News & Insights

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 ...