Japan's Role in the Indo-Pacific — the UN, ODA, and a Free and Open Indo-Pacific

On 23 January 2025, UNU will host “Japan's Role in the Indo-Pacific — the United Nations, Official Development Assistance and a Free and Open Indo-Pacific”, a conversation with Dr. Yuka (Uchida) Ando, Senior Researcher at the India-Japan Laboratory of the Keio Research Institute at Shonan-Fujisawa Campus (SFC). This event will start at 18:30 in the 2F Reception Hall at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo. 

Since the end of World War II, Japan’s diplomatic priorities have centred on its relations with the United Nations, the United States and Asia. Having successfully reconstructed its economy, Japan has steadily increased its official development assistance (ODA) since 1954, including financial contributions to the United Nations, with the aim of fostering peace by encouraging regional and global economic development. However, as Japan has faced economic stagnation since the 1990s, its economic contributions have declined. Domestically, there have been growing calls for reviewing Japan’s ODA policy and for promoting United Nations reform. Japan’s diplomatic priorities, with its commitment to regional and global peace and stability, have expanded in recent years to cover relations with other multilateral platforms, while maintaining its traditional goals of strengthening partnerships with the UN, US and Asia.

Dr. Yuka Ando will join UNU Rector Tshilidzi Marwala for a discussion on Japan’s evolving diplomatic role in the Indo-Pacific. How has economic stagnation influenced the direction of Japan’s ODA policy? How does Japan’s push for UN reform align with its changing diplomatic priorities? What challenges and opportunities does Japan face in expanding its diplomatic focus to regional and global stability?

The UNU Conversation Series aims to foster audience participation; you are encouraged to engage with the speakers during the conversation and at the reception that will follow, where all event attendees are invited to enjoy hors d’oeuvres and drinks while exchanging ideas and making new contacts.

Please note that this event will be in English. Advance registration (by 22 January) is required. Please click on the REGISTER button above to access the online registration page. Please be prepared to present identification at check-in.

About the Speaker

Yuka Ando is currently a Senior Researcher at the India-Japan Laboratory of the Keio Research Institute at SFC. Ando served as political secretary to Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara from 2010 to 2011 under the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) administration. Prior to that, she spent a decade working at the DPJ headquarters, where she handled international affairs of the party.

Ando was a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, and a visiting fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC. From 2000 to 2002, she served as special assistant for political affairs at the Japanese Embassy in Kuwait.

Ando received her BA from Keio University and MA from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She received a PhD in International Relations from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in July 2021. Her thesis was on Japan’s diplomacy in the 1970s: comparative studies on the foreign policies of the Japanese government in the first and the second oil crises. Her PhD was published in February 2024. She has contributed numerous articles to journals and papers. She has taught at Keio University as a lecturer and has given talks as a speaker at a number of symposiums.