CSIS and Japan Institute for Social and Economic Affairs Announce Initiative on U.S.-Japan Relations

WASHINGTON, December 5, 2014—2015 will mark the 70th anniversary of renewed cooperation and friendship between the United States and Japan.  To commemorate this remarkable partnership, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Japan Institute for Social and Economic Affairs (Keizai Koho Center) have established a panel of distinguished Japanese and American leaders committed to outlining a blueprint for cooperation that will guide the bilateral relationship in the years ahead. 

Co-chaired by Yasuo Fukuda, former Prime Minister of Japan, Fujio Mitarai, Chairman and CEO of Canon, Dennis Hastert, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Thomas Daschle, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, this group composed of public and private sector leadership met for the first time today in Washington to discuss the meaning of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, challenges facing Japan and the United States and how the two countries can work together in the future.  The group will reconvene in spring 2015 in Tokyo to produce “Pacific Vision 21”, a statement on the future of the U.S.-Japan relationship in the areas of diplomacy and national security, economics, and human resources and cultural exchange.

Participants are as follows:

Kiyoaki Aburaki, Project Fellow, Japan Institute for Social and Economic Affairs
Fujio Cho, Honorary Chairman, Toyota Motor
Thomas Daschle, Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Ichiro Fujisaki, Former Japanese Ambassador to the United States
Yasuo Fukuda, Former Prime Minister of Japan
Michael Green, Senior Vice President for Asia and Japan Chair, CSIS; Associate Professor, Georgetown University
John Hamre, President, CEO and Pritzker Chair, CSIS
Dennis Hastert, Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
Irene Hirano-Inouye, President, US-Japan Council
Charles O. (Chad) Holliday, Former Chairman, Bank of America
Ambassador Thomas Hubbard, Senior Director, McLarty Associates
Makoto Iokibe, Professor Emeritus, Kobe University; Former President, National Defense Academy of Japan
Kunio Ishihara, Counsellor, Tokio Marine and Nichido Fire Insurance
Hiromichi Iwasa, Chairman and CEO, Mitsui Fudosan
Kazumasa Kusaka, Chairman and CEO, Japan Economic Foundation
Norman Mineta, Former Secretary of Transportation
Fujio Mitarai, Chairman and CEO, Canon
Yoshio Nakamura, Special Adviser to Keidanren
Masayuki Oku, Chairman, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial 
Richard Samuels, Director of the Center for International Studies, MIT
Ambassador Thomas Schieffer, Former Ambassador to Japan
Takashi Shiraishi, President, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies
Sheila Smith, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations


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The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a bipartisan, nonprofit organization founded in 1962 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. It seeks to advance global security and prosperity by providing strategic insights and policy solutions to decisionmakers.