***This event is open for all. Registration required***

In mid-April, President Joe Biden hosted Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan for his first in-person meeting with a foreign leader as president. Their joint statement announced a “Global Partnership for a New Era.” Among many areas, they discussed the future of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific on the back of a rules-based approach to regional and global order, the importance of the digital economy and emerging technologies -- including 5G, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and climate.

Join H.E. Koji Tomita, Ambassador of Japan to the U.S.; the Hon. Caroline Kennedy, former Ambassador of the U.S. to Japan; and Asia Society Policy Institute Vice Presidents Daniel Russel and Wendy Cutler to discuss what the outcomes of this meeting mean for the bilateral relationship, the region, and the world going forward.

Speakers

H.E.Koji Tomita is the Ambassador of Japan to the U.S. His diplomatic career in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spans 40 years, most recently serving as Japan’s Ambassador to Korea, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Personal Representative for the G20 Summit in Osaka (2018), and Ambassador to Israel. His other overseas postings have included London and Paris. He has held leadership positions in U.S.-Japan relations -- as Director-General of MOFA’s North American Affairs Bureau and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, DC. In these capacities, he led the Japanese efforts to strengthen the Japan-US alliance and to promote mutual understanding between the two nations. He is the author of two books (in Japanese): Churchill: Leadership in Crisis and the Yamamoto Shichihei Award-winning Margaret Thatcher: Iron Lady Who Changed Politics.

The Hon. Caroline Kennedy served as United States Ambassador to Japan from 2013 to 2017. Her tenure was marked by the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and the historic visits of President Obama to Hiroshima and Prime Minister Abe to Pearl Harbor. As Ambassador, she supported economic empowerment of women and worked to increase student exchanges between the U.S. and Japan. She is an attorney and the author and editor of eleven books on law, civics, and poetry. She is Honorary President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and serves on the board of the U.S.-Japan Foundation.

Wendy Cutler is Vice President of Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) and Managing Director of its Washington, D.C. office.  In these roles, she focuses on building ASPI’s presence in Washington — strengthening its outreach as a think/do tank — and on leading initiatives that address challenges related to trade and investment, as well as women’s empowerment in Asia. She joined ASPI following nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Most recently, she served as Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, working on a range of U.S. trade negotiations and initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. In that capacity she was responsible for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, including the bilateral negotiations with Japan. She also was the chief negotiator to the U.S.-Korea (KORUS) Free Trade Agreement. 

Daniel Russel is Vice President for International Security and Diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI). Previously he served as a Diplomat-in-Residence and Senior Fellow with ASPI for a one year term. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service at the U.S. Department of State, he most recently served as the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He served at the White House as Special Assistant to the President and National Security Council Senior Director for Asian Affairs, where he helped formulate President Obama’s strategic rebalance to the Asia Pacific region, including efforts to strengthen alliances, deepen U.S. engagement with multilateral organizations, and expand cooperation with emerging powers in the region. Among many roles at the Department of State, he served as Director of the Office of Japanese Affairs and U.S. Consul General in Osaka-Kobe.