This event has been canceled.

David Kang, University of Southern California; Ming Wan, George Mason University; Jing Sun, University of Denver

In December last year, Ichiro Ozawa, the secretary general of Japan's new ruling party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), visited Beijing at the head of a 626-strong delegation. On his way back to Tokyo, Ozawa stopped in Seoul, and emphasized both the need for Japan to apologize for the excesses of its colonial past, and his desire that Korea and Japan continue to deepen their bilateral ties. At the same time as the United States and Japan are at an impasse over burden-sharing arrangements, how do northeast Asian neighbors view the DPJ government, led by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama? Does Chinese confidence in its own economic rise mean that friendly relations between Tokyo and Beijing are more likely? How does Seoul see Ozawa's call for greater contrition for Japan's past actions? With territorial disputes and incautious words by Japanese diplomats fraying Taipei's relations with Tokyo in recent years, how does Taiwan view the new administration in Japan?