ARCHIVED Issues at Home and Abroad – Japan’s Agenda for 2022: A Conversation with Noriyuki Shikata
Date
Tuesday 15 February 2022
Time
1.00 - 2.00pm (GMT)
10.00 - 11.00pm (JST)
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Booking Details
Free – Donations Welcome
Registration essential
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To consider what might be in store for Japan in 2022, Japan Society Chair, Bill Emmott, is joined by Noriyuki Shikata, who was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Public Affairs when Prime Minister Kishida took office in October 2021.
On the Prime Minister’s domestic agenda are matters such as his ‘new capitalism’ with promises of a change in the balance between capital and workers, continuing handling of the pandemic, delivery of promises on climate change mitigation targets, and a strategy for economic growth post-covid. The foreign policy agenda is likely to be equally demanding with rising tensions around Taiwan, growing Chinese pressure and capabilities in the East and South China Seas, and a new round of North Korean provocations, but also closer to home the development of the UK’s “tilt” to the Indo-Pacific and application to join the 11-country CPTPP trade agreement.
Success in July’s Upper House elections would give the Kishida government three years before a 2025 general election, so what are his top priorities for the next few months and for beyond the Upper House poll?
Noriyuki Shikata is Cabinet Secretary for Public Affairs under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Most recently, he was Assistant Minister/Director General, Economic Affairs Bureau of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). In a distinguished foreign service career he has served as Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Japan in China (2017-2019); Deputy Director General, Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, MoFA (2016-2017); Political Minister, Embassy of Japan in the UK (2012-2014); Director of Global Communications, Prime Minister’s Office (2010-2012). He has also been a Visiting Professor at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Law/Public Policy, and Associate, Program on US-Japan Relations, Harvard University. He holds a B.A. in Law from Kyoto University and Master of Public Policy (MPP) from Harvard Kennedy School of Government. His Twitter handle is: @norishikata.
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