By traditional measures, South Korea is not a large country. It ranks 28th in the world in population and only 107th in land mass. Its language is not widely spoken outside the Korean peninsula, and it does not have a large diaspora. Yet since around 2005, it has arguably become the major producer of youth culture in the world. How did this happen?

Stanford professor Dafna Zur has filmed a video to answer that complicated and important question. Dr. Zur is an Associate Professor of Korean literature and culture in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures of Stanford University. She specializes in Korean literature, cinema, and popular culture. As part of her research, Dr. Zur has interviewed the main architects of South Korea’s popular culture wave, including SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo-man and many K-Pop stars.

Stanford’s Center for East Asian Studies and SPICE collaborated on a discussion guide to bring the lessons from Dr. Zur’s video to high school and university students. The video and discussion guide are available for free on SPICE’s Multimedia page. They address the following questions:

• What is popular culture?
• What is soft power, and why is it important?
• How did South Korea become such a successful producer of popular culture in the past 20 years?
• How can we measure South Korea’s success in becoming a popular culture powerhouse? 
• How did South Korea’s popular culture evolve in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? What’s the next stage in its development?
• How easy would it be for other countries to replicate South Korea’s soft power success? 

Because the main vehicle for South Korea’s rise as a soft power giant has been Korean pop music, known as K-Pop, Dr. Zur directs viewers to several music videos that illustrate how K-Pop has evolved since 1997 and where it might go in the future.

She provides deep insight into the building blocks of K-Pop’s success, which she identifies as support from the national government, the kihoeksa (entertainment conglomerate) system, technology, timing, content release strategy, and fan communities. In particular, Dr. Zur explains how the kihoeksa are able to produce high-quality entertainment at a low cost and how their scale has allowed them to invest in new technologies that keep them at the forefront of pop culture production.

The discussion guide provides context for students to understand the complexity in Dr. Zur’s video. In preparation for the video, students take and then discuss a quiz on South Korea’s popular culture. The teacher then defines key terms such as popular culture and soft power and displays charts that show how South Korea’s soft power has increased since 2000. 

Students view Dr. Zur’s video and the accompanying K-Pop music videos as homework and respond to a series of questions on the main themes of the video. During the next class period, they work in groups to develop a plan for another country to elevate its soft power by drawing on what they learned about South Korea’s success. This complex activity requires students to clearly define the factors that have led to the popularity of Korean popular culture, distinguish between the factors they believe are replicable and those that are not, and then adapt this analysis into a set of recommendations for another country that hopes to achieve the same success as South Korea. After groups present their findings to the class, the teacher concludes the lesson by asking students to predict whether South Korea will be able to maintain its soft power dominance into the future. 

The discussion guide contains a complete transcript of the video and is appropriate for advanced secondary students and university students. 

The video lecture and guide were made possible through the support of U.S. Department of Education National Resource Center funding under the auspices of Title VI, Section 602(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

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Amid escalating tensions between the United States and China and as the U.S. government is exploring how to further limit China's access to U.S. technology, discussions about the possibility of decoupling between the two countries have intensified. As businesses operating in China grapple with the potential consequences of decoupling, APARC’s China Program hosted a panel of executives across industries from tech, retail, and finance currently engaged in reshaping their China businesses to provide a view from the ground and consider the future of decoupling with China.

The event was the second installment in a special series celebrating APARC’s 40th anniversary. Titled Asia in 2030, APARC@40, the series highlights core areas of the center’s expertise, examines Asia’s transformation over the past four decades, and considers the drivers and shapers of the region’s future.

The panel featured Dan Brody, the managing director of Tencent Investments, who is responsible for the company’s overseas investments; Frits Van Paasschen, a change management expert, former CEO of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, and former president of EMEA at Nike; and Stuart Schonberger, a founding partner of CDH Investments, one of the leading China-focused alternative asset managers. China Program Director Jean Oi chaired the panel.

