On June 20, 2025, the Asia Pacific Initiative (API) hosted a roundtable welcoming Dr. Scott W. Harold, a Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation, a U.S. think tank.

During the meeting, Dr. Harold presented his work on the “Japan-U.S. Defense Industrial Cooperation, Acquisition, and Sustainment (DICAS)” initiative, which served as the basis for a lively exchange of views with API experts.

The discussion covered DICAS’s origins, its main undertakings, challenges in promoting Japan-U.S. defense industrial cooperation, and DICAS’s future outlook. The potential impact of President Trump on DICAS was also examined. Furthermore, there was a discussion on whether DICAS, which is effective in peacetime, could fulfill a similar role during contingencies.

This roundtable proved to be a highly valuable opportunity to consider how industrial and technological cooperation between Japan and the U.S. should be strengthened amidst a rapidly changing international security environment.