Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pushed through reforms in Japan. He was the most popular prime minister in Japanese history. (AP)
The John Goodwin Tower Center held the SMU Sun and Star Symposium on Thursday discussing whether reforms in Japan are dead. The symposium featured three panel sessions with a special keynote speaker during lunch.
The two-day symposium had about 50 to 60 people in attendance with about 100 people attending the lunch and about 200 attending the kickoff dinner on Wednesday night.
The lunch featured former United States Ambassador to Japan John Thomas Schieffer. He reflected on his time as ambassador, under President George W. Bush, working with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi as he implemented a number of reforms.
The symposium dinner brought in Heizo Takenaka, director of global security research institute and professor of policy management at Keio University. Takenaka is considered the architect for the Koizumi reform and is a controversial figure in Japan. He spoke about the previous work and current work he is doing with politicians in Japan.
The symposium was attended by academics, professionals in the Dallas area and students.
“It gave me an interesting perspective Japan on the past six years,” Kevin Matejka, international studies major and director of research committee of Middle Eastern studies, said.
The Sun and Star Symposium is held every two years with the last symposium called the China-Japan-U.S. Triangle: Economic and Security Dimensions. The Sun and Star Fund funds the symposiums. The endowment came from a 1996 Sun and Star Festival that raised enough money to fund three donations, one of which came to SMU where SMU matched the donation.
M. Diana H. Newton, senior fellow at the John G. Tower Center for Political Studies, was one of the lead planners of the event.
“We wanted to focus on Prime Minister Koizumi and the legacy of his reforms. He is obviously not a well-known name in American society but he was a maverick of a politician in Japan,” Newton said.
Each panel focused on former Primer Minister Koizumi of Japan and the changes he was able to accomplish during his time in office. The economy, politics and foreign policy during and after Koizumi’s rule were discussed.
“We wanted look at reforms, why did they last,and what can we suggest for Japan moving forward. People are so focused on China but Japan is at a very important place both geographically in the Pacific and on the world stage right now,” Newton said.
The panelists consisted of distinguished professors from a variety of universities from the U.S. and Japan. The panelist each briefly presented their research.
After each presented, the panelist took questions from the audience as a panel.
Tomohito Shinoda from International University of Japan was able to lighten up the atmosphere during the foreign policy panel when he presented diagrams that showed the rapid change since Koizumi left office through pictures.
Vignesh Shanker explained that he found the panels informative and mentioned that the “panelist[s] gave their own take on events.”
The Tower Center is planning to hold another symposium next week on national security.
The conference will focus on America’s national security concerns, especially given America’s looming fiscal cliff.
Military budget cuts have been brought up by Democrats, now in control of the Senate and the presidency, to help decrease the deficit.
Many Republicans want to increase the military budget and cut social service and welfare programs.
“It was great seeing academics and policy experts talk about a country we don’t talk about often in the United States,” sophomore Mehdi Hami, said.
“I’ll definitely be back for the conference next week.”
