CSPAN - Japanese Lawmakers on U.S.-Japan Relations
Aired: 2026-05-04
Duration: 58:59


=== Deepening The U.S.-Japan Alliance (14:50) ===

[00:00:00]  Of lost the war and so forth.
[00:00:01]  Do you agree with that?
[00:00:02]  In terms of the ideology, the person he was, and his willingness to walk away from power, that was extraordinary.
[00:00:10]  I always tell my students America has lucked out a number of times, and the first time it lucked out was with George Washington in that position of extraordinary power.
[00:00:19]  Walking away from the army first, and that's just why that's in the rotunda of the Capitol, but then walking away from the presidency is an extraordinary thing.
[00:00:29]  Watch America's Book Club with Heather Cox Richardson Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN.
[00:00:47]  C-SPAN's America's Book Club programming is brought to you by the cable, satellite, and streaming companies that provide C-SPAN as a public service.
[00:00:57]  Current and former Japanese lawmakers and government officials spoke about the state of relations between Japan and the U.S., hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
[00:01:08]  They highlight the trade and security ties between the two nations.
[00:01:12]  This is just under an hour.
[00:01:20]  So, my name is Christy Govala, and I'm Senior Advisor and Japan Chair here at CSIS.
[00:01:25]  I've been told to remind you, on a note for those here, that if you're using the translation receivers, English is on channel 2 and Japanese is on channel 10.
[00:01:36]  So, I'm so honored to be on stage with three wonderful speakers who are going to share their perspective with us today.
[00:01:44]  To my left, we have Itsunori Onodera, who is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party representing the Miyagi 5th District in the House of Representatives.
[00:01:53]  He's currently the chairperson for the Research Commission on the Tax System.
[00:01:58]  He also served as Minister of Defense from 2012 to 2014 and again from 2017 to 2018, among his many other important posts.
[00:02:08]  To his left, we have Fumitake Fujita, who serves as co-representative of the Japan Innovation Party, Nippon Ishi no Kai, and represents the Osaka 12th District in the House of Representatives.
[00:02:21]  And to his left, we have Asay Ito, who is an associate professor in the Institute of Social Science at the University of Tokyo.
[00:02:29]  And his research covers various topics related to the Chinese economy, including industrial development, outward foreign direct investment, and innovation.
[00:02:38]  So let's kick it off by looking at the security environment, which is evolving on a daily basis, it seems.
[00:02:47]  So I'd like to turn to Omodera-sensei.
[00:02:50]  In addition to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, Japan faces a rapidly deteriorating security environment in the Indo-Pacific.
[00:02:58]  There are really challenges, it seems, everywhere one looks.
[00:03:03]  Could you offer your assessment of recent security dynamics and the greatest security challenges that you feel Japan is facing right now?
[00:03:20]  The biggest change for the last two years is Russia and North Korea and their closer relations.
[00:03:27]  Especially the ammunition used in Russia is being exported from North Korea, according to a South Korean research agency.
[00:03:40]  Already new North Korean soldiers have been dying on the Ukrainian front with Russian soldiers.
[00:03:54]  It's almost an alliance.
[00:03:57]  North Koreans have cap capacity, even in their neighborhood, they've already been quite successful with multiple warhead missiles in testing.
[00:04:13]  Russia and China are also doing joint military exercises around Japan.
[00:04:19]  This has become routine around Japan.
[00:04:25]  There are greater security concerns.
[00:04:28]  In the background of this, is the invasion of Ukraine by Russia at war.
[00:04:38]  Economic sanctions have been applied on Russia by Western countries, and Japan is also doing this.
[00:04:44]  Russia is in a difficult position because of this.
[00:04:50]  Japan's stance toward Ukraine is that Japan is supporting Ukraine, and the fact is we're doing so at some sacrifice.
[00:05:01]  Another thing is the existence of China.
[00:05:05]  They're already deploying an operational third carrier strike group.
[00:05:14]  Even in the Pacific, Chinese activities are increasing.
[00:05:19]  I recently went to Taiwan, even in Taiwan.
[00:05:24]  They are feeling a great bit of pressure from China scrambles and so forth.
[00:05:34]  The security environment in East Asia is getting quite tough.
[00:05:41]  For our ally, the United States, from the U.S., the Mideast and Central and South America are taking up quite a bit of military resources, and a great concern is perhaps the U.S. is spread thin in Asia.
[00:06:03]  We are revising our defense strategy.
[00:06:09]  If there are questions about this, I can talk about this, about our revision of strategy and our defense build-up plan and budget.
[00:06:18]  We will have to thoroughly discuss all of those.
[00:06:22]  I am head of the budget committee now.
