The Honorable Yasuhiro Nakasone is former Prime Minister
and former Member of the House of Representatives of Japan. He was
elected to the House of Representatives in 1947, serving for 20 consecutive
terms until he retired in 2003. Mr. Nakasone held numerous government
positions before becoming prime minister, including Minister of the
Interior, Director General of the Science and Technology Agency,
and Chairman of the Nuclear Commission in the second Kishi cabinet.
He was also appointed Minister of Transportation in 1967 under the
second Sato cabinet, Minister of the Interior and Director General
of the Defense Agency in 1970 under the third Sato cabinet, Minister
of International Trade and Industry in 1972 under the first and second
Tanaka cabinets, and Minister the Interior and Director General of
the Administrative Management Agency in 1980 and 1981 under the Suzuki
cabinet. He became president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
in 1982 and served as prime minister of Japan from 1982 until 1987.
He is Chairman of the Institute for International Policy Studies
(IIPS), which he founded in 1988, and is the Honorary President of
the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF). Mr. Nakasone graduated
from the Faculty of Law of Tokyo University.
Professor Kent Calder is Director of The Edwin O. Reischauer
Center for East Asian Studies, Director of Japan Studies, and Edwin
O. Reischauer Professor of East Asian Studies at The Paul H. Nitze
School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University.
Previously he was Professor of Politics and International Affairs
at Princeton University where he taught for twenty years. Professor
Calder also served as Special Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to Japan
from 1977-2001. He was Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies from 1989-1993 and 1996. He has also been executive
director of the Harvard University Program on U.S.-Japan Relations,
and lecturer on government at Harvard. Professor Calder received
his Ph.D. from Harvard. He is the author of Crisis and Compensation,
recipient of the 1990 Arisawa and Ohira Prizes, Pacific Defense,
recipient of the 1997 Mainichi Asia-Pacific Prize, and Strategic
Capitalism, as well as co-author or editor of several other works.
This event is part of the Northeast Asia Political Economy Seminar
Series of the Reischauer Center and the Asian Voices Seminar Series
of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA
