Forum members

Chairman of the Editorial Board

Yasushi Kudo

Representative of the Genron NPO
Kudo was born in 1958. After finishing a master's course in the Graduate School of Economics of Yokohama City University, he joined Toyo Keizai, Inc., publisher of leading business weekly magazine Shukan Toyo Keizai, and was later appointed editor of Financial Business, a monthly magazine specializing in financial business, and Debate: Toyo Keizai, a bimonthly issue-oriented magazine. In 2001, Kudo set up the Genron NPO, a certified not-for-profit organization, and became its representative. In 2005, he created the Tokyo-Beijing Forum, which has been contributing to the promotion of private sector dialogue between Japan and China. In 2012, the Genron NPO became the sole Japanese inaugural member of the Council of Councils (CoC), a new council consisting of 20 major think tanks from 19 countries established in response to a call by the Council on Foreign Relations in the United States.

Members of the Editorial Board

Toshiro Mutoh

Chairman of the Institute, Daiwa Institute of Research Ltd.
Mutoh was born in 1943. After graduating from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo, he joined the Finance Ministry, then Okurasho and now Zaimusho. He has assumed the following posts in the ministry -- the director of the Secretarial Division of Minister's Secretariat, the deputy director-general of the Budget Bureau, the deputy vice minister for Policy Planning and Co-ordination, director-general of the Budget Bureau, and the administrative vice minister. In 2003, he became a deputy governor of the Bank of Japan. He has been in his current position since 2008.

Yuji Miyamoto

Chairman of the Miyamoto Institute of Asian Research, former ambassador of Japan to China
Miyamoto joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after graduating from Kyoto University. He held such ministry posts as director of the China Division in the Asian Affairs Bureau, director general for arms control and scientific affairs (ambassadorial level) and ambassador to Myanmar before assuming the post of ambassador to China in 2006. He has held his current post since 2011.

Hirotsugu Aida

Managing Editorial Writer, Kyodo News
Aida was born in 1951. After graduating from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in 1976, he joined Kyodo News. He has served as the bureau chief in the Geneva and Washington bureaus and the managing feature writer. He has been in his current position since 2012.

Yukiko Fukagawa

Professor at School of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University
Fukagawa was born in 1958. She completed her master's program at Yale University and Ph.D. program in the Graduate School of Commerce at Waseda University. She has served as a professor in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo.

Akio Takahara

Professor at the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, the University of Tokyo
After graduating from the University of Tokyo, Takahara received his doctorate from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex in Britain, and became a visiting scholar at the Consulate General of Japan in Hong Kong. He took his current post after serving as assistant professor at J. F. Oberlin University and professor at Rikkyo University.

Yayoi Tanaka

Associate Professor, the National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation
President, the Japan NPO Research Association

Tanaka completed her master's degree at the Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, and earned her Ph.D. in International Public Policy at Osaka University. Before assuming her current positions, she also served as a visiting associate professor in the School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, and an advisor at the development assistance operations evaluation office, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.