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Risks and Opportunities

Van Paasschen described his extensive experience developing strategies for expanding licensing and retail in China, which involved navigating the country's infrastructure and legal framework and, as CEO of Starwood Hotels, overseeing the construction of over 100 hotels. He ascribed his success in the country to his recognition of China’s strengths and weaknesses and his finding ways to interact positively with Chinese stakeholders.

The term decoupling is an oversimplification of the relationship between the complex Chinese and U.S. economies, said Van Paasschen. He noted that retailers in many cases are looking to sources from alternative markets to China, but that he believes there are still opportunities for investment in and co-development with China that remain unaffected by current frictions. He highlighted in this context the interplay between the U.S. and Chinese travel and tourism industries before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schonberger, who also challenged the notion of decoupling as a misleading shorthand, emphasized the need for cognitive empathy between the world’s two great powers and understanding the motivation behind China's actions. He noted that the challenges facing China today are complex, including debt problems, real estate slowdown, and productivity stagnation, but said these are "known knowns" that the Chinese government is actively working to correct.

Schonberger sees two distinct issues facing institutional equity investors worried about China: government policies that negatively affect growth and corporate prospects, and longer-term risks arising from China's geopolitical position. For private investors who are focused on total return and can tolerate overt political pressures, China remains investable, as Chinese stocks have been some of the best performers on the public markets recently, said Schonberger. The challenges are greater, however, for public entities and bond investors who are more affected by political risk in their decisions. While the risks are higher, Schonberger's firm continues to invest in Chinese companies in multiple sectors.

Changes Underway

Brody said that China remains a key player in the global economy. As a personal anecdote, he noted that, while he makes fewer trips to the United States, he is traveling more frequently to Europe, India, Japan, and Southeast Asia. According to Brody, the extent to which the Chinese economy would be affected by international fluctuations is unclear, but he expects the country to continue its economic growth and attract foreign investors. He stated that a huge amount of value in the tech sector is still being created in America, so economically driven foreign investors in the tech sector still pay close attention to developments in Silicon Valley.

Van Paasschen, by contrast, pointed out that by decoupling with China, the United States would miss out on a generational opportunity for development and could potentially lose out to other countries. China still presents an enormous opportunity for businesses, he said, particularly in the hotel industry, given the country’s rate of urbanization. He reminded the audience that every country and region presents its own set of challenges and risks for investors. The imperative is to ensure Beijing and Washington maintain a dialogue and businesses are willing to take risks to invest in China.

Van Paasschen went on to describe how the U.S.-China political tensions are affecting business operations in various sectors. For instance, in the biotechnology sector, companies might consider protecting intellectual property and ensuring sustainability in their supply chain. In the apparel business, there is a growing concern about human rights and the opacity of the cotton supply chain. Overall, Van Paasschen sees a transition underway from a bilateral and straightforward approach to trade to a much more nuanced and complicated approach.

When asked if political tensions would affect some sectors more than others, Van Paasschen responded affirmatively. He gave the example of a sovereign wealth fund that refused to support investments in Chinese hotels because of the uncertainty zero-COVID policies had created. He also said that further uncertainty could arise from countries' reactions to China’s foreign policy stance, such as China's support of Russia in Ukraine.

What advice would the three business experts give Washington?

Van Paasschen expressed his hope the United States finds ways to avoid being reactive. Schonberger, urging policymakers to keep working towards peaceful coexistence, emphasized it would be counter-productive to frame China as an enemy. He also highlighted the importance of redundancy and efficiency in trade relationships and cautioned against overlooking the cost of decoupling, reminding the audience that engagement with China has boosted global trade, lifted millions out of poverty, and created a vibrant society.

From Brody’s perspective, predictability is crucial for business, regardless of the country one is conducting business in. He also stressed that, from a personal perspective and regardless of one’s political stance on China, the reduction in people-to-people ties between China and the United States due to recent travel restrictions is unfortunate. Ultimately, these ties have always been a net positive, and it is important to recognize their value even in the midst of tensions between the two nations. While political leaders may grapple with complex geopolitical issues, the connections between ordinary citizens remain a vital foundation for maintaining a constructive relationship. By fostering personal exchanges, the United States and China can build bridges and promote mutual understanding, even in the face of challenging circumstances.

