Events

"Let's Look Inside UT's Labs!" is an annual event that has been held since 2012, during which high school students from all over Japan and the world get a glimpse of what it's like inside the University of Tokyo. This year, our Igata Lab is joining this program! Wouldn't you like to take a look at the researchers and students who tackle the (currently very topical) issue of Economic Security in their natural habitats?

Nowadays, some states are not only increasing their military power but also refining their tactics through economic and informational policies in response to geopolitical tensions. It is becoming increasingly important to secure supply chains of semiconductors, AI and biotechnologies and increase their global competitiveness. Furthermore, gathering intelligence despite the potential for disinformation and influence operations by generative AI is also of importance. In this event, we will host a lecture covering the fundamentals of economic security and an analysis of some states' recent behaviours. We will also showcase student activities and conclude the sessions with an all inclusive Q&A and discussion.

We will host two in-person sessions on March 26 and two on-line sessions on March 27.
(*Please note that all four sessions will be the same content.)

On March 26 (Thursday), students will have the opportunity to visit the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology in Komaba Campus II, and directly talk to Project Lecturer Igata and a few members of the Economic Security Intelligence lab.

On March 27 (Friday), as the entire program will be carried out online, students living far away will also have a chance to join.

We look forward to receiving your active participation!

The Economic Security Intelligence Lab (ESIL) at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo, will host the following public seminar, welcoming Mr. Hiroyuki Nakajima, Head of the Americas Regional Office at the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

The Japan–U.S. Tariff Agreement and Economic Security:
Insights from the Frontlines of Trade, Investment, and Infrastructure

Mr. Nakajima has overseen JBIC’s operations for the United States at its New York office and has been directly engaged at the forefront of major shifts in U.S. trade policy, industrial policy, and external economic strategy under the Trump administration. In particular, he has been deeply involved in analyzing and responding, from both practical and policy perspectives, to how the restructuring of tariff policies and investment and supply chain measures centered on economic security have affected Japanese companies’ strategies toward the U.S. market and the broader Japan–U.S. economic relationship.

In this seminar, Mr. Nakajima will provide an overview of the latest developments and structural changes in Japanese corporate investment in the United States and the associated impacts on supply chains, in light of the Trump administration’s tariff policies. His analysis will draw on the results of JBIC’s Overseas Investment Survey, released earlier this month, which examines Japanese companies’ overseas business activities. He will also discuss the outlook for the U.S. political and economic landscape toward 2026. Domestically, he will consider how divided control of the House and Senate following the midterm elections may affect governance and trade and economic policy. Internationally, with reference to the recently released U.S. National Security Strategy, he will examine how U.S. Asia policy, including its approach toward China, is likely to evolve in coordination with trade, investment, and infrastructure strategies. In addition, where possible, he will offer insights into future directions for Japan–U.S. economic relations, including investment and financial cooperation under the Japan–U.S. tariff agreement.

This seminar will provide a valuable opportunity for researchers, policymakers, and business professionals with interests in Japan–U.S. relations, economic security, trade policy, outward investment, and infrastructure finance to gain a deeper understanding of the intersection between policy and practice. We sincerely look forward to your participation.

The Economic Security Intelligence Lab (ESIL) at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo, will host a public seminar co-organized with FRONTEO, Inc. and the Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization (IDE-JETRO).

New Developments in Supply Chain Research:
Input–Output Tables, Firm-Level Data, and AI

In recent years, supply chain visibility and risk management have become indispensable challenges for governments and companies alike. As international geopolitical tensions persist, efforts to diversify supply chains have accelerated not only in advanced technology sectors such as semiconductors, AI, and biotechnology, but also in relation to critical materials and energy. At the same time, sanctions regimes and export control frameworks have been strengthened across countries, and Japanese companies are increasingly required to accurately identify supply chain dependencies and enhance accountability. Against this backdrop, attention to advanced analytical methods from the perspective of economic security has intensified.

