About the Participants

Masahiro Akiyama is Chairman of the Ocean Policy Research Foundation and a Professor at Rikkyo University. He served in the Ministry of Finance and the Defence Agency of Japan for over thirty years, holding positions in the Defence Agency such as Director-General of the Bureau of Defense Policy and Administrative Vice Minister. He has also been a visiting scholar at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and at the Asia Center, Harvard University. He received an LL.B. from the Faculty of Law, Tokyo University.

Taro Aso is a Liberal Democratic Party Member of the House of Representatives of Japan. He was formerly President of Aso Cement Company, and was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1979. His posts have included Vice Minister for Education, Sports, Science and Culture; Chairman, Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives; Director, Foreign Affairs Division, LDP; Minister of State, Economic Planning Agency; Minister of State, Economic and Fiscal Policy; Chairman, Policy Research Council, LDP; Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications; Minister for Foreign Affairs; and Secretary-General of the LDP. He graduated from the Faculty of Politics and Economics, Gakushuin University, and did postgraduate work at Stanford University and the London School of Economics. He was also a member of the Japanese shooting team at the 1976 Summer Olympic Games in Montreal.

Kurt Campbell is Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of the Center for a New American Security. From 2000 to 2007, he served as Senior Vice President, Director of the International Security Program, and the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in National Security Policy at CSIS. Dr. Campbell’s government service has included time as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia and the Pacific, Director on the National Security Council Staff, and earlier service as a Navy Intelligence Officer. He also previously taught at Harvard University. Dr. Campbell is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Wasatch Group, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He received a doctorate in international relations from Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar. Dr. Campbell is coauthor of Hard Power: The New Politics of National Security, principal author of To Prevail: An American Strategy for the Campaign against Terrorism, and coeditor of The Nuclear Tipping Point.

Michael Green is the Japan Chair and a Senior Adviser at CSIS as well as an Associate Professor of International Relations at Georgetown University. He served as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council from January 2004 to December 2005, and first joined the NSC in 2001. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Institute for International Security Studies. Dr. Green received his Ph.D. from SAIS in 1994. His publications include Japan’s Reluctant Realism (2001), The U.S.-Japan Alliance (1999), and Arming Japan (1995).

Daniel Inouye is a Democratic Senator from the State of Hawaii, Chairman of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. He served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in World War II and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, which was upgraded to the Medal of Honor in 2000. He was elected as the first Congressman from Hawaii in 1959, and was first elected to the Senate in 1962. He was a member of the Watergate Committee, was the first Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and was Chairman of the Iran-Contra Committee. He is a graduate of the University of Hawaii and the George Washington University Law School.

Makoto Iokibe is the President of the National Defense Academy of Japan. Dr. Iokibe was Professor of History in the Department of Law, Kobe University, from 1981-2006. He previously taught at Hiroshima University, was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University, and was an academic visitor at the London School of Economics. He was a member of the Prime Minister’s Commission on “Japan’s Goals in the 21st Century,” which submitted its report in January 2000. He received his B.A. in law and M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Kyoto University. He is the author of several books (in Japanese), including The Pacific War, the Occupation and the Peace, 1941-1955 (2001), The U.S. Occupation Policy for Japan (Suntory Academic Award, 1986), Japan and the Changing World Order (1991), The Occupation Era: The Prime Ministers and Rebuilding of Postwar Japan, 1945-1952 (Yoshino Sakuzo Prize, 1997), and Diplomatic History of Postwar Japan, 1945-1999 (Yoshida Shigeru Award, 1999).

Koji Murata is Professor of International Security Studies at Doshisha University, Kyoto. Professor Murata obtained a B.A. in Political Science from Doshisha University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Kobe University. He also holds an M.Phil in Political Science from the George Washington University, where he studied as a Fulbright fellow. Dr. Murata has received various awards: the Yomiuri Merit Award for New Opinion Leadership, the Yoshida Shigeru Award, the Suntory Academic Award, and the Shimizu Hiroshi Award from the Japan Association for American Studies. His specialties include U.S. foreign policy, the history of the U.S.-Japan alliance, and Japan's foreign and defense policy. He is the author of four books in Japanese and many papers and chapters both in Japanese and English. Professor Murata is a frequent commentator on TV and in newspapers and magazines in Japan.

Yohei Sasakawa is Chairman of the Nippon Foundation, the World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, and Japan's Ambassador for the Human Rights of People Affected by Leprosy. As Chairman of The Nippon Foundation, Japan's largest charitable foundation, he has been a pioneer in guiding public-interest activities by the private sector in today's Japan. Under Chairman Sasakawa's leadership, the Nippon Foundation has focused on leprosy elimination, agricultural development in Africa, maritime security, education, and regional understanding in Asia. Sasakawa received his degree from Meiji University’s School of Political Science and Economics. He has also received national honors from many countries from Mongolia to Togo, and holds several honorary doctorates and professorships from universities such as the Rochester Institute of Technology, Shanghai Maritime University, the University of Bucharest, Jadavpur University, and World Maritime University.

Shunji Yanai is a Judge of the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea. Ambassador Yanai served in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for over forty years and was ambassador to the United States from 1999-2001. He also currently teaches law at Waseda and Chuo universities, is a senior advisor to the rector of the United Nations University, and is a director of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. He received an LL.B. from the Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo. He is the author of numerous articles, including “Japan and the Emerging Order of the Sea: Two Maritime Laws of Japan,” “Remembering and Forgetting: The U.S. Role in the Asia Pacific at the Turn of the Century,” “Evolution of Japan’s Peace-keeping Operations,” and “United Nations’ Contributions to the Prevention and Settlement of Conflicts.”

Shunji Yanai is a Judge of the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea. Ambassador Yanai served in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for over forty years and was ambassador to the United States from 1999-2001. He also currently teaches law at Waseda and Chuo universities, is a senior advisor to the rector of the United Nations University, and is a director of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. He received an LL.B. from the Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo. Ambassador Yanai is the author of numerous articles, including Japan and the Emerging Order of the Sea: Two Maritime Laws of Japan, Remembering and Forgetting: The U.S. Role in the Asia Pacific at the Turn of the Century, Evolution of Japan’s Peacekeeping Operations, and United Nations’ Contributions to the Prevention and Settlement of Conflicts.