On April 26, 2023, in recognition of the 70th anniversary of the U.S.-Korea alliance, President Joe Biden will host President Yoon Suk Yeol for a State Visit to the United States. According to Ambassador Jung-Seung Shin, the fact that Yoon received the second such invitation of the Biden administration is a testimony to the centrality of the Korea-U.S. alliance to the peace and stability of the East Asian regions, especially at a time when the frayed U.S.-China relationship continues to degrade into a new Cold War, with a potential Taiwan contingency looming on the horizon. 

Shin, former South Korea's ambassador to China and former director general of the Asia Pacific Affairs Bureau at the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, is the Winter 2023 Payne Distinguished Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and a visiting scholar at APARC. He headlined this quarter’s Payne Lecture, speaking to an audience that gathered on March 1 for a timely discussion titled Sino-U.S. Relations and South Korea, co-hosted by APARC and FSI.

The Payne Lectureship at FSI, named for Frank E. Payne and Arthur W. Payne, aims to raise public understanding of the complex policy issues facing the global community and advance international cooperation. The lectureship brings to Stanford internationally esteemed leaders from academia and the policy world who combine visionary thinking and a broad, practical grasp of their fields with the capacity to provide insights into pressing challenges of global concern. Throughout the 2022-23 academic year, the Payne Lectureship hosts experts from Asia who examine crucial questions in U.S.-China relations.

Ambassador Shin is uniquely qualified to offer insight into South Korea's response to the pressures created by the U.S.-China rivalry, said APARC Director Gi-Wook Shin, who chaired the event that included a discussion with Center Fellow Oriana Skylar Mastro, an expert on Chinese military and Asia security.

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China’s Dreams

Painting a picture of Chinese ambitions, Ambassador Shin enumerated China’s goals and the steps it has taken to achieve them. “The Chinese dream,” he said, “is to regain the colonial behavior of the Qing Dynasty, when China was a great power with about one-third of the global GDP.” To achieve this dream, China's leaders have pushed for its continued economic development while arousing patriotism and nationalism domestically. Through its military modernization campaign, China has rapidly shown its ambition to become the top-rated global military power by 2049, the centennial of the establishment of the People's Republic of China, he noted.

Ambassador Shin indicated that China has prepared for a long-term competition with the U.S. in the economic arena, as Xi Jinping introduced the dual circulation economic policy, which aims to reorient the country's economy by prioritizing domestic consumption while remaining open to international trade and investment. This policy, Shin argues, “is designed, in part, to make the [Chinese] economy less affected by external factors including the supply chain reset of the U.S.” As such, China has stressed the importance of innovation and has made massive investments in science and technology to reduce its reliance on Western economies. Moreover, China has promoted the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to expand its political and economic influence.

“China became the second largest economic power and began to show assertiveness in its foreign policy, particularly by emphasizing the safeguarding of Chinese interests, namely, sovereignty and territorial integrity, state security and development interest,” stated Shin. To achieve these goals, “Chinese diplomats have voiced their arguments in an abrasive style, ‘Wolf Warrior diplomacy’ as it is called by Westerners.” This form of proactive engagement with the rest of the world has resulted in an intensifying strategic competition between the U.S. and China, which has made it increasingly difficult for South Korea to maintain simultaneous ties with both great powers.

No Longer on the Fence

Shin noted that “The strategic distrust and intensifying rivalry between the U.S. and China have put substantial pressure on South Korea…and South Korea's long-term policy to make a Korea-U.S. alliance compatible with its partnership with China is becoming more difficult.” In recent years, South Korea has moved even closer to the U.S.

