Prime Minister Abe was fast off the mark in courting the new President-elect, and the Japanese PM remains the foreign leader President Trump consults more than any other.  But recent developments, including tariffs on steel and aluminum, potential tariffs on automobiles, U.S. insistence on a bilateral FTA, and President Trump’s hostility to allies at the G-7 meeting in Canada followed by his amicable summit with Kim Jung-un in Singapore, are revealing cracks in that relationship. Please come for luncheon roundtable to hear one of America’s top Japan experts Glen S. Fukushima assess the Trump/Abe relationship from the perspectives of Washington and Tokyo, discuss whether it will remain strong and explore prospects for US-Japan trade, investment and security ties should those bonds continue to fray.

Speaker Profile:

Glen S. Fukushima worked on US-Japan and US-China trade negotiations at USTR (Office of the U.S. Trade Representative) from 1985-90, then had a 22-year business career in one European and four American multinational corporations, including as Vice President of AT&T Japan and President & CEO of Airbus Japan. He was elected to two terms as President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan and is currently a Board member of the Japan-America societies in Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, as well as Honorary Co-Chairman of the National Association of Japan-America Societies.  

In 1993, he declined an offer to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for International Economic Policy, and from 2015-2016, he was a member of Hillary Clinton’s Asia Policy Working Group. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, DC think tank. He is the author of The Politics of US-Japan Economic Friction, which won the Ohira Prize in 1993.

Gourmet Japanese bento lunch is included.