Full House at Joint Forum "Regional Security and Okinawa in the U.S.-Japan Alliance"
2010/03/11
GCOE, Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA and the East West Center in Washington held a joint forum titled Regional Security and Okinawa in the U.S.-Japan Alliance on March 9, 2010 at the Cosmos Club in Washington D.C. A full house of 150 guests attended the forum including participants from think tanks, media and policy makers in D.C.
The first panel "Regional Security and U.S.-Japan Alliance" looked at the current security policies of Japan and emphasized how Japan would need to formulate national security by articulating national interests to meet challenges such as a rising China and consider new design for regional security for traditional as well as non-traditional security issues in light of the U.S.-Japan alliance Discussions ranged from the North Korean factor, Japan’s power protection capacity, possibilities of other security dialogues such as a trilateral dialogue among U.S., Japan and China as well as other security relationships with countries like Australia and India, and how traditional and how non-traditional roles of Japan would be perceived by other Asian countries.
The second panel “Okinawa and U.S. Japan Alliance” tackled a very current and pressing issue on the US military bases in Okinawa and while the two speakers acknowledged the importance of the U.S-Japan security alliance they questioned the justification of the geographical advantages of the concentration of forces in Okinawa, and considered the “lies” to continue Okinawa’s burden and the “truth” in the difficulty of relocating the U.S. forces in other parts of Japan has less to do with military purposes of deterrence against threats such as North Korea or potential Chinese aggression but has much to do with political purposes of trying to portray a stable and strong U.S. Japan alliance. Discussions ranged from the feasibility of alternatives, the implications of the DPJ on Okinawa base issue and impact of moving ground forces from East Asia.
The first panel "Regional Security and U.S.-Japan Alliance" looked at the current security policies of Japan and emphasized how Japan would need to formulate national security by articulating national interests to meet challenges such as a rising China and consider new design for regional security for traditional as well as non-traditional security issues in light of the U.S.-Japan alliance Discussions ranged from the North Korean factor, Japan’s power protection capacity, possibilities of other security dialogues such as a trilateral dialogue among U.S., Japan and China as well as other security relationships with countries like Australia and India, and how traditional and how non-traditional roles of Japan would be perceived by other Asian countries.
The second panel “Okinawa and U.S. Japan Alliance” tackled a very current and pressing issue on the US military bases in Okinawa and while the two speakers acknowledged the importance of the U.S-Japan security alliance they questioned the justification of the geographical advantages of the concentration of forces in Okinawa, and considered the “lies” to continue Okinawa’s burden and the “truth” in the difficulty of relocating the U.S. forces in other parts of Japan has less to do with military purposes of deterrence against threats such as North Korea or potential Chinese aggression but has much to do with political purposes of trying to portray a stable and strong U.S. Japan alliance. Discussions ranged from the feasibility of alternatives, the implications of the DPJ on Okinawa base issue and impact of moving ground forces from East Asia.