The joint communique issued when President Moon Jae-in visited Washington two years ago, already showed South Korea’s tilt toward the U.S. At the time, heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula by the North Korean nuclear and missile provocation necessitated the alliance. Now, an ascendant China, “together with the lessons of Ukraine, have made South Korean people pay close attention to the importance of the Korea-U.S. alliance,” stated Shin, noting that both nations openly stress the importance of freedom, democracy, and rule-based order. South Korea has become enthusiastic about tripartite cooperation among South Korea, the U.S., and Japan, in tune with American policies. 

On the other hand, China warned South Korea to respect China's core interests while expressing its concerns on several strategic issues. Shin stated that “China began to demand the Yoon government to continue the three policy positions of the previous government, namely, no more deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), no participation in the American missile defense system, and no military alliance among Korea, Japan, and the U.S.” However, the current Foreign Minister Park Jin made it clear to the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang that the policy positions of the previous government do not bind the new government, Shin indicated.
 

The Taiwan Contingency

Shin indicated the precarious nature of the contingency, stating, “South Korea has no intention of challenging the One China claim. However, the peace and stability of Taiwan Strait are also very important for South Korea, as the security situation of the Taiwan Strait is connected to the Korean peninsula.” Indeed, a military collision in the Taiwan Strait would be impossible to contain locally. “The U.S. and Japan are supposed to immediately help Taiwan to repel China’s military attack, and American bases are located in South Korea and Japan, including Okinawa,” he said.

Therefore, military conflict in the Taiwan Strait is likely to escalate to Northeast Asia, and a certain portion of American forces in South Korea could move to the Taiwan Strait in the contingency according to the strategic flexibility of forces, “which might induce North Korea's misjudgment to invade South Korea,” Shin predicted.
 

Looking to National Identity

The Cost of Deterrence

Preventing Overextension

Overextension represents one of the largest limits on U.S. power projection. According to Mastro, one of the primary reasons that the Biden administration has not been talking about North Korea significantly, is the fact that the U.S. cannot fight a war on the Korean Peninsula and compete effectively with China.

Thus, Mastro proposes that the South Koreans play a greater role in their defense, a topic that comes up with NATO partners and allies in Europe as well. More specifically, Mastro suggests that the U.S. transfer operational command to South Korean forces, and that the South Korean military should allow the U.S. to practice greater strategic flexibility, to use its forces on the Korean Peninsula for operations or contingencies that are off the peninsula. Up until this point, that permission has been denied, but Mastro contends that it would be useful and could enhance deterrence. 

“If the South Koreans, along with their statements about wanting a Free and Open Indo-Pacific, also explicitly allowed for that strategic flexibility to take place to say that they understand that the role of U.S. forces on the Korean peninsula is primarily to deter and defend South Korea against North Korea, that could also play a potential role in wider contingencies,” she said.

Furthermore, Mastro believes that South Korea must play a greater role in the production and provision of certain types of munitions. “This is an area where the U.S. has struggled with its own manufacturing base that is considering licensing production and potentially doing it elsewhere. So the question is whether the U.S. could count on South Korea for some critical supplies during a conflict that could reduce the U.S. logistical burden,” she speculated.

South Korea is a small country, and it has limited resources, but it also has the second-largest reserve force and paramilitary force in the world, and the eighth-largest active duty force in the world. According to Mastro, “The South Korean military is technically 20 times larger than that of Japan's…it has punched above its own weight, like the Australian military has.”

It remains to be seen whether the U.S.-South Korea alliance will need to be tested in the coming years, but tensions with China will likely continue to define the two nation’s foreign policies. A potential Taiwan contingency remains one of the largest looming threats to the status quo and the most probable pathway to regional escalation, which, in Shin’s view, could draw North Korea and its nuclear arsenal into the fold.

The Payne Lectureship will return in the spring quarter, continuing with the theme of Asian perspectives on the U.S.-China relationship. We will be joined by Kokubun Ryosei, professor emeritus at Keio University and adjunct adviser at the Fujitsu Future Studies Center.

