Stanford University

Learning from a Disaster: Nuclear Safety and Security Five Years after Fukushima

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- This event is jointly sponsored by the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) - 

Five years to the day after a massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami caused an accident at three of the reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan, a panel of Stanford experts will convene in Encina Hall to reflect on the lessons learned from the disaster that unfolded starting on March 11, 2011. Panelists will include:

  • Steven Chu, 12th U.S. Secretary of Energy (2009-2013), Laureate of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics,  William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular & Cellular Physiology in the Medical School at Stanford University - Focus: Perspective from the Department of Energy on the role of the department in helping mitigate the consequences and the lessons learned
  • Phillip Lipscy, Thomas Rohlen Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University - Focus: Fukushima in comparative perspective and how the Japanese nuclear power industry has reacted since the accident.
  • Scott Sagan, Caroline S.G. Munro Professor of Political Science, Mimi and Peter Haas University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, and Senior Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation and the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University. Focus: the effects of the accident on efforts to improve nuclear safety and security, based on the upcoming book Learning from a Disaster.
  • Takeo Hoshi, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and director of APARC's Japan Program, will chair the session and act as moderator.

This event will also serve as a book launch for the book Learning from A Disaster: Improving Nuclear Safety and Security After Fukushima, co-edited by Edward Blandford, a former Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at CISAC and Scott Sagan. the book is being published by Stanford University Press and will be available for purchase at the event. Pre-orders can be taken here.

Panel Discussions

Divided Lenses: Screen Memories of War in East Asia

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Divided Lenses: Screen Memories of War in East Asia is the first attempt to explore how the tumultuous years between 1931 and 1953 have been recreated and renegotiated in cinema. This period saw traumatic conflicts such as the Sino-Japanese War, the Pacific War, and the Korean War, and pivotal events such as the Rape of Nanjing, Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Iwo Jima, and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all of which left a lasting imprint on East Asia and the world. By bringing together a variety of specialists in the cinemas of East Asia and offering divergent yet complementary perspectives, the book explores how the legacies of war have been reimagined through the lens of film.

This turbulent era opened with the Mukden Incident of 1931, which signaled a new page in Japanese militaristic aggression in East Asia, and culminated with the Korean War (1950–1953), a protracted conflict that broke out in the wake of Japan's post–World War II withdrawal from Korea. Divided Lenses explores how the intervening decades have continued to shape politics and popular culture throughout East Asia and the world. Essays in part I examine historical trends at work in various "national" cinemas, including China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and the United States. Those in part 2 focus on specific themes such as comfort women in Chinese film, the Nanjing Massacre, or nationalism, and how they have been depicted or renegotiated in contemporary films. Of particular interest are contributions drawing from other forms of screen culture, such as television and video games.

This book is an outcome of the conference, Divided Lenses: Film and War Memory in Asia, that the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center hosted in December 2008, part of the Divided Memories and Reconciliation research project.

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University of Hawai'i Press
Authors
Michael Berry
Sawada Chiho

The Great Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: 5 Years Later

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It has been five years since the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami and associated nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Three experts will re-examine the impact of these events on Japan and the world. What was the ultimate legacy of the disaster? What was the impact on political discourse, nuclear policy, disaster response, society, and culture? What lessons have we learned?

 

Panelists

 

Daniel Aldrich is Professor of Political Science, Public Policy and Urban Affairs and is the Co-Director of the Masters Program in Security and Resilience at Northeastern University. He has published four books, single-authoring Site Fights (Cornell University Press, 2008) and Building Resilience (University of Chicago Press, 2012) which won the Japan NPO Research Association Award for Outstanding Book; both were translated into Japanese and the latter into Chinese as well.  He co-authored and co-edited the books Resilience and Recovery in Asian Disasters (Springer Publishers, 2014) and Healthy, Resilient and Sustainable Communities after Disasters (Institute of Medicine / National Academy of Sciences, 2015).  He has also published more than thirty peer reviewed articles in journals such as Social Science and Medicine, Public Administration Review, British Journal of Political Science, Natural Hazards and the Journal of Asian Studies along with 20 book chapters and OpEds in the New York Times, CNN, the Washington Post, and the Asahi Shinbun. Aldrich is Chair of the American Political Science Association’s Working Group on Disasters and Crises and sits on the editorial board of several journals.  He has won, among other awards, two Fulbright fellowships, an Abe Fellowship, an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology fellowship, the Kinley Trust Fellowship, and the Pi Sigma Alpha Best Professor Award (2011).
 

