National Association of Japan-America Societies Webinar Series

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The National Association of Japan-America Societies (NAJAS) has launched a webinar series to provide insight into current affairs of importance to the Japan-America relationship.


The first webinar features Ambassador David Shear, NAJAS Chairman, providing an overview of the diplomatic challenges the US is facing in Asia.

The second webinar features Kiyoaki Aburaki, Managing Director of BowerGroupAsia in Tokyo, sharing information on the current economic situation in Japan and the impact of the coronavirus.

The third webinar features Ambassador Kenichiro and Nobuko Sasae discussing their current work and perspectives on the bilateral relationship.


About the Speakers:

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David Shear previously served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs from 2014 to 2016, when he performed the duties of Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

Prior to 2014, Ambassador Shear served for 32 years in the US Foreign Service, most recently as the US Ambassador to Vietnam. He has also served in Sapporo, Beijing, Tokyo, and Kuala Lumpur. In Washington, Ambassador Shear has served in the Offices of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean Affairs and as the Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs. He was Director of the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs in 2008-2009 and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs in 2009-2011.

Ambassador Shear was a Rusk Fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy from 1998-1999. He is the recipient of the State Department’s Superior Honor Award and the Defense Department’s Civilian Meritorious Service Award for his work in US-Japan defense relations.

Ambassador Shear graduated from Earlham College and has a master’s degree in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He has attended Waseda University, Tai-wan National University, and Nanjing University, and he speaks Chinese and Japanese.

Picture and Biography by McLarty Associates


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Mr. Kiyoaki Aburaki joined BowerGroupAsia (BGA) following a distinguished career at Keidanren, where he most recently headed up the federation’s international engagement. He covered international trade and investment, the defense and aerospace industries, information technology, entrepreneurship, deregulation, and data privacy policy. He also played a leading role in developing and implementing Keidanren’s political strategies.

Beginning in 2013, Mr. Aburaki led Keidanren’s strategic international initiatives and worked closely with former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to establish Japan’s Track 1.5 dialogues with the United States and China. The dialogues produced important results by strengthening the U.S.-Japan security and economic alliance and improving Japan’s political relations with China.

From 2010 to 2012, Mr. Aburaki represented Keidanren and its affiliated think tank, the 21st Century Public Policy Institute, in Washington, D.C. Here he played a key role in several projects at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) such as U.S.-Japan defense industrial cooperation and China’s competitiveness and its reliance on the U.S. and Japan.

He is a senior associate of CSIS and a member of Technology and Security Taskforce, an expert group on national economic security. He obtained a Master of Science in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Keio University.

Picture and Biography by BowerGroupAsia


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Kenichiro Sasae joined the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs after graduating from The University of Tokyo in 1974. His distinguished and illustrious diplomatic career includes prestigious assignments as Executive Assistant to the Prime Minister, Director-General of the Economic Affairs Bureau, Director-General of the Asian & Oceania Affairs Bureau, and Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs. During his period of service in Tokyo, he represented the Japanese Government in the Six-Party Talks on North Korean issues. He also worked as Political Director for the G-8 Summit. From 2012-2018, he was Ambassador of Japan to the United States. Subsequently, in July 2018, Ambassador Sasae was appointed President of The Japan Institute of International Affairs to head Japan’s premier foreign affairs think tank.

Nobuko Sasae’s work as a high-level conference interpreter has taken her all around the world, most recently to the East Asia Summit in Cambodia, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Annual Meeting in Tokyo, the Nikkei Future of Asia and the APEC Ministerial Meeting in Japan, the COP 10 meeting in Nagoya, and the World Economic Forum in China, to name only a few. While in D.C. during her husband’s term as Ambassador of Japan to the U.S., Mrs. Sasae founded and moderated The Nobuko Forum, which convened bimonthly to empower young professional women through conversations with accomplished women. She continues the work of The Nobuko Forum in Japan.