News and Topics

2025.07.04

On June 13 (Friday), Kwansei Gakuin University and the Southern Methodist University Tower Center held a joint symposium on the Nishinomiya Uegahara Campus, entitled the “KGU-SMU Sun & Star Symposium in Japan: U.S.-Japan Relations and the New International Order.” The symposium was attended by over 100 people in-person, with around 60 more joining online. Located in Dallas, Texas, Southern Methodist University (SMU) is KGU’s oldest partner institution, having signed a partnership agreement in 1979. In addition to mutually accepting and dispatching students for study abroad, KGU and SMU jointly operate the KGU Summer School program. At the symposium, held during tariff negotiations between the U.S. and Japan, specialists from both universities and countries, including Dr. Michael Beeman (SMU alumnus, KGU exchange student in AY1987, and former U.S. Assistant Trade Representative) and Kazuhisa Shibuya (professor at the KGU School of Policy Studies), took the stage to give keynote speeches and conduct panel discussions on four themes: safety and security, the international order and the U.S.-Japan relationship, economic issues, and the war between Russia and Ukraine.

During the first session of the panel discussion, Takahiro Shinyo, (Special Advisor to the President at KGU and former University Trustee), Diana Newton (Senior Fellow at the SMU Tower Center), Jay Young (Colin Powell Teaching Fellow at the SMU Tower Center and President of the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations), and Haruo Iguchi (Professor at the KGU School of International Studies) took the stage and engaged in discussions from the perspectives of diplomacy, domestic American policy, and military policy, reaffirming that “strengthening the U.S.-Japan alliance is vital, both in the short term and over the long term.” In the second session, moderated by Matthias Hennings (Associate Professor at the Center for International Education and Cooperation), James Hollifield (Professor Director of the SMU Tower Center), Ka Zeng (Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst), and Kazuhisa Shibuya served as panelists. They engaged in a discussion about “the U.S.-Japan economic relationship in a new era” from sociological and economic perspectives, and came to the conclusion that “Japan’s role in preserving and rebuilding the rules of international society is essential.”

For the first keynote speech, Dr. Michael Beeman gave a talk entitled “America’s New Global (Dis)Order and the Future of U.S.-Japan Relations.” Beeman served as U.S. Assistant Trade Representative and provided support for four Trade Representatives during the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations, and was the U.S.-Japan trade envoy during the first Trump administration. He began his speech reflecting on his time at KGU as an exchange student in 1987, then looked back at the last four decades of U.S.-Japan trade history, saying that “Due to the close relationship between the U.S. and Japan forged over many years, Japan can contribute far more to the improvement of U.S.-Japan relations and the global state of affairs than other countries.” He received many questions after his speech. Responding to a question about what Japan could do to improve the trade relationship between the U.S. and Japan, he replied that “it’s important to place even more value on the relationships between regions and the individual bonds between people in both countries that have been built up to this point, not just the relationships between administrations.”

For the second keynote speech, Norito Kunisue (Project Professor at the University of Tokyo, former European editor for the Asahi Shimbun) spoke about the Russia-Ukraine war based on what he had seen as a journalist in the field. Kunisue has visited Ukraine dozens of times, travelling to 11 cities that were still occupied by Russia after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and observing the situation in the field and conducting interviews. His speech included many rare photographs and stories from locals affected by the war, which left a strong impression on attendees regarding the war’s cruelty. Noting that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a humanitarian disaster and a subversion of morality and values, Kunisue said that the Ukrainian people need not just peace, but peace based on justice.

At the end of the symposium, Hiroki Takeuchi (Director of the SMU Tower Center’s Sun and Star Program on Japan and East Asia) re-emphasized the event’s significance and sent a message to the younger generation, saying that “The world is going to keep changing drastically, so it’s important to leave familiar places and go out into the world to learn.” Despite the fact that the speakers at this symposium came from different backgrounds and perspectives, they all agreed on the importance of the role Japan should play in strengthening U.S.-Japan relations and building a new international order. The symposium provided a meaningful opportunity for the speakers and participants to look back on post-war history, reconfirm the current global situation, and look forward to a better U.S.-Japan relationship and international order in the new era.