MOROFUJI Seminar

We promote intellectual dialogue and cultural exchange by inviting international thought leaders who shape the outlook of a dynamically changing world. This program is funded by the generous support of Mr. Shuhei Morofuji (CEO & Founder, Reapra).

June 2023: Dr. Chris Miller

The Institute of Geoeconomics (IOG), together with the Yomiuri Shimbun, hosted “Chip War – Nation’s Technology Faces Crucial Test (Yomiuri International Forum)” on June 20, 2023, at the International House of Japan. We invited Chris Miller, the author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology and Associate Professor of International History at the Fletcher School, Tufts University.
Dr. Miller gave a lecture on the history of semiconductor development and the significance of semiconductors in the international order.

As semiconductors will be an indispensable asset for future generation autonomous weapons systems, the high geographic concentration of semiconductor production hubs creates significant security risks. He explained that major countries’ attempts to strengthen their own semiconductor industries will help mitigate such risks.

In the panel discussion, we invited OKINA Yuri, Chairperson of the Japan Research Institute, SUZUKI Kazuto, the head of the Institute of Geoeconomics, and JIMBO Ken, the President of API. We held discussions on the semiconductor policy of major countries, the presence of China in supply chains, and the future of the semiconductor industry.

Also, on June 21, 2023, Paul Nadeau, Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Geoeconomics, discussed semiconductors and the economy of the future with Chris Miller. The recorded audio is available as an episode of Geoeconomic Agenda, a new Pacific-centric, globally-minded podcast that investigates the connections between economics, geopolitics, business, and society.

The videos and podcasts can be viewed below:

Chris Miller is author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, a geopolitical history of the computer chip. He previously wrote three other books on Russia, including Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia; We Shall Be Masters: Russia’s Pivots to East Asia from Peter the Great to Putin; and The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy: Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of the USSR. He also serves as Associate Professor of International History, where his research focuses on technology, geopolitics, economics, international affairs, and Russia. He has previously served as the Associate Director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale, a lecturer at the New Economic School in Moscow, a visiting researcher at the Carnegie Moscow Center, a research associate at the Brookings Institution, and as a fellow at the German Marshall Fund’s Transatlantic Academy. He received his PhD and MA from Yale University and his BA in history from Harvard University. For more information, see www.christophermiller.net.

October 2022: Mr. Matt Pottinger

In October 2022, the International House of Japan (IHJ) invited Mr. Matt Pottinger to Japan. Mr. Pottinger is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Chairman of the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

On Tuesday October 25, 2022, the IHJ held a seminar in which IOG Director Kazuto Suzuki hosted a dialogue with Mr. Matt Pottinger. As Xi Jinping began a third term after the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, Mr. Pottinger explained what the new Chinese leadership means, what it aims to do, its implications on the economy, relations with Russia, the US’s National Security Strategy, as well as the US’s human rights diplomacy. Among other points, he stressed the need for Japan and the US to collaborate and rapidly enhance the defense capability to deter China from making a misjudgment.

The seminar can be viewed below (recorded on October 25, 2022):

Matt Pottinger is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Chairman of the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Matt served at the White House for four years in senior roles on the National Security Council staff, including as Deputy National Security Advisor from 2019 to 2021. In that role, Matt coordinated the full spectrum of national security policy. Before that he served as Senior Director for Asia, where he led the administration’s work on the Indo-Pacific region, and in particular its shift on China policy.

Before his White House service, Matt spent the late 1990s and early 2000s in China as a reporter for Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. He then fought in Iraq and Afghanistan as a U.S. Marine during three combat deployments between 2007 and 2010. Following active duty, Matt founded and led an Asia-focused risk consultancy and ran Asia research at an investment fund in New York.