On November 19 (Japan time)—two weeks after the ballots were cast in the 2024 US elections—JCIE held a briefing for more than two dozen women Diet members and other Japanese and American leaders who have participated in JCIE’ s US-Japan Women Leaders Dialogue to shed light on what the outcome of the election might portends for women and for the bilateral alliance in the coming years.

With President Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris became the first woman of color to be an official presidential nominee. But even before the Biden decision, the differences on gender-related policies between the two US political parties this year were perhaps starker than ever before. The two campaigns also had drastically different views on foreign policy issues that will undoubtedly impact the US-Japan alliance. 

JCIE therefore organized an online, off-the-record discussion to give women leaders in Japan insight into what lies ahead and how that will impact women in the United States as well as the broader US-Japan relationship. We invited journalist Jodi Enda, Senior Correspondent and Washington Bureau Chief for The Fuller Project (a leading source for in-depth reporting on women’s issues) to outline the potential implications of the new Trump administration for critical issues such as family leave policy, reproductive rights, equal employment/pay, women’s participation in policymaking, etc. She was followed by our second speaker, Christopher B. Johnstone, Managing Principal, The Asia Group, who addressed how the priorities and policies of the president-elect might impact bilateral ties and broader Indo-Pacific relations. 

The program is made possible through the generous funding of the US Embassy to Japan and the MRA Foundation.