Published: Sunday, December 4, 2011
JFI activities
Upcoming Events
December 5, 2011:
With the Balsillie School of International Affairs and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), the JFI is sponsoring a symposium titled “Responding to Disaster: Lessons Learned from the Haiti and Great East Japan Earthquakes” at the Oscar Peterson Theatre at the Canadian Embassy to Japan. Distinguished panelists—Professor Makoto Iokibe President of the National Defense Academy of Japan and Chairman of the Reconstruction Design Council), Ambassador Sadaaki Numata (former ambassador of Japan to Canada), Lieutenant General (Ret.) Noboru Yamaguchi (Japan Ground Self Defense Forces; current Director, Center for National Security and Crisis Management), Colonel Jacques Morneau (Defence Attaché, Embassy of Canada to the Republic of Korea), Professor Andrew S. Thompson (Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Waterloo and Global Governance Program Officer, Balsillie School of International Affairs), and David A. Welch—will present their views about the disaster response operations that followed the Haiti Earthquake of January 2010 and the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011. March 14-15, 2012: JFI’s spring symposium, “Disaster Management, Energy Security, and Multilateral Cooperation: The Tohoku Disaster and Its Regional and Global Implications” will be held in Waterloo. The two-day workshop will discuss the potential of Japanese and Canadian cooperation in disaster management and energy security in the Asia-Pacific and beyond. Further details will be forthcoming in a future newsletter.
Lectures/Conference
November 9 & 16, 2011:
David A. Welch and Seung Hyok Lee of the JFI spoke as guest lecturers at the Keiko and Charles Belair Centre for East Asian Studies at Renison University College, University of Waterloo, with the titles “Why we should be studying Japan more, not less?” and “The influence of public opinion on Japanese foreign policy toward North Korea, 1998-2006,” respectively.
November 18, 2011:
Kimie Hara was an invited speaker at the symposium commemorating the 60th anniversary of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, Columbia University, New York.
Japan Watch
The Guardian: Warren Buffett Talks Up Japan Opportunities on Visit (November 21, 2011)
Warren Buffett – the “sage of Omaha” – paid a visit recently to Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, holding up a poster that read, “Never give up, Fukushima” with employees from the nearby Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which suffered a catastrophic failure as a result of the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami. Mr. Buffett said he came for new investments in the country, as “an extraordinary event really creates a buying opportunity,” as had happened in the United States after the 9/11. His visit to Japan, and especially to Fukushima, was appreciated by many Japanese, and raised hopes of increased foreign investment.
