Robert Ward hosts Ogi Hirohito, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Geoeconomics; Ito Ayano, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ITO Strategy Company; and Tom Corben, Research Fellow at the United States Studies Centre. They discuss the increasing cooperation between Japan and the US in the defence industry.

Together, they explore: 

· How Takaichi and Trump might cooperate on US-Japan defence-industrial issues

· The Takaichi government’s new policies in relation to the defence industry

· How the defence industry in Japan and the US views recent defence-industrial policy changes

· Defence-industrial cooperation with third countries, through initiatives such as GCAP

· How the US views defence-industrial cooperation with Japan and the effect of the upcoming US National Security Strategy on this

Recommended materials from our guests: 

· Alan Booth, The Roads to Sata,(London: Penguin, 2020), 336pp.

· Tobias S Harris, The Iconoclast, (London: Hurst, 2023), 504pp.

· Anno Hideki and Higuchi Shinji, Shin Gozilla, (Toho Co, 2016).

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Date recorded: 4 November 2025

Japan Memo is recorded and produced at the IISS in London.

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