In this Nikkei Risk Insight article, partners Nancy Yamaguchi and David Plotinsky provide an overview of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) review process and discuss several recent CFIUS developments, with a focus on those pertinent to Japanese investors. Additionally, the piece addresses questions about whether political considerations beyond national security factor into the Committee’s work and the possibility of Japan being designated as an “excepted foreign state” by CFIUS. This classification could result in certain Japanese investments being excluded from CFIUS jurisdiction and other Japanese investments being exempt from mandatory filing requirements that would otherwise apply in some circumstances.