In December 2022, then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made global headlines when he announced a historic revision of Japan’s national security strategy. The Kishida Cabinet’s defense pledges were as remarkable for their substantive ambition and breadth as for what they revealed about political leaders’ growing alarm concerning the rapidly worsening security environment surrounding Japan. Including but not limited to unprecedented and headline-grabbing commitments to surge defense spending and acquire “counterstrike” capabilities, Japan’s new National Defense Strategy was especially significant. Nevertheless, over the past two years, several core aspects of Japan’s plans have been widely misunderstood, leading many to claim a far more radical defense transformation than the facts actually warrant.

In this public talk, Professor Liff will introduce key elements of Japan’s (FY2023-2027) national defense strategy and highlight the significance of, as well as the reasons for, several widespread misconceptions about it. He will draw particular attention to how widely-overlooked domestic political factors quietly “bent the curve” of Japan’s reform trajectory—effectively watering down national security leaders’ more ambitious policy goals in several subtle and oft-ignored, but profoundly consequential, ways.

This event is part of APARC's Contemporary Asia Seminar Series.

Adam P. Liff is Associate Professor of East Asian International Relations at Indiana University’s (IU) Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, where he also serves as Founding Director of its multidisciplinary 21st Century Japan Politics and Society Initiative (21JPSI). Beyond IU, he is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center for East Asia Policy Studies and an associate-in-research at Harvard University’s Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies. He is also the former Visiting Chair in Modern and Contemporary Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, where he launched and directed its Japan and the World public event series. Dr. Liff's research and teaching focus is on contemporary international security and foreign policy challenges in East Asia—with a particular emphasis on Japanese politics and foreign (esp. defense) policy; the U.S.-Japan alliance; U.S. allies and Taiwan, and U.S. Asia-Pacific strategy. In addition to regularly engaging Japan-focused scholarly communities across North America, East Asia, and Europe, he also frequently exchanges views with policymakers and is an active participant in Track 1.5 policy dialogues (e.g., the DC-based U.S.-Japan Security Seminar and Tokyo-based Mt. Fuji Dialogue). Dr. Liff’s past academic and policy research affiliations include the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, Institute of Social Science, and Graduate School of Law and Politics; Waseda University’s Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies; the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ (CSIS) Japan Chair; and the Wilson Center’s Indo-Pacific Program, among others. An active institution-builder and fundraiser to support contemporary Japan-focused initiatives at IU, he has also received multiple teaching awards—including IU’s Trustees Teaching Award in 2024. Dr. Liff holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Politics from Princeton University, a postgraduate research certificate in international politics from the University of Tokyo, and a B.A. (with honors and distinction) in East Asian Studies and Psychology from Stanford University.