DN Salon with Michael Cucek: Who is the bigger threat to Tokyo -Trump, Abe or Kim?

Posted By on Jun 29, 2017 in Events |


Distinguished Japan politics expert Michael Cucek will discuss PM Abe’s role in increasing the risk of war with N Korea by his apparent support of President Trump’s recent aggressive moves against Pyongyang. Is this wise, given that the US is safe from any fallout, while Tokyo and Seoul could suffer millions of casualties – even from conventional weapons? There is an “asymmetry of risk” against Japan. The S Korean president, in contrast, expressed his concern at the escalation very clearly.

Why are relations between N Korea and Japan so awful? Michael will take us through the terrible issue of Japanese abductees in the 1980s but also how former PM Koizumi and former Governor of Tokyo Ishihara stoked the nationalist flame to advance their political careers.

Can anything be done? Threatening N Korea appears to be pointless, despite the popularity of this tactic. Supported by China, N Korea will not change while China sees the US and Japan as regional rivals. It is essentially not possible to solve this problem while expressing enmity to both regimes, as Japan regularly does. The alternative would be a N Korean Marshall Plan but this is not likely…

Are the Japanese Rightists correct after all, and Japan needs to ditch its Peace Constitution, re-arm, and equip itself with nuclear weapons if only to prevent itself being so reliant on a leader who unambiguously puts “America First”? Interesting times, indeed.

Come to this event to judge for yourself whether a missile will be coming our way any time soon!

We are honoured Michael is an adviser to the Delphi Network. His profile is here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcucek/

Location: 1-23-4, Toranomon, Minato-ku
Tokyo, Japan, 105-0001,
Tel: +81 3 6830 1234 , Fax: +81 3 6830 1211 https://tokyo.andaz.hyatt.com/en/hotel/our-hotel.html
Time: June 29 12-1.45 (2pm hard stop)
Fee: Yen 6,000

Email us at [email protected] if you would like to be invited.