[00:06:27]  And so we'll be consulting with the Ministry of Finance in order to obtain the necessary budget.
[00:06:34]  So, Onodera-sensei, you've laid out a very challenging security environment between Russia-North Korea cooperation, China-Russia cooperation, the increasing thinness of how the U.S. military is spread out globally.
[00:06:49]  So, perhaps I could turn next to Fujita-sensei and look a little bit at U.S.-Japan relations.
[00:06:56]  So, Prime Minister Takeichi and President Trump met recently in Washington and reaffirmed a shared commitment to defense and economic cooperation and a shared understanding of many of these problems.
[00:07:09]  But much has happened since that March meeting.
[00:07:11]  So, how do you evaluate the current state of U.S.-Japan relations?
[00:07:16]  Are you concerned about the durability of U.S. forward presence in Asia and some of the other challenges that Onodera-sensei laid out?
[00:07:31]  First of all, as Representative Onodera said, the global security environment is very difficult, and there are three fronts: Asia, Mideast, Ukraine, Europe.
[00:07:47]  The U.S.-Japan alliance has to be deepened.
[00:07:53]  is for sure, first of all.
[00:07:56]  Having said that, the U.S.-Japan relationship is unchecked.
[00:08:02]  Especially, we have needed to get a bit more independent.
[00:08:12]  And the LDP and Ishinokai Innovation Coalition have made progress on this, as we talked about this morning.
[00:08:24]  The five classifications for transfer of military equipment have been the restrictions have been relaxed.
[00:08:37]  And we have national intelligence headquarters that's going to be stood up.
[00:08:47]  And in order to get better cooperation with the U.S., we have to strengthen our own capabilities and not rely only on the U.S. and make Japan a more reliable partner for the U.S.
[00:09:01]  And we want to make progress in that area.
[00:09:05]  Well, I think many of these moves are ones that are welcomed by the Trump administration as it also looks for allies and partners to do more.
[00:09:12]  To pick up on the points that you made about some of the recent evolution of policy in Japan, let me turn back to Olmoira-sensei.
[00:09:21]  So we've heard a lot about how the Japanese government plans to update its three strategic documents, the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy, and the Defense Buildup Program, which is supposed to happen by the end of this year.
[00:09:34]  So what do you think Japan should be prioritizing in these documents?
[00:09:38]  And what is the most important thing that you believe people in Washington should know about Japan's security strategy moving forward?
[00:09:57]  Our current national security strategy, I was one of the people responsible for preparing standoff capability, counter-strike capability, cyberspace information collection, and to create a national intelligence bureau.
[00:10:20]  I think we have made progress on all of this over the past five years.
[00:10:24]  The Japanese public understands that the security environment is difficult and they have shown understanding.
[00:10:33]  Moving forward, what we need first, Japan's capability, not just Japan and the United States, but more broadly, like-munded countries, we have to expand.
[00:10:48]  Earlier, Representative Fujita mentioned that the government of Japan took an important decision last week, and it was to take a stance where Japanese defense items can be more freely exported, especially we have roughly 17 countries that have the necessary requirements,
[00:11:17]  but it will be even expanded more in the future.
[00:11:21]  More specifically, to Australian Japanese destroyers, 11 of them will be sold.
[00:11:32]  This is pretty much decided in the same way to surrounding countries.
[00:11:38]  There is great interest in the Philippines, radars, ships, destroyers, Indonesia as well are very interested in Japanese destroyers.
[00:11:50]  What we're trying to Achieve is to raise as a team deterrence among like-minded countries in the same way that the U.S. has done in countries among countries around Japan.
[00:12:10]  And this can be a big tool, the transfer of defense items.
[00:12:16]  We have a new framework with the Innovation Party, and we've been able to do it quickly.
[00:12:23]  Also, next, we will have to look at we looked at cyber and EM in the past, but now if you look at the Ukraine war and the Iran-Israel attacks, we are getting a lot of detailed information from this.
[00:12:48]  And we have seen that there's something different.
[00:12:52]  Suicide drones with AI are very cheap, easy to manufacture.
[00:13:01]  If you use a lot of them, then it's a new trend in the battlefield.
[00:13:08]  One more thing, the Ukraine war has lasted for quite some years, for a long time.
[00:13:16]  You have to be able to protect your country, and that's thanks to supply.
[00:13:24]  You can't do this just with your own country's capabilities.
[00:13:30]  Ukraine has supply from a lot of NATO countries and is able to fight back against the Russian invasion.
[00:13:38]  Japan has to be able to increase its capability to fight a war over the duration by increasing stockpiles and when it becomes necessary to be able to cooperate with other countries.
