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Delivering Defence Industrial Change

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) supported by the Asia Forum Japan (AFJ) will launch a defence industrial strategy based report which is designed to inform Japanese stakeholders about the benefits of working with the European defence industry.

RUSI-AFJ Conference on Japan-UK Security Co-operation

3 April 2008
The Ambassador's Residence, British Embassy, Tokyo

About the Event

In a year celebrating the 150th anniversary of the establishment of formal relations between the UK and Japan, RUSI and the Asian Forum Japan (AFJ) have joined forces to hold an event designed to strengthen collaboration, interaction and links between Japanese and British defence and security experts from government, academia and industry.

Many questions remain relating to the future role of Japan’s military power and its interaction with Europe during a time of shifting security scenarios. In particular, interaction between the UK and Japan raises issues of alliance management with the United States, which are beginning to require consideration, in light of Japan’s strategic security concerns. Evidently, these concerns highlight the operational procurement requirements that Japan faces in meeting its national security goal's for the next twenty years.

This conference sought to examine Japanese-UK security relations in the light of continuing uncertainty in the global security environment and the nascent security debate in Japan, with the following objectives:

• To provide an applied forum for the analysis of Japan’s role in international security and the role the UK can play within Japanese security initiatives
• To bring together the defence and security communities of Japan and Europe in a way that encourages strategic dialogue
• To analyse and inform strategic and tactical policy-making in the UK and Japan in order to optimise the delivery of mid- to long-term international and regional security

A panel of Japanese and British security experts delivered addresses aimed at stimulating debate on issues of crucial importance to the defence and security communities in East Asia and Europe. The symposium attempted to tackle a number of emerging and vitally important issues for the UK and Japan including:

• Collaboration between the UK and Japan in countering threats from trans-national terrorism and non-state actors
• Peace Support Operations - co-operation between the UK and Japan in multinational peace and stability missions
• UK-Japanese security co-operation - understanding Japanese domestic security concerns and where the UK fits in
• Alliance Management: the United States, Japan and the UK
• New regional threats and the balance of power in East Asia
• Conflict prevention and global security - expanding ties and next steps

Excerpts from the Conference

RUSI Analysis of Japanese Politics and Security Issues

Japan and the Maritime Interdiction Operation: Back in Business
A long-term shift away from Japan's pacifist foreign policy
25 Feb 2008

New Developments in Japanese Security Policy
The Implications of the Hyuga on Regional Security
15 Oct 2007

Japan's New Cabinet
Fukuda's Choices: Who and Why.
27 Sep 2007

A New Japanese Prime Minister: Yasuo Fukuda?
Foreign Policy Implications of Fukuda's Candidacy
17 Sep 2007

The End of Abe
Which way will Japanese Foreign Policy go in the Weeks Ahead?
13 Sep 2007

What Japan is doing in the Indian Ocean
The domestic upheaval caused by Abe's dramatic loss of the Upper House 29 July is set to affect Japan's overseas missions.
8 Aug 2007

Japanese Upper House Elections: The End of Abe?
What are the effects on the relationship with the US?
1 Aug 2007

Shinzo Abe: Between Yasukuni and a Hard Place
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is looking shaky, to say the least. Although initially riding strong on his policy of rapprochement with China last Fall, the Abe administration has been hit by a number of scandals since December.
9 Jul 2007