Supply chain research has evolved significantly beyond macro-level analysis based on international input–output tables using conventional statistical data. It has expanded toward empirical analysis that leverages actual inter-firm transaction networks, resulting in substantial methodological advancement. In particular, multi-layered approaches are taking shape, including vulnerability assessments using input–output tables, more precise dependency analysis through integration with firm-level data, and the application of large language models (LLMs) to develop new analytical techniques. These innovations have made it possible to capture industrial structures and relationships within global value chains in far greater detail than before.

This seminar will bring together experts working at the forefront of international input–output analysis, inter-firm transaction network analysis, and AI applications to engage in discussion grounded in the latest theory, data, and policy perspectives. In addition to presenting cutting-edge insights on vulnerability analysis using international input–output tables and advanced methodologies that combine firm-level data and AI, the seminar will explore future directions and possibilities for supply chain research from perspectives that cut across policy, industry, and academia.

Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS) Temple University Japan and the Economic Security Intelligence Lab (ESIL) at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), the University of Tokyo, are pleased to invite you to an online webinar featuring Dr. Laura Murphy, Professor of Human Rights at Sheffield Hallam University and Carr-Ryan Fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.

Dr. Murphy’s long-standing research on forced labor in the Uyghur region faced unprecedented interference in 2024, which culminated in the Sheffield Hallam University’s decision to discontinue her research in 2025, a development widely reported by major outlets including the BBC and The Guardian. Her case has sparked urgent debate about how external actors may seek to influence or curtail academic inquiry. Building on this and other recent examples, the webinar will explore how shifting international dynamics are creating new forms of transnational pressure on universities, and what these developments mean for academic freedom and institutional autonomy.

The session will examine the broader implications of such pressures for scholars, students, and research institutions, including constraints on transparency, access, governance, and institutional safeguards. As global political uncertainty continues to grow, these issues are becoming increasingly relevant for universities in Japan as well. The event aims to provide researchers, administrators, and students with insights into how higher education institutions can better protect academic freedom and ensure the integrity of their research environments.

In addition to Dr. Murphy, the event will feature opening remarks by Robert Dujarric of ICAS Temple University Japan and will be moderated by Akira Igata, the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST) at the University of Tokyo.

Speaker bio
Laura T. Murphy is Professor of Human Rights and Contemporary Slavery at the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University (UK). She received the National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award and was a British Academy Visiting Fellow and a John G. Medlin Jr. Fellow at the National Humanities Center.

She is the author of Freedomville: The Story of a 21st-Century Slave Revolt (Columbia Global Reports, 2021), The New Slave Narrative: The Battle over Representations of Contemporary Slavery (Columbia University Press, 2019), Survivors of Slavery: Modern-Day Slave Narratives (Columbia University Press, 2014), and Metaphor and the Slave Trade in West African Literature (Ohio University Press, 2012). She is also the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Global Literature and Slavery (Cambridge UP, 2022).

Her research team has published a series of reports and evidence briefs about the Chinese government's intertwined systems of internment and forced labor that has been inflicted on the people of the Uyghur Region. The work investigates the international supply chains that have ties to those repressive systems, including those attached to the solar, apparel, chemicals/plastics, automotive, and critical minerals sectors. She has provided expert testimony and evidence on the crisis in the Uyghur Region to the U.S., U.K. and Australian governments and EU leadership. She also provided private briefings to government agencies, advocacy groups, law firms, and others interested in the issue globally.

She has previously conducted research on forced labor in India, Nigeria, Ghana, the United States, and Canada.

She has recently been part of a team that created core competencies for medical professionals addressing human trafficking in healthcare settings with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her previous research on the intersection of homeless youth and human trafficking in the U.S. and Canada provided a four-pronged, victim-centered community blueprint for how service providers can best assist youth at risk of trafficking, based on interviews with over 600 homeless youth in the U.S. and Canada. She has consulted for the World Health Organization, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Office of Victims of Crime, and the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center, as well as other government agencies, workers unions, investor groups, law firms, and advocacy groups.