[00:13:56]  If you look at the Japanese defense industry now, the most active area is the company that is buying Patriot missiles from the U.S.
[00:14:09]  They are buying quite a bit.
[00:14:12]  Other missiles I understand are being requested among our talks with the U.S., what is Japan good at?
[00:14:22]  It's making things manufacturing a lot of precise things on time.
[00:14:30]  That's what Japan is good at.
[00:14:32]  What is the U.S. good at?
[00:14:34]  Ideas and developing material that's actually useful on the battlefield.
[00:14:43]  By putting these two together, the U.S.-Japan alliance can be heightened, and that's what I hope.

=== China-Japan Relations And Speculation (15:14) ===

[00:14:50]  Thank you for sharing those insights on how Japan is thinking about lessons learned from the Ukraine conflict and from the Middle East, as well as about what's necessary to cope with the changing security environment.
[00:15:04]  So, let me turn to Ito Sensei next, and we can take up the topic of China-Japan relations, which is kind of underneath a number of the conversations that we're having here.
[00:15:15]  So, as many people know, tensions have been increasing between China and Japan since November of last year.
[00:15:22]  How do you view this situation, including China's use of economic coercion and other kinds of tactics against Japan since that time?
[00:15:30]  Do you see any potential for improvement of China-Japan relations in the near future?
[00:15:35]  Or what's your take on the situation?
[00:15:39]  Well, I'm not a diet member, by the way, so let me speak directly.
[00:15:46]  So, basically, As you know, that the Japan-China relation nowadays is a quite cold relationship.
[00:16:00]  So the pandas are gone, you know, there's no panda in Japan.
[00:16:05]  I heard that the two pandas in this DC, right?
[00:16:08]  So Smithsonian Zoo.
[00:16:12]  It represents how US-China relation is going well, right?
[00:16:17]  So pandas gone.
[00:16:21]  Chinese tourists visiting Japan declined 50%.
[00:16:26]  That's the latest statistics.
[00:16:29]  Also, the Chinese government implemented the export control of the GRU technologies to targeting Japan.
[00:16:42]  So the recent events shows us basically the real cold relationship.
[00:16:52]  We do see very little motivation to normalize the Japan-China relation to back to the regular context.
[00:17:08]  So that's, I think, the basic observation as the Takai Cha administration won the February election after her statement over Taiwan also,
[00:17:29]  which the landslide victory show us the legitimacy of her policy direction, even including the approach to China, partially.
[00:17:46]  So the China side, looking at the political schedule, that there will be the 2027, the Chinese Communist Party Congress next year.
[00:17:59]  So Xi Jinping administration aims to continue the fourth term of the administration.
[00:18:11]  So coming year will be quite politically sensitive from Chinese perspective.
[00:18:17]  So it will be very little which can I think the communicate with Japan.
[00:18:26]  That's the basic political schedule.
[00:18:30]  Besides that, there are several planned meetings that first of all, the APEC, the December meeting this year, will be scheduled happening in the city of Shenzhen, right?
[00:18:53]  Also, the trade minister meeting will happen perhaps this month, late this month.
[00:19:01]  According to media report that the minister, the Akazawa, the Minister of the Economy, Trade and Industry, may visit the city of Suzhou.
[00:19:16]  You know, also the Yohe Kono-san, that the father, not the Taro Porn, but the Yohe Kono-san may visit the Beijing next month, perhaps.
[00:19:31]  So there are several possible channels, but the not necessarily, you know, solved all the contradiction or disagreement.
[00:19:39]  But As a Kadeng, China would be in Tokyo that I do concern that there are too little communication between Tokyo and Beijing, to be honest.
[00:19:54]  So why not?
[00:19:56]  There should be such kind of at least interaction between Japanese government and Chinese government this year.
[00:20:04]  But again, back to the first statement, the relationship will be hard to be warm up at the end.
[00:20:14]  That's my observation.
[00:20:16]  Thank you.
[00:20:17]  Thank you.
[00:20:19]  Olo Dera-sensei or Fujita-sensei, would you like to add any thoughts on the state of Japan-China relations?
[00:20:31]  China, military authorities, the situation somewhat trying to stabilize their staring at each other, I think.
[00:20:44]  But the Chinese military capacity has continued to increase.
[00:20:51]  Recently, they're using drones more and more.
[00:20:57]  If over the skies of the Senkaka Islands, when a Chinese military planes, the Japanese self-defense force scrambles in response, but when these become drones, we'll use command aircraft to scramble.
[00:21:16]  It might not be even useful to do so.
[00:21:20]  So, against incursions into our airships, it may become an era of drones versus drones.
