China’s rise, US rebalancing in Asia, historic defense reforms in Japan, the adoption of new Guidelines for bilateral cooperation: the Japan-US alliance has reached a turning point in its history.

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
...Tokyo is known as a pioneer throughout the history of Japan’s environmental policy, often being compared to California in the United States or Paris in France. Following the global trend of growing local initiatives tackling climate change, Tokyo introduced a cap-and-trade scheme in 2010 ahead...
The debate on emerging donors raises a question whether traditional donors really follow their own ODA (Official Development Assistance) policies or not. This paper addresses the question by investigating Japan’s adherence to its own ODA policies.
While Tokyo prepares to welcome the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, the likelihood that a massive earthquake will occur in the capital city within the next thirty years is estimated at 70 %. This fact alone reflects the challenges that Japan must face in managing the risk of natural disasters.
Japan’s public diplomacy (PD) profile rests almost exclusively on the promotion of its cultural soft power. Today, in the complex geopolitical setting of Asia, in which national rivalries are reviving competing wartime history narratives and territorial disputes, this approach is no longer...
Four years after the Great East Japan Earthquake and a few months before the opening of the Paris Climate Conference, Japan is about to clarify its energy and climate policy.
Nationalism appears to be an important part of the growing frictions between China and Japan.
...The alliance born of the Korean War trades the assurance of security for Seoul with a certain alignment with Washington.
At the beginning of 2014, Japan experienced the deadliest volcanic eruption on its territory in over a century. The unpredictable nature of the event reignited fears of the risks of nuclear power plants.
Asia is now a nerve center for global economic activity and a theatre of some of the most pressing security concerns of our time. So important has Asia become to global affairs today, and ostensibly for the decades to come, that many have already dubbed the 21st Century as the “Asian Century”....
Unhappy Anniversary: The US-Japan Relationship and Okinawa on the 50th Anniversary of the Bilateral Security Treaty
This seminar is organized around Gavan McCormack, Emeritus Professor, Australian National University. He is an expert of modern East Asian, especially Japanese politics and intellectual, political, and environmental history. He has published numerous articles and books on the...
After the 30 August elections : What political, social and economic orientations in Japan ?
With Valérie Niquet, director of Centre Asie Ifri as Chair, Jean-Marie Bouissou, researcher at CERI et Evelyne Dourille-Feer, researcher at CEPII analyze the causes and implications of the Democratic party's victory in the 30 Auguts poll in...
Pourquoi le Japon souffre-t-il plus de la crise que les autres pays ?
Réunion organisée dans le cadre du cercle de réflexion des économies asiatiques avec Patrick Artus, Directeur de la recherche et des études de Natixis, et présidée par Françoise Nicolas, économiste, Ifri.
150 ans après l'établissement des relations diplomatiques : Vers un partenariat franco-japonais renouvelé
A l'occasion du 150ème anniversaire des relations diplomatiques entre la France et le Japon, le Centre Asie Ifri organise une journée d'étude sur l'avenir du partenariat franco-japonais. Elle s'ouvrira par les interventions de Thierry de Montbrial, directeur général de l'ifri...
The Rise of Superpowers: Friction and Cooperation in Japan's Relations with the Emerging Asian Superpowers
A conference with Yukio Okamoto, former Advisor for Foreign Policy of Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi. This discussion will be held in English.