Special Presentation by Professor Toshihiro Nakayama and Consul General Akira Muto at JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles
2019/11/20
Keio University Professor of American Politics and Foreign Policy Toshihiro Nakayama visited Southern California as part of a U.S. lecture tour in November. To start his tour, he was joined by Consul General of Japan Akira Muto on Friday, November 15, 2019 for a special presentation, “Japan’s Foreign Policy & Japan-U.S. Relations,” which was co-presented by the Consulate General of Japan in Los Angeles and JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles. Consul General Muto and Professor Nakayama spoke, respectively, on the Free and Open Indo-Pacific concept shared by Japan and the United States and Japan U.S. relations during the administration of President Donald Trump. The event took place at JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles, which, in addition to its gallery, library, and restaurant, has a beautiful multipurpose event space for such purposes.
Setting the stage for Professor Nakamura’s talk, Consul General Muto spoke on “Japan’s Foreign Policy with a Focus on Free and Open Indo-Pacific” and the security context in which it exists. He supported his talk with a great number of facts and concepts garnered from his career in the Foreign Ministry, which included service in the National Security Secretariat. Within the international context described by Consul General Muto, Professor Nakayama, who is also Adjunct Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs, gave a fascinating talk called “The New Dynamics: Japan-U.S. Relations from a Japanese Perspective,” which centered on the relative success of Japan's relations with the United States. Among his topics was an intriguing illumination of several significant continuities of attitude over the seemingly disparate Obama and Trump administrations.
The special presentation was open to the public and attended by about 50 audience members, including quite a few academics as well as heads of local civic organizations. Questions and answers were in themselves quite engaging, as both Consul General and Professor Nakayama fielded questions about topics ranging from economic competition to Japan’s relations with neighboring countries to the local Japan-related environment.
Setting the stage for Professor Nakamura’s talk, Consul General Muto spoke on “Japan’s Foreign Policy with a Focus on Free and Open Indo-Pacific” and the security context in which it exists. He supported his talk with a great number of facts and concepts garnered from his career in the Foreign Ministry, which included service in the National Security Secretariat. Within the international context described by Consul General Muto, Professor Nakayama, who is also Adjunct Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs, gave a fascinating talk called “The New Dynamics: Japan-U.S. Relations from a Japanese Perspective,” which centered on the relative success of Japan's relations with the United States. Among his topics was an intriguing illumination of several significant continuities of attitude over the seemingly disparate Obama and Trump administrations.
The special presentation was open to the public and attended by about 50 audience members, including quite a few academics as well as heads of local civic organizations. Questions and answers were in themselves quite engaging, as both Consul General and Professor Nakayama fielded questions about topics ranging from economic competition to Japan’s relations with neighboring countries to the local Japan-related environment.
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| Japan's Foreign Policy & Japan-U.S. Relations | Consul General Akira Muto |
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| Professor Toshihiro Nakayama | Q&A with audience |
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| Mingling |