Professor Hatakeyama is in the UK to connect with UK-based academics and experts to gain insights about the UK's Indo-Pacific policy in the context of 'China's rise', i.e., its assertive irredentist claims in the Indo-Pacific region supported by increased military spending and activity. This is in relation to her current research project that examines the Indo-Pacific policies of the UK, Australia and Japan. Fortunately, she has agreed to give a talk for the EASG on her research in this area which will act as a launching-off point for a broader discussion about the UK's Indo-Pacific policy and the security situation in the region more generally. The paper she is presenting is entitled 'Japan's and Australia's approaches to China: The nature of threat perception and proximity'.

Kyoko Hatakeyama earned her PhD in Politics at Macquarie University in 2008. She has worked at several prestigious universities in Japan and has been a professor at the Department and Graduate School of International Studies and Regional Development at the University of Niigata Prefecture since 2020. She has been a Visiting Research Fellow at Leiden University and is a Japan Fellow at the Asia Society Australia. Her research covers Japan's security policy, peacekeeping, security in Asia and the Indo-Pacific region. Her previous book, Japan's Evolving Security Policy: Militarisation with a Pacifist Tradition, examined Japan's post-Cold War security policy shift.