[00:21:31]  Chinese military capabilities have been strengthened, and we are giving the utmost attention to this.
[00:21:44]  Basically, Japan-China's relations, we will seek mutually beneficial relations, but even though we depend on them economically, we are at a military standoff, and that is very difficult.
[00:22:01]  Chinese stance, we have to try to change it, but we can't.
[00:22:09]  But we have to try to get them to stop their hegemonic ambitions.
[00:22:17]  And we have to be faced with this fact, not just with conventional weapons, but also nuclear weapons, when they increase their capabilities.
[00:22:31]  We have to increase our deterrence and the U.S.'s forward deployment.
[00:22:37]  We have to have strong links with it, have cooperation with it.
[00:22:42]  We have to understand the importance of all of this.
[00:22:48]  Listening to the nuclear issue just now, the NPT conference recently vis-à-vis Japan, China, North Korea, Russia, having nuclear weapons, the three non-nuclear principles, isn't Japan going to change them?
[00:23:10]  These were concerns that were expressed, including the NPG.
[00:23:18]  What we'd like to tell clearly to the nuclear countries we will continue not having them, but Also understand that the NPET is supposed to make nuclear countries have efforts to reduce their nuclear arsenal.
[00:23:43]  China is doing the opposite.
[00:23:48]  They have quite good capability to create nuclear warheads and it seems that they're moving forward and therefore Japan should make clear statements about the nature of the NPT.
[00:24:04]  I think all of you have given us a sense of the complexity of the relationship with China and the different challenges that there are on the economic front, military, nuclear, etc.
[00:24:15]  So if we turn to US-China relations, perhaps we could start with Ito-sensei again.
[00:24:20]  Of course, recently in the news, there's been so much speculation about the upcoming meeting between President Trump and President Xi.
[00:24:28]  And of course, U.S.-China relations are very important also for Japanese foreign policy and Japan's own relationship with China.
[00:24:36]  So from your perspective, how do you view recent developments in U.S.-China relations under the second Trump administration?
[00:24:44]  And do you have a sense of what could be the potential outcomes of this meeting?
[00:24:52]  I have no idea.
[00:24:54]  So people in this city wouldn't know better.
[00:24:58]  So even some speculation is that there will be meeting or there will not be meeting.
[00:25:08]  I don't know.
[00:25:09]  But ultimately, there will be some negotiation going.
[00:25:15]  Not necessary this month, but the continued negotiation between China and the US.
[00:25:23]  So regardless of the size, big deal or small deal or no deal.
[00:25:30]  Anyway, perhaps at this moment, what if there will be offshore visit, what if there will be kind of the joint, let's say, memorandum will appear, that's still, I think, quite important signal to managing at least the relationship, not necessarily, you know, the stop to any competition.
[00:25:59]  But that's, I think, the first thing.
[00:26:04]  Then, as the Trump administration asks allies to invest to mainland U.S., right, so Japan, Korea, Taiwan.
[00:26:17]  So I think it's also quite natural that the administration will ask the Chinese company to invest to the U.S., for example, manufacturing industry, let's say E-V electric vehicle, for example, or other factories.
[00:26:38]  I think that I don't know about this still possible idea.
[00:26:44]  And the other thing is that from an economist perspective, reducing the trade deficit or trade surplus problem is that basically it is really efficient to modify the currency rate.
[00:27:05]  It's a quite efficient way to appreciate reminiscing, like the Praza code, like 85.
[00:27:15]  So there is a speculation about this kind of new Praza code or Mal Arago as I could, I don't know, but it will create huge impact because the Appreciated renminbi will reduce the export from China to US naturally, so reduce the trade deficit from the US side.
[00:27:41]  Also, it is quite beneficial for Chinese economy structurally speaking that there has been too much capital investment.
[00:27:54]  So also appreciated Renminbi will give the greater purchasing power to Chinese citizens, Chinese consumers.
[00:28:07]  So it will also contribute to the Xi Jinping's common prosperity, the idea that emphasizing domestic consumption, right?
[00:28:20]  Also, it will reduce the overcapacity program in the long run.
[00:28:27]  So I think it's quite, you know, from the economist perspective, it is the solution, one of the solutions, using such kind of the price mechanism.
[00:28:39]  But it was quite difficult to happen because from the Beijing perspective, Praza Accord 1985 was the, you know, that was the cause of the Japanese stagnation from Beijing perspective at least.
[00:29:00]  That was the beginning of the lost decades of Japan from Beijing's understanding, at least.
[00:29:12]  So strategically speaking, that will be a very hard choice.
[00:29:17]  But ultimately, it's a deal, you know, because modifying the exchange rate will, on one side, China will have the greater purchasing power.
