Organizer: Columbia University Weatherhead East Asian Institute

Type/Location: In person / New York City

Description:

Dr. Mireya Solís of the Brookings Institution will lead a talk and Q&A session on her new book Japan’s Quiet Leadership: Reshaping the Indo-Pacific scheduled for release on 1 September 2023. The book delves into Japan's transformation into a significant player in the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific, highlighting its strengths in democratic resilience, social stability, and proactive diplomacy, while addressing pressing issues such as depopulation, rising inequality, and regional peace threats.

Solís is an expert on Japanese foreign economic policy, international trade policy, and U.S. economic statecraft in Asia. She is the author of “Dilemmas of a Trading Nation: Japan and the United States in the Evolving Asia-Pacific Order” (Brookings, Press, 2017), recipient of the 2018 Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Award. She also authored “Banking on Multinationals: Public Credit and the Export of Japanese Sunset Industries” (Stanford University Press, 2004) and co-edited “Cross-Regional Trade Agreements: Understanding Permeated Regionalism in East Asia” (Springer, 2008) and “Competitive Regionalism: FTA Diffusion in the Pacific Rim” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

Her most recent book, Japan’s Quiet Leadership: Reshaping the Indo-Pacific (Brookings Press, September 2023) addresses the question of why and how Japan has emerged from the “lost decades” unscathed from the populist wave and a far more consequential actor in the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific. The book provides a sweeping look at Japan’s domestic economic and political evolution, its economic statecraft, and the array of geopolitical challenges that have triggered a gradual but substantial shift in the country’s security profile. This deep dive into Japan’s trajectory over the last three decades underscores Japan’s hidden strengths in its democratic resilience, social stability, and proactive diplomacy; while reckoning with the profound challenges the nation faces: depopulation, rising inequality, voter disengagement, and threats to Asia’s long peace.

Registration:

To register, click here.