Episode 47: A Conversation with Taro Kono, Former Foreign, Defense & Digital Minister of Japan

In Tokyo, SCSP President Ylli Bajraktari and Senior Director for Foreign Policy Joe Wang sat down with Taro Kono — former Foreign Minister, Defense Minister, and Digital Minister of Japan, and one of the most influential figures in the LDP — for a wide-ranging conversation on Japan's place in a rapidly shifting world.

Kono traces how China's rise changed everything, offers a candid read on Trump's Beijing visit and what it signaled to Tokyo, lays out Japan's path toward higher defense spending and a domestic defense industry, and reflects on his time as Digital Minister — from AI in government to drone warfare and why he sees a "quad plus" technology alliance, not sovereign AI, as the way forward.