Announcement
Geopolitics is now the leading force reshaping supply chains. The pandemic and the war in Europe accelerated a shift already underway: supply chains are no longer just an exercise in business efficiency but instruments of statecraft—pulled by protectionism, security screening, and industrial policy, and rewired away from multilateral cooperation toward blocs, redundancy, and political alignment.
That rewiring has sharpened attention on chokepoints: concentrated capabilities, fragile nodes, and single-country dependencies in technologies central to economic competitiveness and military advantage. Critical minerals sit at the heart of this map of risk, where processing and refining capacity can matter as much as shipping lanes.
Our forum asks what it takes to build resilient, trusted supply chains without losing sight of the energy transition. How do governments and firms balance the security imperative against scale, speed, affordability, and emissions reduction? What are the unintended consequences for trade, innovation, and international rules—and which regional and plurilateral strategies can deliver resilience at lower cost?
Information
- Time and Date: 13:30-16:15 (JST), Thursday, October 8, 2026
- Venue: Hibiya International Building Conference Square＋Online (Live Stream)
(8F Hibiya Kokusai Building, 2-2-3 Uchisaiwai-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) - Languages: Japanese / English (with simultaneous interpretation)
- Admission: Free
- Hosts: Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) / Australian National University (ANU)
- Contact: Ms. BABA Conference Section, RIETI
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Program
13:30-13:35 Opening Remarks
FUKAO Kyoji (Chairman, RIETI / University Professor, IER, Hitotsubashi University)
13:35-13:55 Keynote Speech
NISHIKAWA Kazumi (Director General, Trade Policy / Deputy Director General, Minister's Secretariat, METI)
13:55-14:55 Session 1: Supply Chain Resilience in an Era of Uncertainty
Panelists (Order of appearance)
TODO Yasuyuki (Faculty Fellow and Program Director, RIETI / Professor, Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University)
Kaewkamol Karen PITAKDUMRONGKIT (Executive Director, PECC International Secretariat)
Veeramani CHOORIKKADAN (Director & RBI Chair Professor, Centre for Development Studies)
KAWASE Tsuyoshi (Faculty Fellow, RIETI / Professor, Faculty of Law, Sophia University)
Chair
TOMIURA Eiichi (President and Chief Research Officer (CRO), RIETI / Dean, Faculty of Data Science, Otsuma Women's University)
14:55-15:10 Break
15:10-16:10 Session 2: Critical Minerals Supply Chains in Asia
Panelists (Order of appearance)
Eve WARBURTON (Senior Lecturer, The Australian National University (ANU))
ITO Shinsuke (Councilor, Metals Unit, Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC))
Christopher FINDLAY (Honorary Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University (ANU))
Riandy LAKSONO (Researcher, Department of Economics, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS))
Chair
Shiro ARMSTRONG (Non-Resident Fellow, RIETI / Professor, Australian National University (ANU); Director, Australia-Japan Research Centre)
16:10-16:15 Closing Remarks
Shiro ARMSTRONG (Non-Resident Fellow, RIETI / Professor, Australian National University (ANU); Director, Australia-Japan Research Centre)
*Agenda is subject to change
