June 16,2016 National Commentaries

A View from Germany

The summit in Ise-Shima was already the third G7-meeting without Russia. (Germany had hosted the previous gathering in Elmau in 2015.) Japan, thus, worked particularly closely with Germany in coordinating the substance of this summit. This is evident from the importance given to issues such as global health, climate change, and women’s empowerment and gender equality in the discussions ..

Hanns W. Maull
German-Russian cooperation , ITLOS , Leaders' Declaration , Quantitative easing , Three arrows , UN sanctions regime , Wandel durch Annäherung
June 16,2016 National Commentaries

A View from Japan

No other diplomatic event in recent years has benefitted Prime Minister Abe Shinzo more than the G7 Ise-Shima summit held on May 26 and 27. G7 summits held annually since 1975 (transforming into the G8 and back) have rarely been occasions to make historic decisions; they are more often occasions for the leaders of the seven industrial democracies to review and discuss pressing issues and incr..

Tanaka Akihiko*
Consumption tax , G7 Ise-Shima Summit , G8 Okinawa Summit , Global Fund , Health , Hiroshima visit , Infrastructure , Internationalism , Okinawa ID Initiative , Women
June 10,2016 Alternative Scenarios

Positive Scenario II

In 2009 in New York, a vast program for cooperation between the regions of the Russian Far East and Eastern Siberia, on one side, and Northeast China, on the other, extending to 2018, was adopted by the leaders of Russia and China (Dmitri Medvedev and Hu Jintao). For the realization of this program, they were to carry out economic integration of these two border regions on a qualitatively new leve..

Ivan Zuenko
Agricultural cooperation , Free port Vladivostok , SREB EEU Convergence , Yellow Peril
June 10,2016 Review Article

Russian Authors on the Korean Peninsula and on Japan in Joint Publications

25-ia Godovshchina Ustanovleniia Diplomaticheskikh Otnoshenii mezhdu Respublikoi Koreia i Rossiei: rezul’taty i vyzovy (25th Anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Korea and Russia: Results and Challenges) (Moscow: Aziatsko-Tikhookeanskii Issledovatel’skii Tsentr, Universitet Khan’ian, Institut Dal’nego Vostoka Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, 2015). R..

Gilbert Rozman
NAPCI , Putin , Resolution 2270 , Russo-DPRK relations , Shinzo Abe , Suzuki-Muneo scandal , Trustpolitik
June 03,2016 Alternative Scenarios

Negative Scenario I: The Integration of China’s Northeast and Russia’s Far East in the Silk Road Economic Belt

Beijing’s initiative, the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB), is meant to contribute to China’s economic rise by creating markets for surplus production of such goods as steel and cement, putting Chinese companies to work building infrastructure, and integrating China’s economy with its periphery. It also was meant to develop comprehensive relations with countries along the SREB ..

Gaye Christoffersen
Dongbei-RFE integration , EEU , ESPO , Heilongjiang , SREB
May 30,2016 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (May 2016)

On April 12, Sergei Lavrov in Rossiiskaya Gazeta made clear Russian thinking about Mongolia, Japan, and China. His words for Mongolia spoke only of closeness: in history, today, and in three-sided cooperation with China, joining together the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB), and the Steppe Road of Mongolia. For Japan, the message was much more guarded: about a ..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
Authoritarian capitalism , EEU , Eurasianism , Pluralism , Sino-Russian Relations , SREB , Turn to Asia
April 29,2016 Special Forum

Introduction to Special Forum

The relationship between the United States and Japan has changed under Prime Minister Abe and President Obama not only becoming more robust bilaterally, but acquiring new significance in trilateral contexts. This is evident along the southern reaches of Asia as Australia, India, and various countries of ASEAN now have reason to view Washington and Tokyo as partners in security as well as the ..

Editorial Staff
Japan-US relations , South China Sea , trilateralism
April 29,2016 Special Forum

The Japan-US-Russia Triangle in 2016

The Washington-Tokyo-Moscow triangle has intermittently drawn attention since the 1950s for its potential to shift Japan’s foreign policy and alter the course of great power balancing. Until the late 1970s, Tokyo’s soft stance—a territorial deal in return for an autonomous foreign policy or an energy program boosting the Russian economy—was of prime concern, although it never ..

Gilbert Rozman
2 + alpha , Abe-Putin courtship , G-7 sanctions , Hikiwake , Northern Territories , Ukraine