Our second of five “Geostrategy in the Grassroots” talks for this year —- again generously enabled by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation / 公益財団法人 笹川平和財団 — featured Kyoto University of Advanced Science Assoc. Prof. Takahiro Tsuchiya and Jim Schoff of the U.S.-Japan Alliance NEXT program at Sasakawa USA was a big success.
The achievement was in large measure owing to a sophisticated and enthusiastic crowd gathered by the Japan-America Society of North Carolina this week, which actively engaged with the speakers and the topic.
The scholars and skillful moderator Christopher Chung stirred up a lively discussion under the theme “Emerging Technologies in the Indo-Pacific.”
Underlaying discussion was the reminder that U.S.-Japan cooperation around game-changing technologies is as much an imperative as it was 70 years ago when President Dwight Eisenhower stated as much in an address at the United Nations.
A second fundamental point is the by now global agreement on where those technologies reside: computing, cleantech and biotech.
All three fields are well represented in the labs and research centers of Research Triangle Park in the “RDU” area. And North Carolina, of course, continues to serve as a magnet for for both domestic and foreign direct investment in manufacturing and services, especially from top investor, Japan.
What to do to further foment and innovate in these critical areas is less clear: protect..? de-risk..? de-couple from an adversarial power? All approaches were probed by Messrs Schoff and Tsuchiya.
A great discussion owing to special efforts from dynamic leaders of JASNC, new ED Michi Calcagno, and JASNC Chair (and honorary Japanese Consul in North Carolina and Maynard Nexsen International Compliance attorney David Robinson.
Special gratitude to the traveling scholars and @Aya Murata of Sasakawa for bringing us all together.
Onward to more geo-strat debate with this series in Atlanta, St. Louis and Chicago.
… and keep eyes on NC around the PM Kishida visit next month and for the SEUS conference in Charlotte a half-year later. A U.S.-Japan forerunner in ‘24, the tar heel state!
