Shimoda Conference was a series of unofficial dialogues between representatives of the United States and Japan that first began in 1967 and continued every 2-4 years until 1994. In 2011 representatives from the United States and Japan gathered to hold the New Shimoda Conference in order to revive these dialogues.

History

The first conference took place in 1967 and was the first forum for serious, but unofficial discussion between the two nations since World War II. Hosted by the Japan Council for International Understanding (JCIE's predecessor) and the American Assembly of Columbia University the conference was attended by several Congressional members, including then Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield

Mike Mansfield

Michael Joseph Mansfield was an American Democratic politician and the longest-serving Majority Leader of the United States Senate, serving from 1961 to 1977. He also served as United States Ambassador to Japan for over ten years...

, Senator Edmund Muskie

Edmund Muskie

Edmund Sixtus "Ed" Muskie was an American politician from Rumford, Maine. He served as Governor of Maine from 1955 to 1959, as a member of the United States Senate from 1959 to 1980, and as Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter from 1980 to 1981...

 (later secretary of state), Representative Thomas Foley

Thomas Foley

Thomas Foley or Tom Foley may refer to:* Thomas Foley , British admiral* Thomas Patrick Roger Foley , American religious leader* Tom Foley , American baseball player...

 (later Speaker of the House), and Representative Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...

 (later secretary of defense), as well as Japanese diet members Yasuhiro Nakasone

Yasuhiro Nakasone

is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from November 27, 1982 to November 6, 1987. A contemporary of Brian Mulroney, Ronald Reagan, Helmut Kohl, François Mitterrand, Margaret Thatcher, and Mikhail Gorbachev, he is best known for pushing through the privatization of...

 (later prime minister) and Eiichi Nagasue (later chairman of the Democratic Socialist Party).

New Shimoda Conference

On February 22 2011 about 50 representatives from the United States and Japan gathered at the Tokyo hotel for the New Shimoda Conference in order to revive the historic forum between the two nations. The conference commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Japan Center for International Exchange(JCIE), the independent organization that hosts the event.

Attendees

• Jim Webb
  Jim Webb
  James Henry "Jim" Webb, Jr. is the senior United States Senator from Virginia. He is also an author and a former Secretary of the Navy. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
  
  , Member, US Senate; Chairman, US Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs; Chairman, Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel
• Diana DeGette
  Diana DeGette
  Diana Louise DeGette is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997, and a Chief Deputy Whip. She is a member of the Democratic Party.The district is based in Denver.-Early life, education and career:...
  
  , Member, US House of Representatives
• Motohisa Furukawa
  Motohisa Furukawa
  is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan , a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet . A native of Nagoya, Aichi and graduate of the University of Tokyo, he joined the Ministry of Finance in 1988, attending Columbia University in the United States as a ministry official...
  
  , Member, House of Representatives of Japan; former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary

• Tadashi Yamamoto, President, Japan Center for International Exchange
• Hitoshi Tanaka, Senior Fellow, Japan Center for International Exchange; Chairman, Institute for International Strategy; former Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan
• Ichiro Fujisaki
  Ichiro Fujisaki
  is the current Japanese Ambassador to the United States.Fujisaki attended junior high school in Seattle, Washington as an exchange student. Fujisaki entered the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1969. Served as Director-General of the North American Affairs Bureau in the Ministry of Foreign...
  
  , Ambassador of Japan to the United States

• Seiji Maehara
  Seiji Maehara
  is a Japanese politician who has been a member of the House of Representatives of Japan since 1993. He was the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan from 2005 to 2006, and later served as Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and Minister of Foreign Affairs under the cabinets...
  
  , Foreign Minister of Japan
• ...

Conferences

• First Shimoda Conference (1967)
• Second Shimoda Conference (1969)
• Third Shimoda Conference (1972)
• Fourth Shimoda Conference (1977)
• Fifth Shimoda Conference (1981)
• Sixth Shimoda Conference (1983)
• Seventh Shimoda Conference (1987)
• Eighth Shimoda Conference (1990)
• Ninth Shimoda Conference (1994)
• New Shimoda Conference (2011)

Publications

In addition to analysis and coverage of the forum, most of the discussions at the Shimoda Conferences are available in bilingual copies.

• Discord in the Pacific: Challenges to the Japanese-American Alliance, 1972 (3rd Shimoda Conference)
• The United States and Japan, 1975
• Encounter at Shimoda: Search for a New Pacific Partnership, 1979 (Fourth Shimoda Conference)
• The Fifth Shimoda Conference, 1981
• Shimoda Report: A Continuing Dialogue on Critical Issues in U.S.-Japan Relations, 1982
• Report of the 6th Shimoda Conference, 1983
• Report of the 7th Shimoda Conference, 1987
• Report of the 8th Shimoda Conference, 1990
• Japan and the United States in Asia Pacific: The Challenges for Japan in Asia (Final Report of the Shimoda '94), 1995
• Japan and the United States in Asia Pacific: The Challenges for Japan in Asia (Background Papers for the Shimoda '94), 1995

External links

• Shimoda Conference, Japan Center for International Exchange
• New Shimoda Conference, Japan Center for International Exchange

Opening Remarks

• Tadashi Yamamoto, President, Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE)
• Hon. Diana DeGette, Member, US House of Representatives
• Hon. Motohisa Furukawa, Member, House of Representatives of Japan; former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary

Keynote Speech

• Hon. Jim Webb, Member, US Senate; Chairman, US Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs; Chairman, Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel

Special Address for New Shimoda Conference

• Hon. Seiji Maehara, Foreign Minister of Japan