The Economic Security Intelligence Lab (ESIL) at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo, and SPF USA is honored to co-host for a public symposium titled:

The Next AI Security Challenge:
U.S.-Japan Perspectives on Risks from Frontier AI

The symposium co-hosted last year, “U.S.-Japan AI Security: Adversarial AI Risks and Mitigation Strategies for Disinformation and Cyber Threats,” examined how adversarial AI could accelerate the spread of disinformation at a time when the issue had only begun to surface in Japan. Over the past year, the relevance of that discussion has become increasingly clear, as the threat of disinformation using generative AI across text, audio, and video has grown more urgent while geopolitical tensions surrounding Japan have escalated.

With the rapid development of frontier AI, what are the next set of risks that we may have to face in the near future? Building on the foundation of discussions from last year, this year’s symposium aims to anticipate issues that will soon become central to national resilience and international security. Rapid advances in generative and agentic systems, combined with the convergence of AI with biotechnology, quantum computing, autonomous systems, and advanced cyber infrastructure, are reshaping the strategic environment and complicating traditional security and governance frameworks. The event will explore how these shifts create new risks across civilian and national security domains, what “AI assurance” must look like in an era of adversarial manipulation, and how U.S.–Japan cooperation can help establish shared standards, strengthen resilience, and balance innovation with risk mitigation.

This public symposium will open with scene-setting remarks by Jim Schoff (Senior Director, NEXT Alliance Initiative, Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA). It will then feature three leading U.S. experts whose collective expertise spans government leadership, technical research, and international policy. Dimitri Kusnezov, former Under Secretary for Science and Technology at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and now Vice President for Science & Technology at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, offers a national-level perspective on securing emerging technologies. Marissa Dotter, Lead AI Engineer at MITRE Corporation, contributes deep technical insight into threat-informed defense and the security of AI-enabled systems. Matt Chessen, Resident Technical Expert at the Center on the Geopolitics of Artificial General Intelligence, brings a diplomatic and geopolitical lens shaped by years of work on AI policy in the Indo-Pacific. Together, they offer a comprehensive view of the governance and security challenges arising from rapidly evolving AI capabilities. The discussion will be moderated by Akira Igata (RCAST, The University of Tokyo).

The Economic Security Intelligence Lab (ESIL) at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo, is pleased to host a public seminar featuring a delegation from the Israel-based think tank SIGNAL Group titled:

Israel and Japan in an increasingly Multipolar World:
How Middle Powers are caught in Great Powers competition

Great Powers competition between the U.S. and China continues to fragilize an already fragmented world. Since the Covid-19 crisis, numerous challenges have tested the foundation of the post-Cold War global order, and middle powers are faced with a difficult choice between prioritizing traditional allies and sustaining the multilateral order. Israel and Japan stand as symbolic cases for this fragile equilibrium. Both countries are at the forefront of middle power struggle in a century of great power competition.

The delegation from SIGNAL is composed of various experts and policymakers who are confronted directly with this struggle. The think tank, which presents itself as the only think tank specializing in engagement with China, will bring the perspective of Israel on issues related to the Indo-Pacific security and the economic and political competition between the U.S. and China. Together with the Japanese perspective, they will discuss the future of multilateralism in an increasingly multipolar world.

The Economic Security Intelligence Lab (ESIL) at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo is honored to host Francesco Maria Talò, Special Envoy of the Government of Italy for the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) for a public symposium.

H.E. Amb. Talò previously served as Diplomatic Advisor to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and is one of Italy’s most experienced senior diplomats, having held posts such as Italy’s Permanent Representative to NATO, Ambassador to Israel, and Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. During the launch of the Meloni administration in 2022, he played a key role in shaping Italy’s foreign policy.

As Special Envoy, H.E. Amb. Talò is responsible for advancing IMEC, a strategic initiative connecting India, the Gulf region, and Europe through integrated infrastructure networks. The project aims to enhance connectivity through multi-modal transport links, green energy corridors, diversified and resilient supply chains, and expanded digital and logistics infrastructure. In an era of growing geopolitical uncertainty, IMEC is increasingly viewed as a critical framework for strengthening global economic security. He leads Italy’s efforts to operationalize the corridor, coordinating with partner governments, industry stakeholders, and international institutions across investment, transportation, and energy domains.