[00:29:32]  That's a good and bad, pros and cons.
[00:29:36]  So I think that's one the idea.
[00:29:44]  By the way, increasing the 10% reminiscent larger Chinese GDP in terms of US dollar, right?
[00:29:57]  So it will create quite different global economic landscape.

=== Japan's Constitutional Revision Debate (14:46) ===

[00:30:05]  So the consequence will be enormous.
[00:30:09]  But yeah.
[00:30:13]  I personally, I do represent nothing.
[00:30:17]  So just the idea that, of course, the people in Japan are concerned about the possible Taiwan card, of course.
[00:30:28]  So we do at least the big deal, small deal, economic deal will be fine, but what if the geopolitical deal will be, I think, quite, I would say, we do concern such kind of the deal.
[00:30:49]  But the economic deal will be, I think, still manageable from Japanese.
[00:30:57]  Well, let's pick up on that point.
[00:30:58]  So, Ito-sensei, you flagged a couple of economic items such as Chinese investment into the US and issues around currency that could be on the agenda.
[00:31:08]  But Olmogara sensei, Fujita-sensei, what are the other elements of the Xi-Trump meeting that you would be watching from your perspective?
[00:31:28]  Been reported that it will be held.
[00:31:33]  If that's exactly when it happens, then what will most pay attention to is the Mideast problem and how the U.S. and China will comment on that.
[00:31:47]  For the U.S., peace is going to be, a certain level of peace is going to be expected, I hope for.
[00:31:55]  China, Pakistan is working on Iran reaching out for the U.S. and for China.
[00:32:05]  This could be successful, could show their importance to the international community.
[00:32:13]  I hope that a good agreement can be reached and that efforts will be made.
[00:32:18]  On the other hand, concerns from Japan are Taiwan and the South China Sea.
[00:32:26]  Japan and Southeast Asian countries near Japan are always vis-à-vis Chinese movements concerned and looking at them with concern, especially vis-à-vis Taiwan.
[00:32:42]  The U.S. commitment, if it is shown to be firm, then allies, including Japan, will appreciate that.
[00:32:54]  However, if President Trump says something that could be construed as being more wobbly than what we've had in the past, this could have a great impact on the U.S.
[00:33:10]  It's important for the U.S. to continue to have a firm attitude.
[00:33:15]  For U.S. allies, this will mean that the U.S. continues to be reliable.
[00:33:25]  The Xi Jinping-Trump meeting is something we will look at with a great deal of concern and caution carefully.
[00:33:36]  I have the same understanding as Representative Ododera.
[00:33:40]  Japan-China relations, Taiwan and the East Asia situation is the biggest concern.
[00:33:50]  So if there's a statement that shakes this up, then this will affect us directly.
[00:33:57]  We have to make our own efforts, of course, but for the U.S. commitment to be firm and to continue is our request.
[00:34:10]  So in a few moments, I will turn to the audience and open it up for questions, but I have a few more questions for our speakers before I do that.
[00:34:18]  I wanted to take advantage of the fact that we have Bujita-sensei here as the co-representative of Nipponishi Nokai, which has been mentioned recently, joined the Liberal Democratic Party as part of the ruling coalition.
[00:34:31]  So could you talk a little bit about how your party is thinking about this new role in government and what you see as your top policy priorities moving forward?
[00:34:39]  We've touched on some topics, but if you could offer some perspective, I'm sure many people would be interested.
[00:34:53]  Over the past six months, Representative Ododera and other LDP representatives in the Takaichi government with great sincere colleagues.
[00:35:08]  We've really tried to open up a new era.
[00:35:14]  I'd like to tell you that in our coalition agreement document, so when Prime Minister Takamichi Seeking a partner, there are about 48 policy agreements.
[00:35:32]  Much of it was proposed by the Innovation Party.
[00:35:37]  If you look at the preamble of this coalition document, and I hope you will, one sentence says that Japan, as an independent country, based on the U.S.-Japan alliance, will support East Asia and the global security environment.
[00:35:56]  We will quickly respond to changes in the security environment, and we will, based on realism, protect our own people.
[00:36:05]  We will look at the international political and security environment with a sense of realism.
[00:36:12]  So, that is our basic stance.
[00:36:16]  We have not abandoned idealism, but on the other hand, we will face up to realism.
[00:36:23]  We are bursting into this world.
[00:36:25]  And how will we change?
[00:36:27]  It is necessary.
[00:36:29]  If you look at the Takaichi government's policies, I think you will get a sense of this.
[00:36:35]  But on security, there's quite a sense of crisis that's upfront and center.
[00:36:47]  How will we commit to security?
