Professor Samuels will lead a discussion on the topic:

“Japan’s New National Defense Program Guidelines: Reaching for the Spear?”

The National Defense Program Guidelines (NDPG) is the most important long-term policy statement of Japanese defense priorities and its military posture.

The 2018 revision of the NDPG did not endorse an overseas strike role, but the Japanese government nevertheless plans to acquire and develop weapons that would support deeper projection of military power into the territory of potential adversaries by the mid-2020s – if the Japanese government chose to do so.

These choices raise new questions about the government’s commitment to Japan’s traditional ‘defensive defense’ posture, and whether in the age of Trump Japan is content with its role as the shield complementing the American spear.

Professor Samuels will discuss these issues as well as his research on important changes to Japan’s domestic security policy institutions, including the National Security Council and Japan’s intelligence community reforms.

This event is jointly sponsored by SWP, the Einstein Foundation Berlin, and the Graduate School of East Asian Studies, Freie Universität Berlin.