Our guest speaker for April was Kenta Matsunami, former Vice Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare, Chair of the LDP Council on Regionalization, and Vice Chair of the Health, Labor and Welfare Committee of the LDP's Policy Affairs Research Council. ...

Our guest speaker for May was Mr. Keiro Kitagami, Vice Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry, and Member of the House of Representatives with the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).  Mr. Kitagami is in charge of Japan's negotiations on free trade agr...

Our guest speaker for September was Katsumasa Suzuki, co-founder of the new People's Lives First Party (PLFP) and one of party leader Ichiro Ozawa's closest political allies. Suzuki heads the PFLP's Diet Affairs Committee, a powerful position which d...

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s sudden call for elections on 16 December has reopened the future direction of Japan’s politics. Just three years (and three prime ministers) after the historical shift of power to the DPJ on its promise of a break with...

So much has changed since the election last month and our last meeting of the International Policy Forum. But few are better placed than our guest speaker, Naokazu Takemoto, to comment on that change and the new policy initiatives of the Abe Cabinet....

Fresh from his diplomatic mission to China, we were delighted to host this month Natsuo Yamaguchi, leader of the New Komeito Party, who spoke to us about his party’s role in the new coalition government. Despite Komeito and the LDP having separate pr...

Few Diet members are as passionate and engaged in this area of policy as the former actress, artist, and business executive Junko Mihara. Since being elected to the Diet in 2010, Mihara has taken the lead in the formulation of health policies in the ...

Our guest speaker for the International Policy Forum meeting in May was Masaaki Taira. As Parliamentary Vice-Minister for the Economy, Trade and Industry, he is a key person in the creation of the growth strategy of the Abe cabinet.  Mr Taira, an aut...

Since 2007 efforts to reform Japan’s economy have been stymied by governments' inability to hold a majority in the House of Councillors. Both Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) administrations struggled under this con...

With Tokyo winning the right to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020, expectations are running high for its impact on Tokyo and the Japanese economy as a whole. With public support for hosting the Games reportedly as high as 92%, hopes are h...