Challenges Facing Japan: Perspectives from the U.S.-Japan Network for the Future

Recent developments that impact Japan’s relations with its neighbors and the United States provide the backdrop for the essays in “Challenges Facing Japan: Perspectives from the U.S.-Japan Network for the Future” released by the Mansfield Foundation this week.  This new compilation of essays by the fourteen members of the second cohort of U.S.-Japan Network for the Future Scholars addresses both challenges and opportunities facing Japan.  The essays provide the scholars’ perspectives on a wide array of issues — from Japan’s immigration conundrum to the future of the US-Japan alliance to lingering territorial and historical disputes between Japan and its neighbors — and present recommendations for tackling these and other challenges. The scholars consider recent developments in Japanese society and politics, which some of the scholars suggest offer the potential for positive changes and global leadership by Japan.  We hope readers will agree that by applying their expertise to contemporary challenges confronting the nation of Japan and the US-Japan alliance, our scholars are fulfilling one of the prime objectives of the Network for the Future program.