Although Japan’s approach to economic diplomacy under the Fukuda Doctrine initially was subject to criticism because of its stance on non-interference in domestic affairs, now some are in retrospect lauding the approach, according to Kiyoteru Tsutsui, deputy director at Shorenstein APARC and director of the Japan Program, and co-editor of the recent book The Courteous Power: Japan and Southeast Asia in the Indo-Pacific Era. This reevaluation comes after consideration of relatively unsuccessful attempts by the United States to “push” democracy onto Southeast Asian countries. 

The better approach is to focus on advancing the rule of law, which the Japanese have done by investing resources in establishing legal infrastructure in the region, Tsutsui tells Shorenstein APARC Visiting Scholar Gita Wirjawan, host of the popular Endgame video podcast. “Liberal democracy in the sense of the rule of law is a good sort of marketing ploy to sell to Southeast Asian countries because that leads to economic benefits, which is critical to making liberal democracy attractive,” he says.

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Tsutsui joined Wirjawan for an Endgame conversation about Japan’s approaches to foreign direct investment (FDI) in Southeast Asia and other topics. One issue that both scholars agreed upon is the difficulty in getting Americans to focus on Southeast Asia, which has been long recognized as a critical region by the Japanese. Part of the problem is proximity, of course, but the region also tends to be overshadowed in American eyes by East Asian countries. 

The conversation also turned to the demographic issue Japan and other Asian countries are facing as populations age and economic growth stagnates. Tsutsui pointed out that, before 1945, the Japanese Empire saw itself as multi-ethnic; it was only after WWII that the nation was perceived as homogenous, a viewpoint bolstered by Japan’s great economic success in the 1960s and 70s. Now, however, Tsutsui says there is no choice: “Japan has to become more heterogenous,” and even conservative voices acknowledge that women need a larger role in the labor force and that immigrant labor will be essential to combat the demographic crisis.

This discussion with Tsutsui is part of an "Endgame" interview series Wirjawan is recording with Stanford experts during his residency at APARC.

Societies today are hungry for strategies and solutions that scale growth while improving social outcomes. To spur purpose-driven, innovative responses to the challenges before us, young people must develop skills and approaches grounded in agility, creativity, and empathy. Renowned Japanese rock star, composer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist YOSHIKI shared this advice for doing so:

“As long as you try to make the world a better place, you’ll find your passion. If you believe in yourself, you can conquer anything,” he said while headlining the conference The Future of Social Tech, held on February 23 at Stanford University. Speaking in front of a packed audience and thousands of viewers who tuned in to the livestream, YOSHIKI described how he overcame difficult times and what keeps him motivated. He encouraged Stanford students to redefine failure as a stepping stone to propel themselves forward and practice gratitude. “If you think that way, you can do pretty much whatever you want. Be your own rock star.”

Hosted by the Japan Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC), the conference kicked off a special event series celebrating APARC’s 40th anniversary. Titled Asia in 2030, APARC@40, the series highlights core areas of the center’s expertise, examines Asia’s transformation over the past four decades, and considers the drivers and shapers of the region’s future.

The conference gathered Japanese and American entrepreneurs, investors, content creators, and educators to share lessons and best practices to accelerate innovation for social impact, or “social tech.” It was the first major university keynote venue for YOSHIKI, a composer, classically-trained pianist, rock drummer, and the leader of the rock groups X Japan and The Last Rockstars. A global rock star and a living legend in Japan, YOSHIKI has pioneered a new brand of visual rock and style and has constantly been pushing his career in new directions, launching products and projects across diverse fields, from fashion and winemaking to finance and philanthropy.

Cultivating Japan-U.S. Partnerships

In his welcome remarks, APARC Director Gi-Wook Shin, the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea, noted that Japan was one of APARC’s primary research areas since its early beginnings and that the conference embraces that original spirit of keen engagement with Japanese affairs and fostering partnerships between Japan and the United States. 

