Symposium: Japan between the East and the West
Friday 25 April 2025 | Leiden University Institute of Security and Global Affairs – The Hague
With great pleasure, we invite you to the Symposium Japan between the East and the West, organized under the auspices of The Hague Journal of Diplomacy.
| Date | Friday 25 April 2025 |
| Time | 15:00 – 18:00 including a network reception |
| Location | Room 202, Wijnhaven - Leiden University, Turfmarkt 99 – The Hague |
This public symposium will include distinguished speakers from Japan, Europe and North America and interactive sessions with both senior and early career experts. The event will debate Japan’s influence in the current fast-changing global landscape, and its role as a power navigating between the East and the West. Leading academics and think-tankers will examine Japan's strategic positioning, foreign policy priorities and its diplomatic approach facing a variety of international challenges.
Programme
15:00-15:10 Introduction
- Jan Melissen, Editor-in-Chief, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy; Senior Fellow, Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University; Professor, University of Antwerp
- Saori Katada, Guest Co-editor of the Special Issue on Japan’s Diplomacy; Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
15:10-15:30 Keynote lecture: Japan between the East and West
- Eva Pejsova, Japan Chair at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy, Brussels School of Governance, VUB
15:30-16:50 Roundtable discussion and Q&A with audience
- Akiko Fukushima, Guest co-editor of the Special Issue on Japan’s Diplomacy; Senior Fellow, The Tokyo Foundation, Japan; non-resident Senior Fellow, The Atlantic Council, Washington DC (moderator)
- Kitti Prasirtsuk, Professor Thammasat University, Thailand - A view on Japan's diplomacy from Southeast Asia
- Kathryn-Ibata-Arens, Japan Foundation Indo-Pacific Program (JFIPP) Fellow; Vincent de Paul Professor, DePaul University, USA - Japan’s Smart Power Health Diplomacy in the Indo Pacific
- Carol Buxton, University of Birmingham, UK - Japan's Space Diplomacy
- Ayako Takemi, The University of Tokyo, Japan - Japan's G7 diplomacy
- Sarah Tanke, Sciences Po Rennes, France - Japan’s UN diplomacy
- Atsushi Yamada, Guest Co-editor, Professor, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo (discussant)
- Saori Katada, Guest Co-editor, Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (discussant)
16:50-16:55 Young scholar statement
16:55-17:00 Closing remarks
17:00-18:00 Network reception
Registration
Please register using the registration link before April 20, 23:59 (CET).
Contact
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact: Lavinia Pacifici (l.pacifici@umail.leidenuniv.nl) or Lidewij Arnold (l.g.arnold@umail.leidenuniv.nl).
We look forward to welcoming you in The Hague on the 25th of April.
About the programme
About the keynote speaker: Dr. Eva Pejsova
Eva Pejsova holds the Japan Chair at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) of the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG). Until 2019, Dr Pejsova was Senior Analyst for Asia at the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS), the EU’s official agency for foreign and security policy research and analysis. She obtained her PhD in Strategic Studies from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore and has previously worked with the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the French Prime Minister’s Office, the OECD, and the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF). Dr Pejsova regularly lectures at SciencesPo (Paris School of International Affairs) in Paris, the Geneva Centre for Security Studies (GCSP), and briefs the Members of the European Parliament.
Her research focuses on Indo-Pacific security matters, notably in the field of maritime security, the EU’s engagement in the Indo-Pacific, EU – Japan relations, and Japan’s foreign and security policy.
About the roundtable discussion
This roundtable is taking advantage of experts from all over the world gathering in the Hague for a Special Issue on Japan of The Hague Journal of Diplomacy. Following Dr. Eva Pejsova’s keynote lecture, leading and emerging academics and think-tankers will examine Japan’s diplomacy straddling between the East and the West. The 80-year-old international liberal order is shaken, if not collapsing, forcing diplomacy to respond to tectonic changes one after another. However, the tail should not wag the dog. Diplomacy demands a rational assessment of global trends. How do you assess the tide of changes under way for the longer run? Are our respective assessments on global, regional and national changes diverging or converging? Such analyses will determine our future course of diplomacy. Japan today faces a worsening security environment. The Ukraine situation is not foreign but has profound implications for Japan and its neighbours. Mirroring the trans-Atlantic alliance, the Trump 2.0 administration shows similar policies, though at lesser degrees, to its trans-Pacific allies and partners. The US's imposition of tariffs, even on its friendly partners, has caused dismay and reactions. The US decision to turn its back on multilateralism has prompted some to perceive a soft power vacuum to capitalize on. On the other hand, Russia, China, DPRK, and others are deepening their cooperation in versatile ways as illustrated by BRICS. These changes force us to consider how diplomacy should be shaped and conducted. The roundtable will examine these dazzling questions, asking how Japan shapes its diplomacy on security, economy, functional areas of space and health, etc. It will also analyse how Japan conducts multilateral cooperation, from the UN to the G7, and how Japan weaves bilateral, minilateral and multilateral cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. Will Japan exercise agency in leading its partners as it did in the case of TPP and FOIP? All of this has implications for the art of diplomacy in the years ahead. The Panelists and discussants will share their views of basic trends, future forecasts, and numerous sides of Japan's diplomacy and its relations with the Indo-Pacific and beyond. We cordially invite you to join our discussion to explore how we can manage common and unique diplomatic challenges.