In December of 2015, members of the Forum convened for a third meeting in Washington, D.C. The meetings included a series of discussions and a public symposium on Capitol Hill. The Forum discussed its Objectives and Priorities with experts in the Washington, D.C. space and foreign policy communities, including officials responsible for formulating foreign policy of the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns. Officials with whom the group met include: Assistant Secretary Frank Rose (Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance, U.S. Department of State), the Honorable Kurt Campbell (former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia), alumni Mansfield Fellow John Hill (Principal Director, Space Policy Office, U.S. Department of Defense), Japan policy and space policy directors at the U.S. National Security Council, Christopher Johnstone and Chirag Parikh, and representatives from NASA, NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and the White House. Underscoring the significance of U.S.-Japan space collaboration, Takeo Kawamura (Member, Japan’s House of Representatives) and Yoshinori Komiya (Director General, Office of National Space Policy) were among several special guests from Japan.
Mr. Kawamura and Mr. Komiya were featured speakers at the December 10 symposium on “Asia’s Space Race and the U.S.-Japan Alliance,” (pictured above) where they were joined by three members of the U.S. House of Representatives — Joaquin Castro, Jim McDermott, and Dana Rohrabacher. Each of the legislators highlighted the importance of U.S.-Japan space collaboration. Mr. Kawamura called for deeper bilateral cooperation in space in the context of the U.S.-Japan security alliance. He also noted that the United States and Japan should act as equal partners, a point seconded by Rep. Rohrabacher. Mr. Komiya and Chirag Parikh followed the legislators’ comments with overviews of their countries’ space strategies.