[00:36:49]  This is an important security policy platform.
[00:36:56]  How do we protect Japan?
[00:36:57]  How do we make Japan prosperous?
[00:36:59]  How do we create a foundation over the next few years?
[00:37:03]  This is what we're trying to achieve.
[00:37:05]  That's the main pillar.
[00:37:08]  So, perhaps I could pick up on that and ask you for your views on something that's been in the news a lot in Japan in the last few days, in particular, which is the topic of constitutional revision.
[00:37:20]  So, the debate about potentially revising Japan's constitution and various parts of it has gained momentum recently.
[00:37:28]  So, perhaps you could tell us how you see the key proposals that are on the table and the potential impacts of any changes on security policy since you mentioned.
[00:37:38]  And then we'll go to Olodeira-sensei for your thoughts as well.
[00:37:40]  But, Fujita-sensei, do you want to start?
[00:37:51]  It's difficult perhaps to say this clearly, but the difference between the Innovation Party and the LDP.
[00:37:58]  The LDP has a various background in history, and they had had talks with the Kolmeto, their former coalition partner.
[00:38:11]  The current situation is that Article 9 is renouncing these awards.
[00:38:23]  And their stance is a bit different than ours.
[00:38:27]  Ours is a little bit more simpler.
[00:38:30]  We will delete paragraph 2 of Article 2 and we will clearly, explicitly state that the self-defense forces are armed forces.
[00:38:47]  This is a bit of the difference between innovation and the LDP.
[00:38:52]  Many of the LDP members have the same thinking as us in 2012.
[00:39:00]  The constitutional revision proposal was almost the same as our current position.
[00:39:10]  So we have to get back to first principles and have another discussion is what we are thinking.
[00:39:25]  First of all, let me talk about the constitutional revisional steps.
[00:39:34]  Japan's upper house and lower house needs to agree on it with a two-thirds majority, and then we will go to the national referendum.
[00:39:45]  So, right now, after the lower house election, the ruling party ruling coalition does have more than a two-thirds majority in the lower house.
[00:39:59]  So, lower house could propose the constitutional revision.
[00:40:04]  Therefore, what exactly we will be proposing is very important.
[00:40:12]  Right now, what we're discussing is really bare minimum of what needs to be changed.
[00:40:18]  And there are a lot of other opinions within LDP.
[00:40:22]  So, we will continue our discussion and eventually the total package will emerge.
[00:40:31]  My own perspective is that when Japan drafted the constitution, a lot has been taken in from the UN Charter and, of course, a UN Charter really based on non-resorting to the violence and war as a means of a conflict resolution.
[00:40:51]  And the basic idea is that collective self-defense needs to be protected, needs to be admitted to the member states, so that UN force can come to the rescue in times of crisis.
[00:41:09]  However, in the absence of UN force, Japan has self-defense force, which is a self-defense entity, but not acknowledged as a professional military.
[00:41:24]  So, self-defense force has been in this kind of a gray zone in between those two.
[00:41:30]  And there has been a lot of diet discussions based on that gray role.
[00:41:37]  So, what I do want to clarify is in this constitutional revision is to make it clear that Self-Defense Force is a professional military organization as a prime minister, as a commander-in-chief.
[00:41:52]  The discussion that we're diverging on is how we acknowledge the right of self-defense.
[00:42:03]  Some have views that are very much closer to Japan Innovation Party.
[00:42:10]  However, there are others within the party that says going there is a little bit too fast, too far too fast.
[00:42:19]  But the major point is the Article 9, how we handle this issue.
[00:42:25]  I know many people will be watching these discussions with great interest as they move forward.
[00:42:30]  So, at this point, I'm going to open up the floor to questions from the audience.
[00:42:35]  So, please raise your hand if you have a question and wait for one of my colleagues to bring you the microphone if I call on you.
[00:42:42]  And then please stand up and identify yourself before asking your question.
[00:42:46]  And we don't have that much time left, so it would be great if you could keep your questions brief.
[00:42:50]  So, let's start over here on the side, please.
[00:42:57]  Thank you very much.
[00:42:59]  My name is Nari, and I work for the GR company.
[00:43:02]  And my question is in regards to the Taiwan policy that the Japanese government has.
[00:43:09]  And with the recent comment by Prime Minister Takaichi in November, Japan-China relation has shifted towards more cold relations, as one of the speakers had mentioned.
[00:43:22]  So, my question is: has her comment changed the Japanese overall strategy towards Taiwan, or has it remained the same?
[00:43:32]  And if it has changed, if you could elaborate a bit more as to how it changed, that would be great.
[00:43:38]  Thank you.
