Shigeru Kitamura

Japanese national-security and economic-security leader; CEO of Kitamura Economic Security and Executive Director at DENTSU SOKEN Center for Economic Security Research. He previously served as Secretary General of Japan’s National Security Secretariat and National Security Advisor to the Cabinet, where he established the Secretariat’s economic unit and advanced economic-security policy.

Japan Recasts Economic Security as Deterrence Against Coercion

Former Japanese national security adviser Shigeru Kitamura argues that Japan must treat military deterrence, economic resilience, technological protection and alliance coordination as parts of a single strategy against coercion that begins well below the threshold of war. With China’s military expansion and economic leverage reshaping the regional balance, he says Japan should reduce one-sided dependencies while building technological and industrial capabilities that make it strategically indispensable. The US-Japan alliance, in his account, must turn that approach into coordinated action on supply chains, critical technologies, energy and defense capacity.

Hoover InstitutionJul 15, 202613 min read