The National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) organized a three-day training program on security and foreign policy issues in the Indo-Pacific region for the National Security College (NSC), Australia National University between 20 and 22 November 2023. Twenty-five Australian government officials, together with six NSC faculty and staff members, participated in the program with Prof. Rory Medcalf, Head of NSC, as a leader of the delegation. It was the fourth time such a program was organized since the GRIPS and NSC signed a memorandum of understanding in 2017.

Prof. Narushige Michishita, GRIPS Executive Vice President, introduced the program to the participants, and experts from GRIPS, academia, the Japanese government, and others offered lectures and responded to the participants’ comments and questions. Speakers included: Mr. Nobushige Takamizawa, Former Ambassador of Japan to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva; Prof. Yusuke Takagi, GRIPS; Ms. Mariko Harada, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA); Prof. Akio Takahara, Tokyo University; Gen. (ret.) Sadamasa Oue, formerly Japan Air Self-Defense Force; Mr. Ichiro Kutani, Institute of Energy Economics, Japan; Mr. Nobukatsu Kanehara, former Deputy Secretary-General, National Security Secretariat; Prof. Heigo Sato, Chief of Institute of World Studies, Takushoku University; and Prof. Harukata Takenaka, GRIPS (in the order of appearance).

On the second day, the participants made a field trip to the JAXA Space Center. They took a guided tour to the astronaut training room and observed the control room of the Japanese Experiment Module “Kibo.” The participants also learned how Japan contributed to space exploration as one of the leading countries in the field today.


On the last day, the participants asked follow-up questions, reviewed their takeaways, and discussed how Australia and Japan should cooperate in the future in a wrap-up session with Professor Michishita.







Professor Medcalf and Professor Michishita
reiterated their strong partnership.