Japan’s Strategic Interests in Taiwan

US-Japan Short Takes Series

Date: Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024

Time: 7:30-8:30 PM (Eastern Time)

Online only

About the event:

China’s escalating coercion campaign against Taiwan is causing seismic shifts in strategic thinking across the region, perhaps nowhere more than in Japan. Although most discussions about the status and future of Taiwan focus on the China-Taiwan-US triangle, Japan arguably has as much or more at stake than the US. Japan’s first and third-largest trading partners are China and Taiwan, respectively. If hostilities broke out between the two, it would be difficult for Japan to remain on the sidelines. Yuki Tatsumi, director of the Japan Program at the Stimson Center, will explain Japan’s perspective on Taiwan, how it hopes to maintain the status quo, and how rising tensions have pushed it to dramatically revise its national security posture.

About the speaker:

Yuki Tatsumi is a senior fellow and co-director of the East Asia Program and director of the Japan Program at the Stimson Center. Before joining Stimson, Ms. Tatsumi worked as a research associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and as the special assistant for political affairs at the Embassy of Japan in Washington. Recent publications include Balancing Between Nuclear Deterrence and Disarmament: Views from the Next Generation (ed., 2018) and Lost in Translation? U.S. Defense Innovation and Northeast Asia (2017). She is a recipient of the 2009 Yasuhiro Nakasone Incentive Award. In 2012, she was awarded the Letter of Appreciation from the Ministry of National Policy of Japan for her contribution to advancing mutual understanding between the United States and Japan. Ms. Tatsumi holds a B.A. in liberal arts from the International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan, and an M.A. in international economics and Asian studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington.

About the moderator:

Katherine Wilhelm is executive director of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute, an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law, and editor of the institute’s online essay series, USALI Perspectives. Her research focuses on the Chinese legal system, especially public interest law and civil society. Before joining USALI, she worked in China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam for nearly three decades, where she split her career between law, philanthropy, and journalism. She was the legal program officer at the Ford Foundation’s China office. Before that, she directed the Beijing office of Yale Law School’s China Law Center. She also practiced corporate law in the Beijing office of a leading US law firm. Before beginning her career in law, she reported for The Associated Press from Beijing, Hong Kong, and Hanoi, and for the Far Eastern Economic Review from Hong Kong and Shanghai.