Wednesday, May 20, 2026

2:00 - 3:30 p.m. (Eastern)

Furman Hall 210 and via Zoom

Register

About the event:

During the postwar period Japan was well known for its active role in promoting nuclear disarmament and its anti-war constitution. However, increasing security threats from China and North Korea caused a reevaluation of Japan’s security needs and a new emphasis on deterrence.  How can Japan support both nuclear disarmament and nuclear deterrence? Nobumasa Akiyama, professor at the School of International and Public Policy and the Graduate School of Law at Hitotsubashi University (Tokyo), director of the Center for Disarmament, Science and Technology at the Japan Institute of International Affairs, and a leading expert on Japan’s nuclear arms policy, will discuss how Japan’s policy might reconcile these conflicting interests and the likely effect of Japan’s nuclear policy on regional and global efforts aimed at both nuclear arms control and collective security. 

About the speaker:

Dr. Nobumasa AKIYAMA is professor of international security at the School of International and Public Policy (IPP), Graduate School of Law at Hitotsubashi University. He is also director of the Center for Disarmament, Science and Technology at Japan Institute of International Affairs. From 2016 to 2018, he served as minister-counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the International Organizations in Vienna and special advisor to ambassador on nuclear security when he was on loan to the ministry of foreign affairs of Japan. His other professional appointments included a member of the Public Security Examination Commission of the ministry of justice, and advisor to the Japanese delegation to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference since 2000. Recent publication includes “Ambivalent Japan: Japanese public attitudes toward nuclear weapons,” in The Nonproliferation Review, (2025); “‘No first use’ in the context of the U.S.-Japan Alliance,” in Asian Security, (2021); “AI Nuclear Winter or AI That Saves Humanity? AI and Nuclear Deterrence,” in Robotics, AI, and Humanity (2021); and “Atoms for Alliance Challenges: Japan in the liberal international nuclear order,” in The Crisis of Liberal Internationalism: Japan and the World Order (2020).

Professor Bruce Aronson will be the moderator.