Date and Time
October 2, 2009
4:30 PM - 6:30 PM

Availability
Open to the public
RSVP required by 5PM October 1

Speaker
Kent Calder - Director, Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at School of Advanced International Studies Johns Hopkins University

Yukio Hatoyama became prime minister of Japan on September 16, two weeks after a landslide election victory made his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) the first single opposition party to take over Japanese government since World War II. The DPJ now holds nearly two-thirds of the 480 seats in the Japanese Diet's powerful lower house, which approves budgets, initiates most legislation, and selects the prime minister. Given such dominance, the party, however fractious, will likely remain in power for at least the four years of its new parliamentary mandate -- influencing the country's political-economic landscape during a crucial period of transition in East Asian affairs, and potentially in U.S.-Japanese relations as well. Weighty issues affecting both Asian regionalism and the U.S. security role in East Asia loom over the next half decade.  Professor Calder will share his thoughts on how the future of U.S. - Japan relations.

Professor Calder is former special adviser to the U.S. ambassador to Japan; Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; professor for 20 years at Princeton University; lecturer and executive director of the U.S.-Japan Program at Harvard University; Ph.D., government, Harvard University