Join the Asia Society Policy Institute for a two-part conference focused on the Japan-U.S. alliance. The conference, just days ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, will include prominent experts, officials, and scholars who focus closely on the U.S.-Japan relationship and how the two countries approach policy in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. With new leaders in both capitals, this event will allow voices from both Japan and the United States to provide perspective on how to navigate the partnership in the midst of geopolitical uncertainty.

The program will kick off with welcoming remarks by Ambassador Mikio Mori. A panel of Japanese and U.S. experts will follow, featuring Takako Hikotani, Matt Goodman, Masafumi Ishii, and Mira Rapp-Hooper, and moderated by Emma Chanlett-Avery. The panel will review the security and economic cooperation initiatives underway between the two allies and their prospects for development under new Administrations in both Washington and Tokyo. The program will conclude with Danny Russel moderating a high-level conversation between Sheila Smith and Shinichi Kitaoka evaluating the state of the relationship at a critical moment. 

AGENDA

Speakers

Matthew P. Goodman is distinguished fellow and director of the Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He leads RealEcon: Reimagining American Economic Leadership, a CFR initiative that explores the U.S. role in the international economy. Prior to joining CFR in September 2023, Goodman was senior vice president for economics and Simon chair in political economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Previously, Goodman served as director for international economics on the National Security Council staff, working on the G-20, APEC, and other presidential summits. Before joining the White House, he was senior adviser to the undersecretary for economic affairs at the U.S. Department of State. He has also worked at the Albright Stonebridge Group, Goldman Sachs, and served as U.S. Treasury attaché in Tokyo. Goodman holds an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a BSc from the London School of Economics.

Mira Rapp-Hooper is a political scientist currently serving as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for East Asia and Oceania at the National Security Council (NSC). She is the White House’s top advisor for and responsible for coordinating US government policy towards the region. From 2021–2023 she served as Director for Indo-Pacific Strategy at the NSC where she was responsible for the White House’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, the management of the Quad partnership among Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, and US-Japan-ROK trilateral relations, among other initiatives. In 2021 she briefly served at the State Department on the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff.

Before joining the Biden administration, she worked at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) as a senior fellow in the Asia-Pacific Security Program, and at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) as a fellow and as director of CSIS’ Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. Rapp-Hooper was also Asia Policy Coordinator for the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign. She was a Foreign Policy Interrupted Fellow, and is a David Rockefeller Fellow of the Trilateral Commission and an Associate Editor with the International Security Studies Forum. Her 2021 appointment to the Department of State was seen as part of the Biden administration's pivot to the Indo-Pacific. She holds a B.A. in history from Stanford University and an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.

Takako Hikotani is a Senior Fellow with the Asia Society Policy Institute in Tokyo. She is a Professor at Gakushuin University International Centre, and concurrently Visiting Professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy, University of California at San Diego (Spring Semester 2022). From 2016 to 2021, she was the Gerald L. Curtis Associate Professor of Modern Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy at Columbia University. She has previously taught at the National Defense Academy of Japan, where she was an Associate Professor, and lectured at the Ground Self Defense Force and Air Self Defense Force Staff Colleges, and the National Institute for Defense Studies. Her research focuses on civil-military relations and Japanese domestic politics, Japanese foreign policy, and comparative civil-military relations. Her publications (in English) include, "The Japanese Diet and defense policy-making," International Affairs, 94:1, July, 2018; "Trump's Gift to Japan: Time for Tokyo to Invest in the Liberal Order," Foreign Affairs, September/October 2017; "Japan's New Executive Leadership: How Electoral Rules Make Japanese Security Policy (with Margarita Estevez-Abe and Toshio Nagahisa), in Francis Rosenbluth and Masaru Kohno eds, Japan in the World (Yale University Press, 2009) and "Civilian Control and Civil-Military Gaps in the United States, Japan, and China" (with Peter Feaver and Shaun Narine), Asian Perspective 29:1, March 2006. She advised and appeared in PBS Wide Angle Program, "Japan's About Face," July 8, 2008. She was a Visiting Professional Specialist at Princeton University as Social Science Research Council/Abe Fellow (2010-2011), as well as a Suntory Foundation Torii Fellow (2000-2001), and Fellow of the US-Japan Leadership Program, US-Japan Foundation (2000- ). Professor Hikotani received her BA from Keio University, MAs from Keio University and Stanford University, and PhD in Political Science from Columbia University, where she was a President's Fellow.

