000 workers coming in from overseas over the next five years, but this has demonstrated to the world that Japan has an open and global mindset.

The PM took office with the idea that without strong relations with the U.S., Japan could not seek good deals with its neighbors, Russia and China, in the absence of which it would not be able to have manageable relations with North Korea. We have witnessed many developments in our neighborhood relations, with Xi Jinping coming to Japan and an Abe-Putin summit meeting to take place in Moscow very soon. A mutual compromise may be reached with Russia, with the best scenario being that a Moscow-Tokyo peace treaty be concluded within this year, with two small islands being returned to Japan. Whether the window of opportunity will open with North Korea is yet uncertain, we must be ready to dash and elbow through when it does happen. The year 2019 will be a very eventful year for Japan, with the Crown Prince’s ascension to the throne in May, the G20 meeting, and Rugby World Cup. Tokyo will also welcome leaders from around the world to commemorate the change of throne in October. One month after that,Abe Shinzo will have become the PM who has held office for the longest period of time in modern times.