Amidst the flux of the liberal international order, Japan’s public diplomacy, which relies solely on its cultural uniqueness, is inadequate. Professor Yasushi Watanabe of Keio University proposes new principles for an age where the diplomatic sphere is expanding from negotiation tactics to agenda setting and norm setting. In this presentation, Professor Watanabe will review the trajectory of Japan’s public diplomacy, its challenges and possibilities, with particular attention to the Tokyo 2020 Games.

About the Speakers:
Professor Yasushi Watanabe is a professor at the Graduate School of Media and Governance at Keio University in Japan, and is one of Japan’s most prominent experts on cultural policy and public diplomacy. He received the Japan Academy Prize—the highest award for young scholars under 45 in Japan.

Professor Corneliu Bjola is Associate Professor of Diplomatic Studies at the University of Oxford. He received his PhD from the University of Toronto and has previously taught at McMaster University and the University of Toronto. He was a research fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a Visiting Fellow at the Australian Defence Force Academy and China Foreign Affairs University.

This event is organised by the Oxford Department of International Development in conjunction with the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation.