The overarching question imparting urgency to this exploration is: Can U.S.-Russian contention in cyberspace cause the two nuclear superpowers to stumble into war? In considering this question we were constantly reminded of recent comments by a prominent U.S. arms control expert: At least as dangerous as the risk of an actual cyberattack, he observed, is cyber operations’ “blurring of the line between peace and war.” Or, as Nye wrote, “in the cyber realm, the difference between a weapon and a non-weapon may come down to a single line of code, or simply the intent of a computer program’s user.”
In this Project on Managing the Atom Seminar, former Japanese Ambassador and Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs Tetsuya Endo, Former CEO of Chubu Electric Power Company Takahiko Ito, Professor Nobumasa Akiyama of Hitotsubashi University, and Research Fellow Tomoyuki Kondo of the Japan Institute of International Affairs will discuss "The Future of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle in Japan.
Speakers:
- Tetsuya Endo is currently a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs. He was Vice Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of the Japanese Government. He served in various overseas diplomatic postings, including Vienna and New Zealand as Ambassador. His domestic postings include Director-General for Science and Technology at the Foreign Ministry and Head of Japan-North Korea Normalization Talks and KEDO.
- Takahiko Ito is currently Adviser of Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc., as well as President of Japan Chapter, Institute of Nuclear Material Management, President of Japan Atomic Energy Relations Organization and Director, Energy Strategist Consultancy Limited. He was Former Commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission of Japan. He has worked for Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc., since 1964 and spent his business career in the nuclear power field serving as Executive Vice President & Director, Division Manager of the Power Generation Division, and Director and General Manager of the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station (Chubu Electric Power's NPS.
- Nobumasa Akiyama is Professor at the Graduate School of Law and the Graduate School of International Public Policy at Hitotsubashi University, and an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Center for the Promotion of Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, Japan Institute of International Affairs. His other professional appointments include an advisor to the Japanese delegation to the NPT Review Conferences, memberships of the advisory committee on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament for the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Professor Akiyama has published books and articles on nuclear non-proliferation and security issues and comments for TV programs and newspapers. Recently, he worked on review of the Fukushima nuclear accident as a member of the working group for the Independent Commission on the Investigation of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident, initiated by a private think-tank, Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation.
- Tomoyuki Kondo is a research fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs. Previously, he worked at the Embassy of Japan in the United States as a researcher and at the Center for Pacific and American Studies at University of Tokyo as a research associate. His area of specialty is U.S. politics.