[00:43:44]  What we can say clearly is that our Taiwan policy has not changed at all.
[00:43:51]  When we've given answers in the diet, for example, clearly, China specific countries so far we have not done that.
[00:44:01]  We have not mentioned specific countries.
[00:44:08]  Prime Minister Takeichi did not do that on purpose, so to speak, but because the opposition party was repeating the question so much, that's just how it ended up.
[00:44:22]  So, from our perspective, the way that the question was answered has not changed at all.
[00:44:29]  What changed was that the opposition was more and more insistent.
[00:44:37]  And the Chinese side just responded violently.
[00:44:47]  Hi, Alexander Malulo with the Asia Group.

=== Critical Minerals And Island Defense (11:28) ===

[00:44:51]  You earlier talked about in reference to the Ukraine war and ensuring that Japan has supply and capabilities within the country.
[00:45:04]  How do you see Japan working with other countries now on supply chain resiliency and in the economic security space, particularly maybe within pharmaceuticals and medical devices, while there's a lot of focus also on critical minerals, semiconductors, etc.
[00:45:35]  The defense strategy that we're going to make?
[00:45:39]  This will be an important topic in it.
[00:45:42]  When there's a conflict, what do I need?
[00:45:44]  Ammunition, weapons, not just that, but pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, as you mentioned, and important critical minerals that you need to make products.
[00:45:57]  The government of Japan is listing all of this for certain pharmaceuticals, the ingredients for it.
[00:46:08]  We can't have excessive reliance on a single country.
[00:46:13]  We're looking at this for critical minerals.
[00:46:16]  Are we relying too much on any single country?
[00:46:18]  We are looking at all of this, especially for critical minerals.
[00:46:21]  The U.S. is in the same situation, I understand.
[00:46:25]  So, together, the U.S. and Japan, vis-à-vis critical minerals, how can we get them from countries other than China, to put it bluntly?
[00:46:35]  This is one of the important topics.
[00:46:39]  Do you have anything that you'd like to add?
[00:46:41]  No.
[00:46:48]  Marcos Ramarlar, George Mason University.
[00:46:52]  So, first of all, thank you, Honora Sensei, Fujita-sensei, and Ito-sensei for coming to speak with us today.
[00:46:57]  My question was on military posturing in East Asia.
[00:47:01]  So, how does Japan, like realizing that there is an incentive to increase physical defense capabilities, how does Japan threat that needle of trying to maintain a stance that prevents other countries in the region such as China, Russia, North Korea, South Korea from seeing that defense expansion as a potential threat and like a potential for their own need for an arms race per se?
[00:47:28]  Thank you.
[00:47:36]  As for Japan, we will basically not have wars that invade other countries.
[00:47:44]  If we are attacked, then we will have a counter-strike so that they do not attack again and have standoff capability that's stronger.
[00:47:55]  Another thing, we're an island nation.
[00:47:58]  If you look at the Ukraine war or the Mideast war, we are getting information from them.
[00:48:04]  But what will Japan choose?
[00:48:08]  We will look at the strengths and weaknesses of an island country and have a smart defense build-up.
[00:48:27]  Thank you.
[00:48:29]  My name is Takahashi, a former JICA and a World Bank employee.
[00:48:44]  Thank you.
[00:48:47]  Last year's Golden Week, first week of May, I posed a question on the railgun to Mr. Onodera and Mr. Koizumi at that time.
[00:49:05]  And you both mentioned how the railgun could be a game changer in the defensive posture.
[00:49:14]  Right now, today you mentioned how to fight is changing, including you mentioning the self-destructing drones, proliferation, and so forth.
[00:49:30]  So, in that context, how do you see the value of the rail gun now?
[00:49:35]  Is it more important or is it less important?
[00:49:39]  And at that time, for last year, Mr. Maihara from the Japan Innovation Party separately.
[00:49:51]  So, I'm very happy that both of you are sitting on the same stage today.
[00:49:57]  On the constitutional revision, there's a slight difference over the constitutional revision of how it should look.
[00:50:05]  And of course, this is the area where there are various opinions within LDP as well.
[00:50:10]  But, in terms of a timeframe, what do you think as a ruling coalition?
[00:50:18]  For missile defense or drone defense, how is it actually being done?
[00:50:24]  We're doing a survey and starting at the beginning of this year, moving into Israel.
[00:50:33]  What kind of a percentage kill rate did they have for ballistic missiles?
[00:50:38]  Lebanon drones, how many of them are being hit?
[00:50:43]  And we went to look at the actual equipment that they're using to do so.
[00:50:48]  Iron Dome is becoming a laser dome.
[00:50:51]  They're using quite a bit of lasers to do this.
