Japan’s United States–imposed postwar constitution renounced the use of offensive military force, but, Sheila A. Smith shows, a nuclear North Korea and an increasingly assertive China have the Japanese rethinking that commitment—and their reliance on U.S. security.
About the Expert
Expert Bio
Sheila A. Smith is senior fellow for Japan studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). An expert on Japanese politics and foreign policy, she is the author of Japan Rearmed: The Politics of Military Power, Intimate Rivals: Japanese Domestic Politics and a Rising China (released in Japanese as 日中 親愛なる宿敵: 変容する日本政治と対中政策), and Japan's New Politics and the U.S.-Japan Alliance. She is also the author of the CFR interactive guide Constitutional Change in Japan. Smith is a regular contributor to the CFR blog Asia Unbound and a frequent contributor to major media outlets in the United States and Asia.
Smith joined CFR from the East-West Center in 2007, where she directed a multinational research team in a cross-national study of the domestic politics of the U.S. military presence in Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines. She was a visiting scholar at Keio University in 2007-08, where she researched Japan’s foreign policy towards China, supported by the Abe Fellowship. Smith has been a visiting researcher at two leading Japanese foreign and security policy think tanks, the Japan Institute of International Affairs and the Research Institute for Peace and Security, and at the University of Tokyo and the University of the Ryukyus.
Smith is chair of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (JUSFC) and the U.S. advisors to the U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON), a binational advisory panel of government officials and private-sector members. She teaches as an adjunct professor at the Asian studies department of Georgetown University and serves on the board of its Journal of Asian Affairs. She also serves on the advisory committee for the U.S.-Japan Network for the Future program of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation.
Smith earned her MA and PhD from the political science department at Columbia University.
Affiliations:
- CULCON/Japan-United States Friendship Commission, vice chair
- Georgetown University, adjunct professor
- Mansfield Foundation U.S.-Japan Next Generation Leaders Program, senior advisor
Featured
Japan's constitutional debate is about not simply the document's past but also the nation's ability to respond to twenty-first-century challenges.
CFR Senior Fellow for Japan Studies Sheila A. Smith introduces the first four episodes of this new podcast series focusing on Northeast Asian nationalisms, Japan, and the U.S.-Japan alliance.
Current Projects
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North Korea’s test of an intercontinental ballistic missile during the week of the Hamburg summit injects an air of crisis into an already tricky set of meetings.
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As tensions in Northeast Asia grow over Pyongyang’s nuclear pursuits, collective action is the only way to bring stability to the region.
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The meeting of U.S. and Japanese leaders in Pearl Harbor will be a reminder of the remarkable journey that transformed the two countries from adversaries to allies.
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Japan hosts the G7 summit at a time of rising strategic tensions in Asia and worrisome global economic trends, but for many the gathering will be sidelined by a U.S. presidential visit to Hiroshima, writes CFR’s Sheila Smith.
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Five years after a devastating meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, the debate on nuclear safety remains heated in Japan, writes CFR’s Sheila A. Smith.
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Seven experts look at the challenges and opportunities in China’s relations in Asia in the coming year.
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