Geostrategic Outlook for Asia 2022

Background: In 2013, National Association of Japan-America Societies (NAJAS) and The Sasakawa Peace
Foundation (SPF) developed the concept of "Japan Update Through Japan-America Societies", to provide
public affairs updates. In 2019, NAJAS and SPF decided to partner on a new public affairs program focusing on
the geostrategic challenges in Asia. NAJAS and SPF feel that this series is an important contribution tounderstanding of alliances at the grassroots level. The series is carried out by local Japan Societies acrossNorth America, and each event is composed of two recognized experts, one from Japan and North America, ina discussion format. The series is named "Geostrategy in the Grassroots".
Speakers:James L. Schoff
James L. Schoff is senior director of the “U.S.-Japan NEXT Alliance Initiative” at Sasakawa
Peace Foundation USA. As leader of this initiative, Schoff fosters networking anddevelopment of joint recommendations involving a wide range of policy and technicalspecialists, in and out of government, to stimulate new alliance connections across foreign,
security, and technology policy areas. The purpose is to help improve the alliance and how it serves sharedinterests, preparing it for new challenges in an increasingly complex and fluid geostrategic environment.
Previously, Schoff was a senior fellow and director of the Japan Program at the Carnegie Endowment forInternational Peace for nine years, following two years as senior adviser for East Asia policy at the U.S. Officeof the Secretary of Defense. Schoff’s career spans over thirty years working in the fields of business,education, government, and the non-profit sector, all related to Japan, East Asia, and the U.S.-Japan alliance.
His publications include “A High-Tech Alliance: Challenges and Opportunities for U.S.-Japan Science andTechnology Collaboration,” (Carnegie, 2021) and Uncommon Alliance for the Common Good: The UnitedStates and Japan after the Cold War (Carnegie, 2017).
Dr. Shino Watanabe
Dr. Shino Watanabe is Professor at the Faculty of Global Studies, Sophia University inTokyo, Japan and Visiting Scholar (Fulbright Scholar) at the Sigur Center for AsianStudies, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. After
graduating from the Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo, she received her M.A. in
Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School, Tufts University and earned her Ph.D. in
Foreign Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics, University of Virginia.
She also studied at the School of International Studies, Peking University (2007-2008). She served as RIPS
(Research Institute for Peace and Security)-CGP (Center for Global Partnership) Security Studies Fellow of theJapan Foundation (2004-2006), Research Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA)(2008-2010), Associate Professor at Saitama University (2010-2014), and Associate Professor at Sophia
University (2014-2017). Her main research interests are Chinese foreign policy, international relations of East
Asia, and international development finance.

Moderator: Peter KelleyPeter Kelley has been President of NAJAS since 2009. He came to NAJAS with longexperience with Japan in both the private and not-for-profit sectors. From 1985-2003, heworked for Teradyne, Inc., a Boston-based supplier of semiconductor test equipment,
spending five years each in Japan and Europe and establishing the company’s Connection
Systems Division in Japan. From 2004-2009, he was Executive Director of theHarvard-Yenching Institute in Cambridge, Mass., an independent foundation dedicated to the promotion ofthe humanities in higher education in Asia. He is a graduate of Harvard College, with a major in East AsianStudies, and the University of Maine School of Law. In 2016, he was awarded a Foreign Minister’sCommendation by the government of Japan for his work in support of the commemorations of the 70th
Anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
Abstract of the event:
The Japan Society and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Japan (CCCJ), in partnership with the Sasakawa
Peace Foundation, and the National Association of Japan-America Societies (NAJAS), are honoured to present
you an online program focusing on geostrategic challenges in Asia featuring James Schoff and Professor Shino
Watanabe, who will discuss political, security & economic relations and how these factors can shape thefuture of our world in 2022 and beyond.