KEI’S SPECIAL PROJECT ON THE SOUTH KOREAN NUCLEAR ARMAMENT DEBATE South Korea’s nuclear armament debate received renewed attention in 2023. But, this issue is one that has animated Korean politics,…
Terrence Matsuo is a freelance writer interested in American foreign policy towards the Indo-Pacific, with a focus on Korea and Japan.
He previously supported thought leadership development as a program assistant in the Policy and Diplomacy practice at McColm & Company. As the Assistant Editor and Senior Research Analyst at The Nelson Report, he provided analysis on trade and security issues for a newsletter focused on regional trade and security issues in the Asia-Pacific.
He received his master of public policy degree from the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University after receiving his bachelor’s degree in political science and Japanese language from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Besides catching up on current events, Terrence enjoys playing League of Legends, listening to Japanese pop music, and watching Korean television dramas.
KEI’S SPECIAL PROJECT ON THE SOUTH KOREAN NUCLEAR ARMAMENT DEBATE South Korea’s nuclear armament debate received renewed attention in 2023. But, this issue is one that has animated Korean politics,…
An underappreciated part of South Korea’s successful 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit at the end of October was its focus on demographic decline. While APEC summits traditionally address a broad range of economic issues, this year’s summit elevated the impact of declining birth rates, shrinking workforces, and aging populations to the top of the…
The following is part of a new miniseries from KEI surveying the most important developments and trends in the U.S.-South Korea relationship in 2025. You can read all year-in-review pieces by clicking here. 2025 was a comparatively and unexpectedly calm year in South Korea-Japan relations. Global politics were in flux with the return of President…
The leadership contest to replace Shigeru Ishiba as Japan’s prime minister will not only decide the next head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) but could also reshape the trajectory of South Korea-Japan relations. On September 7, Prime Minister Ishiba announced that he would step down as head of the ruling LDP. “I have…
On July 20, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan was dealt a significant blow in the election for seats in the House of Councillors. Ahead of the election, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that his goal was to maintain the LDP coalition’s majority in the chamber by winning a combined fifty seats. Instead,…