Most forecasts point to China's economy becoming several times larger than Japan's in coming decades. What does this mean for Japan and the United States in Asia?

"If we want to maintain our political, economic and diplomatic leverage in the region, both the U.S. and Japan have to come up with some effective ways of dealing with China's rise," Robert Madsen, a senior fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies, told the Jan. 23 symposium.

Madsen noted that European powers faced a similar challenge when they were confronted with the rise of the U.S. and Germany from the late 19th century.