Episode 46: Shigeru Kitamura on the U.S.-Japan Alliance in an Age of Fragmentation

In Tokyo, SCSP President Ylli Bajraktari and Vice President for Global Partnerships Joe Wang sat down with Mr. Shigeru Kitamura, former National Security Advisor of Japan and one of the most respected voices in Japanese national security and intelligence. The conversation covers four major themes shaping the future of the US-Japan alliance and the broader international order. G7 and the Fragmentation of the World Order: Kitamura breaks down why the Évian G7's real achievement was recognizing that democracies must fuse security, technology, energy, finance, supply chains, and values into one strategic framework. His verdict on China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea's shared instinct to exploit the seams of open societies — and why the free world is resilient, but not yet fast enough. The Evolving U.S.-Japan Alliance: From a regional defense arrangement to a genuinely global strategic partnership. Kitamura details Japan's historic shift toward counterstrike capabilities and active cyber defense, and explains why the deepest change underway is psychological, Japan finally treating economic security as national security. Countering Beijing's Revisionist Ambitions: A four-pillar framework for confronting China's long-term strategic objectives, covering military deterrence, economic deterrence, technology protection, and coalition-building across the Indo-Pacific and beyond. Weapons of Economic Coercion: Kitamura goes deep on the vulnerabilities facing critical infrastructure, ports, grids, telecom, undersea cables — and the risks posed by predatory M&A and unprotected AI talent and compute. He lays out a vision for a Japan-US division of labor built on Japan's manufacturing strength and America's scale and capital. A candid, in-depth conversation with one of the architects of modern Japanese national security strategy. Check out their conversation on the SCSP YouTube channel!Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.