17/10/2019 - Understanding Japan's Democracy Assistance

VENUE: MUP Prague-Strašnice building, Dubečská 900/10, room 305

TIME: Thursday, 17 October 2019, 12:00–13:30

GUEST: Maiko Ichihara, Ph.D., Associate Professor at Hitotsubashi and Stanford University

Japan has increasingly emphasized democracy assistance since the mid-2000s, such that it now constitutes a major part of Japan’s foreign policy. This approach is a departure from the country’s traditional foreign policy stance, which tries to avoid bringing values to the forefront of foreign policies. In this presentation, I intend to answer the questions of why Japan has started emphasizing democracy assistance and why it has relegated itself to a minor role in democracy assistance nevertheless.