Consul General of Japan in San Francisco Yasushi Noguchi also offered welcoming remarks, expressing his pride in representing Japan in the United States, two key sources of globally successful technological advancements and content development in the past half-century. The Consul General's office has been critical for the growth of APARC’s Japan Program, generously supporting various activities such as student exchanges, research initiatives, conferences and workshops, and other educational and programming engagements.

As he opened the conference, Japan Program Director Kiyoteru Tsustui, the Henri H. and Tomoye Takahashi Professor in Japanese Studies and deputy director at APARC, explained that, when thinking of Japan in 2030, many Japanese envision a country that plays a positive force in a divided world and that once again becomes a leader of technological innovation. But while there is consensus that such innovation should have social benefits, few have offered clear pathways for realizing this direction. “This conference boldly seeks to find ways forward for entities in Japan and the United States to develop social tech,” said Tsutsui.

Investing in Natural Capital

The morning session of the conference opened with a panel on the future of the environment. Attendees heard from Reiko Hayashi, a director and deputy president at Bank of America Securities Japan Co., Ltd, about sustainable finance in the capital markets and efforts to promote sustainable finance in Japan. Hayashi highlighted steps that Japan’s government is taking to meet its 2050 net-zero goal, its multi-step policy on climate transition finance, and its 2021 revision of the corporate governance code to include sustainability.

Panelist Gretchen Daily, co-founder and faculty director of the Natural Capital Project (NatCap) and the Bing Professor of Environmental Science at Stanford, described the NatCap framework that integrates the value nature provides to society into all major decisions. NatCap partners with a network of hundreds of public and private sector institutions around the world. Daily emphasized that now is the time to capitalize on the momentum in climate action and connect government planners, multilateral financial institutions, private sector partners, and other stakeholders to deliver durable social and economic benefits while securing the world’s stock of natural resources.

Educating Social Innovators

The second panel, which focused on the future of sciences and arts education, featured two trailblazers working to equip new generations with skills and mindsets grounded in imagination, empathy, and curiosity. Sachiko Nakajima, an award-winning musician, mathematics researcher, and educator, shared insights from her work to democratize creativity. As the founder and CEO of steAm.Inc, Nakajima educates the public on the inherent connection between math and music and the importance of including the Arts in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). In particular, Nakajima aims to reduce gender disparities and pave the way for more women in STEAM in Japan.

Rie Kijima, an assistant professor and director of the Initiative for Education Policy and Innovation at the University of Toronto, noted that one goal we must strive for is to create an environment where young learners believe they can be catalysts of positive social change. Kijima is the co-founder of SKY Labo, an education nonprofit organization that promotes STEAM learning and design thinking in Japan. SKY Labo's definition of STEAM embraces a human-centered approach to tackling solutions in a playful, artful, soulful way that aims to cultivate a sense of purpose and meaning in young learners. “In our education system today, there's so much emphasis on success,” said Kijima, but one of SKY Labo’s messages is that “we need to fail in order to succeed; every time we fail, we fail forward.”

Strengthening Democracy, Combating Digital Echo Chambers

The afternoon panel shifted the focus to the future of democracy and digital media. Attendees heard from Ken Suzuki, CEO and co-founder of SmartNews, an award-winning news app on a mission to “deliver the world’s quality information to the people who need it.” SmartNews uses AI technology to collect trustworthy news from all over the world and organize it for users in simple interfaces. The app, which aims to burst news filter bubbles, includes what it calls a “News From All Sides” slider — a feature that allows users to get a range of perspectives from different publishers across the political spectrum. “We need an ecosystem with incentives to create high-quality content,” said Suzuki. “Democracy is at stake, but I believe that technology can be used for the good of society.”