Takahashi Research Associate in Japanese Studies,
Shorenstein APARC
Kenji E. Kushida is the Japan Program Research Associate at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and an affiliated researcher at the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy. Kushida’s research interests are in the fields of comparative politics, political economy, and information technology. He has four streams of academic research and publication: political economy issues surrounding information technology such as Cloud Computing; institutional and governance structures of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster; political strategies of foreign multinational corporations in Japan; and Japan’s political economic transformation since the 1990s. Kushida has written two general audience books in Japanese, entitled Biculturalism and the Japanese: Beyond English Linguistic Capabilities (Chuko Shinsho, 2006) and International Schools, an Introduction (Fusosha, 2008). Kushida holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. His received his MA in East Asian studies and BAs in economics and East Asian studies, all from Stanford University.

 

Kyoko Sato is the STS Associate Director and lecturer. Her research explores how cultural meanings, politics, and institutional frameworks intersect in the development of technology. She is currently completing a book manuscript, The Making of Genetically Modified Food: Culture, Politics and Policy in France, Japan and the United States, and conducting a comparative study that examines cultural politics of nuclear energy after World War II and the effect of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan and the United States. Her fields of teaching include the politics and culture of food, environmental politics, globalization, social theory, and methods of social sciences. Dr. Sato received her PhD in sociology from Princeton University, MA in journalism from New York University, and BA in English from the University of Tokyo. She was a postdoctoral associate at the Institute for the Social Sciences at Cornell University and taught as a lecturer in the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies and in the Department of Sociology at Harvard University. Before entering the academia, Dr. Sato worked as a reporter for The Japan Times, an English-language daily in Tokyo.

Daniel Aldrich, Professor of Political Science, Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Co-Director of the Masters Program in Security and Resilience- Northeastern University
Kenji Kushida, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center Japan Program Research Associate- Stanford University
Kyoko Sato, The Program in Science, Technology, and Society Associate Director- Stanford University
Panel Discussions
Japan Colloquium Series

Silicon Valley and Asian Economies

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This event is co-sponsored by NHK WORLD, Global Agenda, and the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.

About NHK and Global Agenda

NHK WORLD is NHK's international broadcast service. NHK is Japan’s national public broadcasting corporation and operates international television, radio, and internet services; together, they are known as NHK WORLD.

The aims of NHK WORLD are:

  • To provide both domestic and international news to the world accurately and promptly
  • To present information on Asia from various perspectives, making the best use of NHK's global network
  • To serve as a vital information lifeline in the event of major accidents and natural disasters
  • To present broadcasts with great accuracy and speed on many aspects of Japanese culture and lifestyles, recent developments in society and politics, the latest scientific and industrial trends, and Japan's role and opinions regarding important global issues
  • To foster mutual understanding between Japan and other countries and promote friendship and cultural exchange

“Global Agenda” is a new program within NHK WORLD TV where world opinion leaders discuss various issues facing Japan and the rest of the world today.

Symposium Overview

Innovation is essential for economic growth, especially in advanced economies. As the catch-up phase of economic growth is ending or has ended for many Asian economies, they face the challenge of transforming their economic systems to ones that encourage innovations and use those as the most important source for growth. The panel will discuss various issues surrounding the economic system that is favorable for innovations. Silicon Valley, where Stanford University is located, has an ecosystem that is conducive to innovations. The panel will pay special attention to implications for Japan and other Asian economies.

