1) What is your degree and your dissertation title?

Ph.D. - The Rise of “China Threat “ Arguments

2) What is your current position/title?

Professor, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies (GSAPS), Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan)

3) As is often the case for SSP/IR alums, when you finished your dissertation you had an important choice to make between a position in the policy world and an academic career. What inclined you toward the option you chose? Do you have any advice to share with current SSP students as they weigh their career choices?

My career path may be a little unusual. I had worked as a journalist for about 9 years before starting my Ph.D.. After I became ABD, I applied for a research job at the National Institute for Defense Studies, a research arm of Japan Ministry of Defense. My main responsibility was to analyze the U.S.-China relations and make policy recommendations. There were two reasons for this choice. First, I wanted to use the skills I learned at SSP to analyze and make policy prescriptions. Second, I hoped to gain insight into the workings of Japanese defense policy. I applied for an academic position at Waseda a few months after the thesis defense.

I am happy with the choices I made. I can combine the best of the two worlds, so to speak. Working in the government allowed me to have candid discussions with people in the Ministry of Defense and the Self Defense Forces as a member of the security community. Being in the academia allows me to do research as an independent scholar outside of the government. I am able to ask critical questions and express my opinion freely. Examining theoretical questions is an important benefit of an academic researcher.

I recommend having exposure to the policy world before moving on to an academic career. One word of caution though. It was not easy to finish the dissertation while having a full-time job.

4) Would you say that your experience at SSP and CIS has continued to influence your current position? What key concepts or values from SSP and CIS have served you well in your current position?

Yes, definitely. The most valuable thing I learned at SSP and CIS is the importance of asking a “good question.” This has guided me as I do my own research and when I teach my students. We, as an individual and independent researcher with limited resources and access to information, may not always come up with the answers, but it is crucial that we continue to raise good questions.

When I entered SSP/CIS I had a lofty but naïve idea about peace and war. I learned that to wish for peace, you need to understand war including its military aspects. I gained knowledge about military campaign analysis and different weapon systems from Professor Barry Posen’s classes and Wednesday seminars. I am one of the few people in Japan that teach a course on campaign analysis.

5) What is the part of your current position that you think allows you the most satisfaction and/or dissatisfaction and why?

My students come from all over the world — Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Southeast Asia, the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, EU countries, African countries, Serbia, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Somalia, Afghanistan … It is a pleasure to see them ask good questions and struggle to find the answers. I make them draw arrow diagrams just as Professor Stephen Van Evera made us do.

6) What in your career are you most proud of and has SSP/CIS been a part of that?

I published a book titled War Studies for Peace. This is a book for ordinary readers explaining the major causes of war and key mechanism like deterrence. I wrote this book to build a broad base for public debate about international security. I am proud that the book is widely read by ordinary people, media and even policy makers.

7) What, outside of SSP/CIS and your work here, has been the factor that has most influenced who you are now, and what your current research interests are?

My family has been an inspiration and motivation for my work. My two daughters were just three and one when I started the Ph.D. program. They have been supporting me ever since. They help me ask big questions that transcends generations. They also keep me honest and responsible when I make policy recommendations. They must have missed me while I was doing all the class reading and paper writing. But now, the then three-year-old is doing a double degree at MIT and Harvard with her own toddler! And the one-year-old is fighting COVID as a specialist in respiratory medicine. Their career choices are the biggest compliment that what I have been doing was not all wrong.

8) Looking back, what, if anything would you do differently?

I had a choice of learning a new language in my second year. Everyone I knew told me that for a Japanese learning Korean was very easy. So, I started with Chinese. My plan was to master Chinese first and then start learning Korean. I never mastered Chinese and thus never started Korean. I should have started with Korean and then mastered Chinese.

9) What is the key piece of advice that you would pass along to current SSP graduate students, or those just beginning their careers?

It is important to ask a relevant question the real world is asking. At the same time, however, you need to have the courage to offer an answer no one wants to hear. When tensions rise in major power relations like we are experiencing now, for example between the United States and China or Japan and China, it is very easy to group think. The way to escape this is good science. You should be confident in making your argument, and you also need to always doubt your answers. This, in the end will help us reach the answer.