50th Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation: Roundtable Discussion of Track Record and Future Prospects

AbstractThe establishment of the ASEAN-Japan Forum on Synthetic Rubber in 1973 is said to be the beginning of the partnership between ASEAN and Japan. Half a century has passed since then, and the politics, economics, and societies of Japan and ASEAN countries have dramatically changed. Furthermore, the international and regional circumstances surrounding them are also significantly transforming. They are facing new challenges, such as the escalation of great power rivalry between the United States and China, the rise of protectionism and economic statecraft, the retreat of democracy, the middle-income trap, widening economic and social disparity, aging societies, growing environmental problems, and so on. How can these challenges be overcome through the new partnership between ASEAN and Japan? What should be specifically considered and implemented? With these issues in mind, four specialists exchanged their views at a roundtable discussion held at the International House of Japan on May 2, 2023. Additional informationNotes on contributorsOba MiePanel Chair and Report EditorOba Mie, Professor in the Faculty of Law, Kanagawa University. She obtained her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo. Her major is International Relations and politics in East Asia and Asia-Pacific, with a focus on the development of regionalism and Japan’s policy in terms of regionalism and relationship between Japan and Southeast Asia. She has published multiple articles and books both in Japanese and English, including “Further development of Asian regionalism: institutional hedging in an uncertain era” Journal of Contemporary East Asian Studies (2019), Jusoteki-Chiiki toshiteno Ajia: Tairitsu to Kyozon no Kozu [Asia as a Multi-layered Region: Co-existence in Conflicts], Yuhikaku (2014), Ajia Taiheiyo Chiiki Keisei heno Dotei: Kyokai-Kokka Nichi-Go no Aidentiti Mosaku to Chiiki-Shyugi [The Invention of the Asia Pacific Region: A History of Regionalism and Search for Identity by Japan and Australia as Liminal Nations], Minerva Shobo (2004). She received The 21st Ohira Masayoshi Memorial Prize (2005) and the 11th Nakasone Yasuhiro Incentive Award (2015). She was the Chairperson, Expert Panel for the 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation (until February 2023).Endo TamakiEndo Tamaki, Professor at Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Saitama University. Her research interests include the informal economy, urban development, inequality, and the global value chain. She received her Ph.D. in Economics (2007) from Kyoto University. Main publications are Living with Risks: Precarity & Bangkok’s Urban Poor (NUS Press association with Kyoto University Press, 2014), Goto, Endo and Ito [eds], The Asian Economy: Contemporary Issues and Challenges (Routledge, 2020) and Urban Risk and Well-Being in Asian Mega Cities: Urban lower and middle classes in Bangkok, Shanghai, and Tokyo, (Endo and Shibuya [eds], Routledge, 2023). She has received several awards including the 28th Ohira Memorial Prize and the 34th Daido Life Foundation Incentive Award for Area Studies. She was a member of the Expert Panel for the 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation (until February 2023).Jimbo KenPanel ParticipantsJimbo Ken, Professor of International Relations in the Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University and a Managing Director of Programs at the International House of Japan (IHJ/I-House). He is concurrently an adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Canon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS). He served as Advisor to the Minister of Defense, Japan Ministry of Defense (2020), and Senior Advisor, The National Security Secretariat (2018-20). His main research interests are in International Security, Japan-US Security Relations, and Japan’s Foreign and Defense Policy. His policy writings have appeared in RAND Corporation, NBR, Stimson Center, Pacific Forum CSIS, The Japan Times, Nikkei, Yomiuri, Asahi, and Sankei Shimbun.Mieno FumiharuFumiharu Mieno, Professor of economics and director, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. His major research areas are the financial system in economic development, the financial sector in Southeast Asia, and the economies of Southeast Asia, Thailand, and Indochina countries. His major publications are Kin’yu shisutem kaikaku to Tonan’ajia—choki suzei to kigyo kin’yu no Jissho bunseki [Financial Reform and Southeast Asia: Analyzing Regional Long-term Trends and Corporate Finance] (in Japanese, Keiso Shobo, 2015), Economic Transition in Myanmar After 1988: Market Economy Versus State Control, (NUS Press, Singapore, 2009), “Impact of Foreign Entry into the Banking Sector: The Case of Thailand in 1999–2014,” Pacific-Basin Finance Journal 2020. He has served as a board member of Japan Association of Asian Studies and Japan Association for International Development, East Asian Economic Association, and as an editorial member of Asian Economic Journal, and Developing Economies, etc. He also has led various policy dialogue programs by the Government of Japan on Myanmar and Laos since the early 2000s. He obtained a Ph.D. in Economics in 1999 at Hitotsubashi University. Before his current position, he worked as associate and full professor at Hosei University and Kobe University and also as visiting faculty at Thammasat University, Chulalongkorn University, and Columbia University.