Panelists

William Barnnett, Professor of Business Leadership, Strategy, and Organizations, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Francis Fukuyama, Director, Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Freeman Spogli Insititute for International Studies

Takeo Hoshi, Director, Japan Program, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center

Kenji Kushida, Research Associate, Japan Program, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center

Note

This event will be recorded and broadcast worldwide. By registering to attend you hereby grant Stanford University and NHK World permission to use encode, digitize, copy, edit, excerpt, transmit, and display the audio or videotape of your participation in this event as well as use your name, voice, likeness, biographic information, and ancillary material in connection with such audio or videotape. You understand that this event will be broadcast worldwide, which will be available to the general public. This event may also be webcast over one or more websites. By registering to attend you grant, without limitations, perpetual rights for the use and transmission and display of audio or videotape of this event. This permission is irrevocable and royalty free, and you understand that the University and NHK will act in reliance on this permission.

RSVP

RSVP for this event is mandatory as seating is limited. Doors will open at 3:00pm and the event will begin promptly at 3:30pm. Since the event is being recorded, we ask that participants arrive on time.

William Barnnett Professor of Business Leadership, Strategy, and Organizations- Graduate School of Business
Francis Fukuyama Director, Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law- FSI
Takeo Hoshi Director, Japan Program- Shorenstein APARC
Kenji Kushida Research Associate, Japan Program- Shorenstein APARC
Symposiums

15th Korea-U.S. West Coast Strategic Forum

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In this fifteenth session of the Strategic Forum, former senior American and South Korean government officials and other leading experts will discuss current developments in the Korean Peninsula and North Korea policy, the future of the U.S.-South Korean alliance, and a strategic vision for Northeast Asia. The session is hosted by the Korea Program in association with The Sejong Institute, a top South Korean think tank.

 

Seoul, Republic of Korea

Workshops
Korea-U.S. West Coast Strategic Forum

Capital Market Regulation in Japan after the Global Financial Crisis

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This paper is examines the evolution of Japan’s capital markets and the related regulatory reforms after the Global Financial Crisis. We start by looking at the importance of capital markets in the Japanese financial system. We study how the size of financial flows through capital markets relative to those through the banking sector changed since the 1980s in Section 2. Then, in Section 3, we look at how Japan’s financial system responded to the Global Financial Crisis. We find that the disruption of the financial system in Japan was small. Section 4 then surveys the financial regulatory changes in Japan since the Global Financial Crisis. While the Japanese regulators tightened the regulation to improve the financial stability as the regulators in the U.S. and Europe did, they also continued the efforts to develop capital markets in Japan. The efforts continue and receive strong endorsement from Abenomics, which put an emphasis on economic structural reform to restore growth in Japan. We examine the capital market policies in Abenomics in Section 5. Section 6 concludes.

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World Scientific in International Economics
Authors
Takeo Hoshi
Ayako Yasuda

How Japan and South Korea reached the "comfort women" deal

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Commentary
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Daniel Sneider, associate director for research at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, provides an in-depth analysis of how the agreement on the “comfort women” issue between Japan and South Korea was reached late last year. In Japanese publication Toyo Keizai Online, Sneider writes that – after at least four years of negotiations between the two governments – political leadership in Seoul and Tokyo as well as pressure from the Obama administration can be credited for the breakthrough.

Read the article in English and Japanese.

Earlier in December, David Straub, associate director for the Korea Program, said the agreement is a sign of progress. He said it vindicates the victims and is a positive development for Korea-Japan relations. 

Read his comments in reporting done by Yonhap News and Voice of America.

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Behind the Comfort Women Agreement

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The breakthrough agreement on the comfort women issue between Japan and South Korea on Dec. 28, 2015, was the culmination of at least four years of negotiations between the two governments. South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushed for the agreement; the Obama administration provided persistent pressure while resisting a mediation role. The danger of the agreement falling apart is apparent to officials in Washington and Seoul, and hopefully Tokyo too, writes Sneider.