Emma Chanlett-Avery is Deputy Director of the Asia Society Policy Institute's Washington, DC office and the Director for Political-Security Affairs. Previous to this post, she served for 20 years as a Specialist in Asian Affairs at the Congressional Research Service, where she focused on U.S. relations with Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Thailand, and Singapore, with an emphasis on security issues and alliances. In 2023, she served as a Congressional Fellow on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, assisting the Chairman with drafting Asia policy legislation and preparing for hearings. Ms. Chanlett-Avery was a Presidential Management Fellow, with rotations in the State Department on the Korea Desk and at the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group in Bangkok, Thailand. She also worked in the Office of Policy Planning as a Harold Rosenthal Fellow. She is a member of the Mansfield Foundation U.S. – Japan Network for the Future and a Mansfield-Luce Asia Network Scholar. In 2016, she received the Kato Prize, awarded by Washington think tanks for strengthening the U.S.-Japan alliance. She serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Association of Japan America Societies, Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Japan America Society of Washington DC, and as a Trustee of International Student Conferences, Inc. Ms. Chanlett-Avery received an MA in international security policy from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and her BA in Russian studies from Amherst College.

Masafumi ISHII was the Ambassador of Japan to Indonesia till December 2020 and retired from Japanese Foreign Service in January 2021, having served there for more than 40 years. He graduated from Tokyo University and joined MOFA in 1980. His posts in Tokyo include Director for Policy Planning, Special Assistant to Foreign Minister, Director General for Global Issues and Legal Advisor. His overseas experience covers Washington DC, where he served twice, London, Belgium and NATO as the Ambassador. His last post was in Jakarta that lasted for almost 4 years.

He has frequently participated in international seminars and symposium and is well known for his policy planning insight as well as his long-term experience in working with partners in ASEAN countries. He is presently teaching International Law at Gakushuin University as well as providing advice to some of Japanese private companies.

Sheila A. Smith is John E. Merow senior fellow for Asia-Pacific studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). An expert on Japanese politics and foreign policy, she is the author of Japan Rearmed: The Politics of Military Power, Intimate Rivals: Japanese Domestic Politics and a Rising China (released in Japanese as 日中 親愛なる宿敵: 変容する日本政治と 対中政策), and Japan's New Politics and the U.S.-Japan Alliance. She is also the author of the CFR interactive guide Constitutional Change in Japan. Smith is a regular contributor to the CFR blog Asia Unbound and a frequent contributor to major media outlets in the United States and Asia.

Dr. Shinichi Kitaoka is Special Advisor to the President (former President) of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Before assuming the present post, he was President of JICA. Dr. Kitaoka’s career 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. He is Emeritus Professor of the University of Tokyo and Rikkyo University.

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. Prior to his appointment as Assistant Secretary on July 12, 2013, Mr. Russel served at the White House as Special Assistant to the President and National Security Council (NSC) Senior Director for Asian Affairs. During his tenure there, 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.

Prior to joining the NSC in January of 2009, he served as Director of the Office of Japanese Affairs and had assignments as U.S. Consul General in Osaka-Kobe, Japan (2005-2008); Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands (2002-2005); Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus (1999-2002); Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering (1997-99); Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (1995-96); Political Section Unit Chief at U.S. Embassy Seoul, Republic of Korea (1992-95); Political Advisor to the Permanent Representative to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Ambassador Pickering (1989-92); Vice Consul in Osaka and Branch Office Manager in Nagoya, Japan (1987-89); and Assistant to the Ambassador to Japan, former Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (1985-87).

In 1996, Mr. Russel was awarded the State Department's Una Chapman Cox Fellowship sabbatical and authored America’s Place in the World, a book published by Georgetown University. Before joining the Foreign Service, he was manager for an international firm in New York City.

Mr. Russel was educated at Sarah Lawrence College and University College, University of London, UK.