SeminarWednesday 9 September 2026
6:00pm – 7:15pm
US–Japan Relations and the Asia-Pacific
13/14 Cornwall Terrace, Outer Circle (entrance facing Regent's Park), London NW1 4QP
the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation Organised by
Book your placeFor more than seven decades since 1952, the relationship between the United States and Japan has been one of the world’s strongest alliances. In recent years, the alliance has entered a dynamic new phase. In October 2025, the two countries agreed to take further steps toward realising a new ‘Golden Age’ for the US-Japan alliance, reaffirming their shared commitment to addressing evolving regional and global security challenges.
In this seminar, moderated by Dr Bill Hayton, Professor Ken Jimbo will examine the future trajectory of the US-Japan relationship and its implications for security in the Asia-Pacific region. The discussion will also explore how the alliance is likely to evolve and how it will deal with future conflicts.
About the contributors
Dr Ken Jimbo
Dr Ken Jimbo is Co-Director of the Research Institute for Advanced Innovation and GeoStrategy (RAIS), Managing Director of Programs at the International House of Japan (IHJ/I-House) and Professor of International Relations at Keio University. He is concurrently an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Canon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS) and an Associate Fellow at Chatham House. He served as Special Advisor to the Japan Ministry of Defense in 2020 and Senior Advisor to the National Security Secretariat from 2018 to 2020.
His main research interests lie in international security, Japan-US security relations, emerging technologies and national security, and Japan’s foreign and defense policy. He has served as a policy advisor for various Japanese governmental commissions and research groups, including those organized by the Ministry of Defense; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. His policy writings have been published by the RAND Corporation, NBR, the Stimson Center, Pacific Forum, The Japan Times, Nikkei, Yomiuri Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun and Sankei Shimbun.
Bill Hayton (moderator)
Bill Hayton was appointed as an associate fellow with the Asia-Pacific programme at Chatham House in 2015. He is a former BBC journalist, the author of four books on Asia, and the editor of the academic journal Asian Affairs. He was the BBC’s reporter in Vietnam in 2006-7 and was seconded to the public broadcaster in Myanmar in 2013-14. Bill is the author of Vietnam: rising dragon (Yale 2010, second edition 2020) and A Brief History of Vietnam (Tuttle, 2022). He has written two other books: The South China Sea: the struggle for power in Asia (Yale, 2014) and The Invention of China (Yale, 2020) and numerous articles on Asian issues. In 2019 he received his PhD from the University of Cambridge for work on the history and development of the South China Sea disputes. Bill worked for the BBC for 22 years until January 2021 and is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.