The following discussion about paths to addressing the threats to democracy included Francis Fukuyama, the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and Larry Diamond, the William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at FSI. Fukuyama reminded the audience that technology itself never fully solved any human problems. “It's only to the extent that our political systems and institutions can guide technology and use it for socially beneficial purposes that technology actually ever manages to solve anything.” The real task, according to Fukuyama, is to figure out how to control the power of social media platforms and other big companies to silence and amplify content in a non-transparent way. He called for making it mandatory for internet platforms to enable users to choose the kind of content moderation they are served.

Diamond emphasized the need for more legal and regulatory action to increase transparency in the algorithms used by social media companies. It is also necessary to socialize social media users to seek multiple points of view and to understand that echo chambers are civically and democratically dangerous. Ultimately, said Diamond, robust civic education is the best way to teach young people about inquiry and rational debate and prepare them to use tools like SmartNews.

“The Hero Is Within You”

At the conference closing session, keynote speaker YOSHIKI joined Ichiro Fujisaki, former Japanese Ambassador to the United States, for a conversation about the future of the entertainment industry and content business. YOSHIKI talked about his experiences working in both Japan and the United States and pursuing new challenges in multiple fields. “The hero is within you,” he said. “It’s never too late to start anything.”

Reflecting on the future of society in the age of AI from his perspective as a musician and entrepreneur, YOSHIKI said, “If humanity is meant to destroy us, AI will do it faster; If humanity is meant to support each other, AI will support us. Let’s live to support each other and love one another, so that when the singularity moment comes, AI will support us.”

A New Reality

In his opening remarks, McFaul asked the panelists to share their mood as they enter the second year of the war. Ustinova said that just prior to the panel event, they’d been informed of an impending Russian attack.

“There is a very high probability that today, Kyiv and other cities will be shelled pretty heavily,” she said, adding that despite the threat, they weren’t going anywhere and that the parliament was still in session.

“That’s the mood of Ukrainians,” she said. “We know we can be hit any day, we can die any day, but this is the reality we have to live in.”

Honcharuk said he’d heard the opinion that authoritarian regimes are better suited for war because they are more mobile and less distracted by politics, thus creating the impression that democracies are indecisive. But, he said, Ukraine’s war effort demonstrates the opposite.

“I feel proud that Ukraine now denied this and showed the power of democracy,” he said.

When an audience member asked how the war has impacted political life in Ukraine, Honcharuk said there are challenges. For example, there are some conflicts between the central and local governments, but they don’t appear to be systemic problems. He said the parliament is still working and all Ukrainian political parties are “more or less united.” He also noted that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has “huge support” from the Ukrainian people.

Aid and Allies

Since the start of the war, the United States has spent tens of billions of dollars on aid to Ukraine, including artillery, tanks, and rocket launchers. The support has not only helped Ukraine stave off defeat, but enabled their success in many battles against Putin’s army.

In a recent interview with Stanford News, Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and an affiliate at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), said that Ukraine’s military had considerable success in the last four months of 2022, pushing Russian forces out of the Kharkiv region and back across the Dnipro River in Kherson.

On Friday, the panelists expressed gratitude for the support of the United States and other western allies in aiding their victories on the battlefield.

“Thank you,” Matviichuk said. “Ukraine and Ukrainians will always remember how American people support us in [these] dramatic times.”

Honcharuk agreed and said he viewed the U.S. as a partner in the war. “I want American people to understand that now we are together – Ukraine on the frontline, you on the back,” he said.

The panelists also urged for continued cooperation from Western allies.

“The prescription for war is three [items],” Leshchenko said. “First is weapons, second is sanctions [on Russia], third is financial support.”
 

Looking Ahead

The group expressed hope that this year Ukraine will see a victorious end to the war. Leshchenko added that he would like to someday see Ukraine join the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) because it could make significant contributions to the alliance.

“I think the Ukrainian army [is] going to be the best army in Europe,” he said. “It would be a privilege for NATO to have the Ukrainian army’s support because it will defend Europe much better than Europe has [been] able to do with its own army.”

Ustinova said a common misunderstanding about the war is that it started last year with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the conflict, she said, dates back to 2014 when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula, and she explained how Ukrainians define success.

