Sayuri Romei

Sayuri Romei was a Public Policy Fellow at the Wilson Center, where she is working on a project titled "Japan's Nuclear Bargain: The Making of a Nuclear Hedging Posture." Prior to her appointment at the Wilson Center, she was the Fellow for Security and Foreign Affairs at Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA, and a MacArthur Nuclear Security Pre-doctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). 

Dr. Romei’s research project examines how Japan started and maintained a nuclear hedging posture throughout the postwar era. Drawing on primary and secondary sources from Japan and the United States, she argues that Japan’s postwar nuclear hedging posture began with a “nuclear bargain” that saw the country reject nuclear weapons and embrace nuclear power simultaneously, which was then sustained throughout the decades by the way the US-Japan relationship evolved, and by particular rhetorical mechanisms used by the Japanese government.

She holds a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Sorbonne, a BA in International Relations from the University of Roma La Sapienza, an MA in International Relations and a PhD in Political Science from Roma Tre University.

Dr. Romei is the co-author of The New National Defense Program Guidelines: Aligning U.S. and Japanese Defense Strategies for the Third Post-Cold War Era (Sasakawa USA, 2019). Her work was featured in the Washington Post, Kyodo News, The Air Force Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, among others, and she appeared on BBC World News and BBC World Service, PBS NewsHour, and the National Journal to comment on security issues in East Asia.