This symposium will explore the current status and future outlook of IMEC, the potential roles Italy may play in regional and global infrastructure initiatives, and opportunities for Japan-Italy cooperation. Discussions will be led by Akira Igata (Project Lecturer, RCAST, The University of Tokyo), with considerations of concrete areas of collaboration, including port and logistics development, energy transition, semiconductor and strategic-materials supply chain resilience, and broader engagement in the Indo-Pacific and Indo-Mediterranean regions.

This seminar will be conducted in English.

The Economic Security Intelligence Lab (ESIL) at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo, is pleased to host a public symposium featuring the former Defense Minister of Georgia Tinatin Khidasheli titled:

Frontlines of Influence:
Russia, China, and the Hybrid Contest over Georgia

In recent years, Georgia has stood at a geopolitical crossroads, caught between its aspirations for deeper integration with Europe and the expanding influence of authoritarian networks centered in Moscow and Beijing. Although a small country in the Caucasus, Georgia reflects many of the world’s most urgent strategic challenges: Russian elite capture encouraging democratic backsliding, China’s economic engagement creating new dependencies and opaque financial flows, and the rapid erosion of civic space that undermines civil society and opposition voices.

The symposium will feature a keynote address by Tinatin Khidasheli, former Georgian Minister of Defence and current head of the Georgian think tank Civic Idea. She will outline the current domestic situation and Russia’s role in shaping political dynamics inside Georgia. Her remarks will also explore how Georgia has become a test site for hybrid warfare, with clear parallels to gray zone tactics in the South China Sea and around Taiwan. Ms. Khidasheli will discuss the promised investments from China in Georgia such as the strategically critical port of Anaklia that faces the Black Seas, the regional connectivity logic shaping the Caucasus, and the potential role that Japan can play in countering China’s rise in countries facing similar pressures.

These issues are not limited to Georgia. Disinformation campaigns originating from authoritarian actors have had international consequences, including direct implications for Japan. As civic space has contracted within Georgia, Ms. Khidasheli has herself become a target of mass disinformation. One prominent example is an absurd television “documentary” that falsely portrayed her as a “Taiwanese agent” and even claimed that the Japanese government bribed her to carry out its agenda.

Ms. Khidasheli will be joined by two leading experts. Dr. Aya Adachi of the German Council on Foreign Relations will contribute insights from her research on Chinese economic influence in Georgia. Maya Sobchuk of the Economic Security Intelligence Lab at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, will draw on her work on Russian influence operations in Georgia. Akira Igata will moderate the discussion and guide the conversation toward three core themes: the strategic resilience of small democratic states, the implications for European and Asian security theaters, and policy options for partners such as Japan.

The seminar will be conducted in English, and pre-registration is required to participate.

The Economic Security Intelligence Lab (ESIL) at The Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo together with the Japan Association for Cellular Agriculture (JACA), will co-host the International Conference on the Use of Cultured Cells in Food: Towards a Food-Bio-READY Society.

This conference will feature discussions on:

(1)Research findings on risk assessment methods for cultured meat produced using cell culture technology;

(2)International debates on the latest risk assessment policies for novel and cellular foods;

(3)Recent developments regarding the safety of culture media used in cellular foods;

(4)Recent developments regarding the safety of cells used in cellular foods.

The Economic Security Intelligence Lab (ESIL) at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo, is pleased to host a seminar featuring two of its visiting research students: Mr. Tim Ellemann, a PhD candidate at the European University Institute, and Mr. Tim Cichanowicz, a PhD candidate at the University of Kansas.

Session 1:
Mr. Ellemann will present his research titled “The Borders of Trade Law: Facilitating and Restricting Movement of Ideas Through Economic Security Instruments,” in which he examines economic security in Europe from the perspective of international trade law.

Session 2:
Mr. Cichanowicz will give a presentation titled “National Security or Protectionism? The Determinants of Which Traded Products Become Securitized,” discussing the criteria by which “critical goods” are designated for economic security purposes in the United States.

The seminar will also include a Q&A session focusing on preventing the misuse of AI, the sharing of data between public and private sectors, and perspectives on international cooperation in this area.