If some African countries are on their way to achieving dynamic economic growth, many are also still struggling with a lack of economic and social infrastructure, latent governance issues and often complex and risky security environments. In this context, both Japan and European countries,...

Japan

As the international system undergoes a major overhaul, Japan is emerging as one pillar of the multilateral rules-based order. Despite being often perceived as a declining country, it remains the world's third largest economy and, as a member of the RCEP, CP-TPP and the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement, plays a key role in trade liberalization and norms shaping. In recent years, Tokyo has also demonstrated a proactive diplomacy, especially in the Indo-Pacific area where it is one of the core stakeholders. In this regard, Japan has become a major partner for Europe and for France.
Through its research activities, Ifri's Center for Asian Studies aims to provide a better understanding of Japan's action in the world and to foster the dialogue and cooperation between France and Japan.
Senior Research Fellow and Director of Ifri's Center for Asian Studies
...Research Fellow,
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Research Fellow, Center for Asian Studies
...Senior Advisor, Center for Asian Studies
...There is still a big gap between the discourse and the reality of what Japan wants - and what it can achieve in Africa.
This paper documents new features of Japan's diplomacy that tends to gradually integrate Africa into Japan's strategic interests.
This paper provides an overview of the womenomics strategy launched by Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and shows how a plan designed to mitigate Japan’s demographic crises and labor shortages also evolved into a foreign relations strategy to help manage Japan’s reputation abroad on gender...
Japan’s cyberdefenses remain underdeveloped compared to the country’s great reliance on information and communications technology. Despite Japan’s initial slow response to the security challenges emerging from cyberspace, this paper posits that cybersecurity under the administration of...
Despite being geographically distant, France and Japan share a number of converging interests.
This essay examines the need for growing coordination between the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) to better cope with gray-zone situations.
Coping with “gray zone” situations has in recent years become the core security challenge for Japan. Since September 2012, Beijing has been challenging Japan’s sovereign control of the Senkaku Islands by regularly sending law-enforcement vessels into Japanese territorial waters and...
Japan’s latest space policy is designed to support a more proactive US-Japan alliance role in containing China, and robustly defend Japan against North Korean ballistic missile threats.
On Tuesday July 12th, after three years of deliberations, the Permanent Court of Arbitration finally delivered its verdict on the conflict opposing the Philippines and China over status of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The judgment is historic, as it goes far beyond the...
A New Cold War in East Asia? Japanese and French perspectives on strategic evolutions in East Asia
9:30-9:45 Welcome Remarks by Françoise NICOLAS, Director, Center for Asian Studies, Ifri
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Japanese perspectives on political and security challenges in Asia
The rapid rise of China is changing the balance of power drastically in East Asia. What kind of new regional order will be born? What role should Japan take in the new environment?
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The "New Asian Order" and the role of Japan
The rapid rise of China is changing the balance of power drastically in East Asia. What kind of new regional order will be born? What Role should Japan take in the new environment? Prof. Shinichi Kitaoka, President of International University of Japan, the chairman of Prime Minister Abe"s...
Leadership Change in East Asia and Implications for Regional Stability
Seminar with Ryo Sahashi, Associate Professor, Kanagawa University and Fellow with JCIE (Japan Center for International Exchanges), Marie-Orange Rivé-Lasan, Professor, University Paris Diderot and Alice Ekman, Associate Research Fellow,...
Trading Freely with East Asia
In 2006, the European Commission launched an ambitious plan to conclude a new generation of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Asian markets as part of its Global Europe strategy. Today the use of such FTAs is all the more important since negotiations at the WTO are stalled, but also more...
The growing Chinese presence in Japan - What impact on the bilateral relationship?
Seminar with Reinhard Drifte, Emeritus Professor at the Newcastle University, UK. Chair: Céline Pajon, Research Fellow, Ifri Center for Asian Studies.
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Japan in the aftermath of the catastrophy: What consequences for the energy and economic policies
Japan has just experienced its most serious crisis since 1945. Beyond the drama of human suffering, this dual natural and nuclear catastrophe will have profound consequences for the country's economic, industrial and energy strategies.
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What Solution for the Japanese Economy?
This seminar is organized around Richard Collasse, CEO of Chanel K.K. in Japan. It will be chaired by Françoise Nicolas, Director, Center for Asian Studies Ifri.
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East Asian Community Revisited: ASEAN+3 or 3+ASEAN
This seminar is organized around Takashi Terada, professor, Waseda university, Tokyo. He has published numerous articles on Asian regionalism.
Chair: Céline Pajon, Research fellow, Center for Asian Studies Ifri.