[00:50:54]  But as you know, There's a lot of rain in Japan, and so lasers become attenuated.
[00:51:02]  Rail guns are a possibility.
[00:51:08]  Unmanned drones with ballistic drones can fly at us in a mix.
[00:51:16]  Patriots can hit ballistic missiles that have a high trajectory, but we have to use lasers or lasers or machine guns at short distances for things that fly in a lower way.
[00:51:34]  And I think all those are possible.
[00:51:38]  Thank you for your question about constitutional revision.
[00:51:43]  Just for information, the Innovation Party started in Osaka.
[00:51:54]  We had two referenda in our area, and we have experienced this.
[00:52:03]  We need a two-thirds vote in the diet and also a majority of a referendum for a constitutional revision.
[00:52:14]  This is our goal.
[00:52:18]  Of course, there are people who are against it and there are a quite rough way of doing it those who are against it.
[00:52:28]  And we have experienced their methods in doing our referendum in Osaka.
[00:52:35]  If you look for the ideal and talk about the ideal and just sincerely say that, or you can make a proposal that's a little more easy to accept and present this to the public, the opposition and the budget that they use will not be watered down at all.
[00:53:01]  This is the difficulty of referenda.
[00:53:04]  We've experienced that.
[00:53:06]  If that's the case, then what's most important and ideal in terms of constitutional revision, we have to aim for that and show that to the public.
[00:53:21]  I think that's what we ought to be doing.
[00:53:25]  The LDP is very good at creating agreements and as to making the SDF explicit.
[00:53:40]  That would be great.
[00:53:42]  That would strengthen the U.S. alliance, Philippines, Australia, extended deterrence in a way, collective defense, the constitutional revision debate, I think, should really shoot for what the ideal outcome would be.
[00:54:05]  And we'll have, we've had a lot of discussions on crisis situations and Article 9 between our two parties during this session of the Diet.
[00:54:20]  We have several more.
[00:54:23]  And so I think our challenge by the summer is how much of an agreement we can reach between these two parties.
[00:54:29]  One brief question.
[00:54:31]  Let's go take care.
[00:54:34]  Hello, Kevin Mayor from UNIV.
[00:54:36]  Japan's in a very severe fiscal situation for a long time, probably getting worse because of the energy situation related to the Gulf.
[00:54:46]  But you're also looking at cutting taxes in a lot of areas, spending more money on your defense budget than other areas.
[00:54:53]  Is there a concern that if the Iran situation is prolonged, it's going to impact your ability to increase the defense spending over the next five-year plan?
[00:55:24]  I'm responsible for getting budget resources, and I think that my ability is at play here.
[00:55:34]  The ability of people to make a living is important.
[00:55:39]  It's also important for them to be safe.
[00:55:41]  We have to have a balance with us.
[00:55:44]  And we want to strike for fiscal reform that will achieve such a balance.
[00:55:49]  Well, with that, I think that we will draw the event to a close.
[00:55:53]  So, thank you to our colleagues at Nikkei for making this event possible.
[00:55:57]  And thanks also to our speakers for their generosity in sharing their very candid perspectives today.
[00:56:03]  Please return your headsets before you leave, and please join me in thanking our speakers.
[00:56:08]  Thank you.

=== Democracy Unfiltered Live Coverage (02:39) ===

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[00:57:27]  Here's a look at some of our live coverage Tuesday on the C-SPAN networks.
[00:57:32]  At 11 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN, we continue our coverage of the Milken Institute's all-day global conference with remarks by Senator Tim Scott, the president of the Center for American Progress, Neera Tandon, and other speakers.
[00:57:45]  And at 3 p.m., the director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, makes remarks at the Select USA Investment Summit hosted by the Commerce Department.
[00:57:54]  Over on C-SPAN 2 at 8 a.m., Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Chair of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Kaine, give an update on the Iran war after reports of an Iranian attack in the UAE.
[00:58:06]  Then at 9 a.m. Eastern, more from the Select USA Summit with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldon, Delaware Governor Matt Meyer, and Utah Governor Spencer Cox.
[00:58:17]  And in the afternoon at 2:30, we continue our coverage of the Milken Conference with remarks by former Ambassador to Japan Rah Emanuel, former Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, and FIFA President Johnny Infantino.
[00:58:29]  And on C-SPAN 3 at 9, the Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve for Supervision and other officials speak at the 2026 Women in Housing and Finance Symposium.
[00:58:40]  You can also watch live on C-SPAN Now, our free mobile video app, and online at c-span.org.
[00:58:53]  On this episode of Book Notes Plus with our host Brian Lamb, author Craig Fairman has written a new history.