Japan's Quiet Leadership
Wednesday April 17th | 2:00 pm-3:15 pm
University Hall Political Science Village
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Japan's resurgence from its "lost decades" and its increasing significance in the Indo-Pacific geopolitics are explored in "Japan’s Quiet Leadership." The book delves into Japan's economic and political evolution, adept economic statecraft, and the challenges shaping its security landscape. Highlighting Japan's democratic resilience, social stability, and proactive diplomacy, it also addresses pressing issues such as depopulation and rising inequality. The narrative traces Japan's transformation into a network power, emphasizing its economic strategy and security diplomacy. Despite geopolitical tensions and pandemic challenges, Japan must maintain connectivity and address domestic transformations in the green, digital, and human capital domains. As the nation moves beyond the Abe era, this book sheds light on Japan's trajectory into the 2020s and beyond.
Mireya Solís is director of the Center for East Asia Policy Studies, Philip Knight Chair in Japan Studies, and a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. Prior to her arrival at Brookings, Solís was a tenured associate professor at American University’s School of International Service.
Her most recent book, “Japan’s Quiet Leadership: Reshaping the Indo-Pacific” (Brookings Press, September 2023) addresses the question of why and how Japan has emerged from the “lost decades” unscathed from the populist wave and a far more consequential actor in the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific. The book provides a sweeping look at Japan’s domestic economic and political evolution, its economic statecraft, and the array of geopolitical challenges that have triggered a gradual but substantial shift in the country’s security profile. This deep dive into Japan’s trajectory over the last three decades underscores Japan’s hidden strengths in its democratic resilience, social stability, and proactive diplomacy; while reckoning with the profound challenges the nation faces: depopulation, rising inequality, voter disengagement, and threats to Asia’s long peace.
Solís has offered expert commentary to The New York Times, Financial Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Politico, The New Yorker, Nikkei, Kyodo News, Asahi Shimbun, Jiji Press, Japan Times, NHK World, Bloomberg, CNN, and BBC, among others. Solís earned a doctorate in government and a master’s in East Asian studies from Harvard University, and a bachelor’s in international relations from El Colegio de México.