We hereby have the pleasure of inviting you to attend the third lecture in our lecture series on Japan in the current world order taking place in the Spring and Fall of 2023 in cooperation with Copenhagen Business School and Sasakawa Peace Foundation.

Japan maintains important links to Southeast Asia. In fact, the ASEAN countries are Japan’s second largest trading partner. In many of these countries Japan is now competing with China for economic and political influence. Has Japan’s “embrace” of Southeast Asia” been replaced by China and is the “flying geese model” still applicable in describing the economic and technological dependencies in the region?

The lecture features Professor Masafumi Ishii, former Ambassador of Japan to Indonesia, as the main speaker. He will focus on the emerging prominence of Southeast Asia on the international scene and discuss what measures Japan and the Western powers can take to engage ASEAN countries to a greater extent.

The speakers will be:

Professor Masafumi Ishii is presently teaching International Law at Gakushuin University in Tokyo and is an Advisor to private Japanese corporations. After graduating from Tokyo University, he joined The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1980, where he held the post of Director General for Global Issues and Legal Advisor, among others. Professor Ishii has extensive overseas experience as Ambassador in Washington DC, NATO, and several European countries. Most recently, he served as Ambassador of Japan to Indonesia for almost four years and retired from the Japanese Foreign Service in 2021.

Executive Director of Asia House and former Ambassador Susanne Rumohr Hækkerup will serve as discussant and initiate the discussion following Professor Ishii’s lecture.

Director of The Danish Foreign Policy Society, Charlotte Flindt Pedersen, will be moderating.

Please sign up the latest April 26, 2023 by purchasing your free tickets here.