“Our victory is the total liberalization of each kilometer of the captured territories since 2014. Not since 2022,” she said.

She added that what’s most important to understand about the war is that it has broad implications, including for the West.

“We all have to realize, this is not a Ukrainian war,” she said. “If the West loses in Ukraine, it will be a total collapse for the rest of the world.”

The following is a guest article written by Marie Fujimoto, a graduate student at the University of Tokyo. Fujimoto enrolled in a course at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Education called “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education,” which was co-taught by SPICE Director Dr. Gary Mukai and former CASEER Director Dr. Hideto Fukudome. SPICE will feature several student reflections on the course in 2023.

In the course “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education,” I was intellectually and emotionally challenged by the lectures of Dr. Mukai and our guest speakers. I was impressed by the pedagogical materials on Angel Island Immigrant Station by SPICE’s Jonas Edman and Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation Executive Director Edward Tepporn. I also grew frustrated to hear that not all schools recognize the value of teaching the diverse history of the United States. Listening to Dr. Liz Baham’s story of many African American children never aspiring to higher education due to systemic racial discrimination that is deep-rooted in U.S. society, I once again felt helpless. 

I am fully Japanese but have an international background. When I was 13 years old, I went to England by myself to learn violin in a music boarding school. I was lucky to be surrounded by supportive teachers and peers. But still, I often recognized that I was an “outsider” because I was short with darker skin, hair, eyes, and had a strange accent, even though I rarely spoke in class in the first place. 

After two years, I came back to Japan and completed high school in Tokyo. I then decided to attend the New England Conservatory in Boston, attaining a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance in 2021. In school, there were many international students from China and Korea, and there were also Asian American students. At first, I felt comfortable to be with people who looked similar to me. However, I gradually realized that some Asian Americans went through hardships because they were not “American enough.” I sometimes heard stories of music teachers making comments on race, such as “Asian musicians have techniques, but not hearts.” These teachers were not at the New England Conservatory. I loved all the professors I met at NEC. However, classical music also has a dark history of privileging White, male, and European musicians. 

In Japan, diversity is also difficult to embrace for many, but in a different way. Compared to other countries, Japanese are generally very good at noticing small differences, creating strict social norms. This may be contributing to a Japanese society that is uniform, organized, and clean, but people are constantly pressured to be assimilated into that mainstream. And it’s not always easy for people who cannot do so for whatever reason. Once, international students told me that they were hurt by the way some Japanese interacted with them. They felt that they were treated as “outsiders.” That said, I could also see that these Japanese did not mean to be offensive at all. And that’s why I think we have a problem in our society that needs to be addressed. 

Despite social and political challenges, all of the guest instructors in our class did not give up on their goals in life, including teaching students in the United States of its diverse history. They clearly do not want more children to be confused, ignored, or alienated in school and beyond—as they often felt as students—so they have emphasized the importance of giving a voice to the traditionally unheard. This empowered me.

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Since last year, I started coaching the International Youth Orchestra at the Tokyo College of Music. It is the first orchestra in the Eastern area of Japan for pre-collegiate students with diverse national and ethnic backgrounds in Japan. Applying some of the pedagogical skills that I learned from the course, I try to create an encouraging community within the orchestra together with my co-workers. In the beginning, students seemed intimidated, but now they help each other and ask for extra support. I also collaborate with music teachers and Yukiko Tsubonou, Professor Emeritus at Japan Women’s University and Executive Director of the Institute of Creativity in Music Education. Our collaborative work is to design music classes for public schools and special needs schools, where every student can participate actively with improvisation. I bring my violin to a classroom, and students and I explore music-making spontaneously. Music can go beyond boundaries not only between countries but also within countries like Japan. 

Education can either divide or connect us, and it depends on the mindset of teachers. So, I will keep listening to voices and explore possibilities that music can have in education. I will keep moving forward, as Dr. Mukai and all the guest instructors have done.