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Commentary
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Toyo Keizai Online
Authors
Daniel C. Sneider

North Korean Nuclear Test Destabilizing for Region

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News Type
News
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Stanford nuclear experts said they were skeptical of North Korea’s claim that it had detonated a hydrogen bomb this week.

However, they said the test was an important step forward for North Korea’s nuclear program and would have a destabilizing effect on the entire region.

“I don’t believe it was a real hydrogen bomb, but my greatest concern is not so much whether or not they actually tested a hydrogen bomb, but rather that they tested at all,” said Siegfried Hecker, former director of Los Alamos National Laboratory and senior fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has “a track record of exaggerated statements, hyperbole and outright lies,” according to Scott Sagan, Caroline S.G. Munro professor of Political Science.

“The propaganda machine in North Korea has made all sorts of claims about Kim Jong-un’s personal prowess and his history, and it is totally unsurprising that he might make exaggerated claims about North Korea’s military prowess,” Sagan said.

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William J. Perry said he also doubted that North Korea had detonated a two-stage hydrogen bomb.

“Whether it’s a hydrogen bomb or not, it’s very dangerous, destabilizing development,” said Perry.

“It’s obvious they’re working to increase the capability and size of their nuclear arsenal and that represents a huge danger to the region and creates major instability and major concerns on the part of South Korea and Japan.”

Many North Korea watchers had been anticipating another nuclear test.

“We’ve thought that the North Koreans could test at any time – that the tunnels were ready, that they could do this at any time – so it would be a political decision, not a technical decision,” said Thomas Fingar, senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

Hecker said North Korea’s latest nuclear test would move the country closer to being able to miniaturize a nuclear warhead and mount it on a missile, extending the reach of their nuclear weapons.

“They will have achieved greater sophistication in their bomb design – that is the most worrisome aspect,” Hecker said.

“At this point, what makes their nuclear arsenal more dangerous is not so much explosive power of the bomb, but its size, weight and the ability to deliver it with missiles.”

On the diplomatic agenda, the U.S. and its allies will likely push for stronger sanctions in the wake of the tests, according to Kathleen Stephens, a former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea and William J. Perry fellow at Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC).

“In the UN the U.S., Japan and South Korea will likely look for another, and stronger, UN Security Council resolution, presumably with some efforts to attach to it some teeth and strengthen sanctions,” Stephens said.

The U.S. Congress is currently considering financial sanctions that would cut of all access to U.S. banks for any banks dealing with the North Koreans.

But financial sanctions would likely be less effective in dealing with North Korea than they had been with Iran, according to Fingar.

“It’s like hitting a masochist,” said Fingar.

“North Korea is relatively insulated from the external economy, where Iran wasn’t. Iran had a middle class, you could make sanctions hurt, they could have a real effect. You could make it hard for the North Koreans to buy luxury goods, but at the end of the day, is that going to bring down the regime?”

Financial sanctions against North Korea could have the unintended consequence of also hurting China, said David Straub, associate director of the Korea program at APARC.

“This could be problematic for China because many of the transactions that North Korea conducts would be going thorough Chinese banks, and the Chinese, understandably might not be happy about the US financial sanctions on them, in effect,” Straub said.

Perry recommended that the U.S. reinvigorate diplomatic talks with North Korea in collaboration with China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

“I would not give up on negotiations with North Korea yet,” Perry said.

“What could have been done many years ago was following through on negotiations with North Korea at the turn of the Century, which were proceeding robustly in the last years of Clinton’s second term, but were abandoned by the Bush Administration...That was a geo-strategic error.”

But Hecker said those negotiations would be harder now.

“I have previously argued that we should focus on three “No’s” for three “Yes’s” – that is no more bombs, no better bombs (meaning no testing) and no export – in return for addressing the North’s security concerns, its energy shortage and its economic woes,” said Hecker.

“This could have worked when I first proposed it 2008 after one of my seven visits to North Korea. It will be more difficult now."

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