Forum:Issue Forum 006 Basing Politics

Forum Report

On June 6, 2014, Reexamining Japan in Global Context's sixth seminar took place at the Hotel Laguna Garden Hotel in Okinawa.The theme of the event was “Basing Politics.” The first presentation of the forum was given by Mr. Yoichi Kato under the title “the Role of U.S. military presence in Japan in the context of the U.S. rebalance to Asia-Pacific.” In his presentation, Mr. Kato, a national security correspondent of The Asahi Shimbun, focused on a new pattern of deployment—“rotational presence”—in the Asia-Pacific region. The second presentation, by Prof. Alexander Cooley, was titled “Politics Under the Pivot: Okinawa's Triangular Base Relations Revisited.” Prof. Cooley, a Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University, and the author of Base Politics: Democratic Change and the US Military Overseas (Cornell 2008), explored Okinawa’s triangular basing politics that involve the U.S. military, the central government in Tokyo, and regional and local authorities on the island prefecture.

Videos

Alexander Cooley