This page contains historical information and is preserved here as a matter of record.

NVJ Participants

Current Members

Saya Kiba is Associate Professor at Komatsu University in Ishikawa Prefecture. She studied at Kobe University (Ph.D. in Political Science 2010) and the Third World Studies Center, University of the Philippines. She served as a secretary to Diet member Seiji Maehara from September 2010 to March 2012 when his Democratic Party of Japan was the ruling party. Her major fields of interest are Southeast Asian studies, civil-military relations, international cooperation policies, and defense diplomacy. She has experience as a practitioner, working in the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines, Embassy of Japan in Thailand, and a Japan-based international NGO for conflict prevention as a program officer in charge of Kenya and South Sudan. Her recent works include “Civil-Military Cooperation Strategy for Disaster Relief in Japan,” in Liaison Vol. IX-1, Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance, Hawaii (2017), and “Duterte’s diplomacy: not hostility, but discomfort with US values,” in PacNet Number 92, Pacific Forum CSIS, Hawaii (2016). Her presentation is titled “Assessing Japan’s Proactive Contribution to Peace”.

Takemasa Sekine is an Associate Professor at Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (NUCB). His main research area is International Economic Law. He received his legal education at Keio University, Japan (Ph.D. and LL.M) and held as a post-doctoral research fellow position sponsored by the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS). He is currently a board member of the Government Procurement Review Board, and has also joined research projects hosted by Japanese governmental institutions, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). His recent research focuses on the relationship between the World Trade Organization (WTO) and free trade agreements (FTAs), regulation of State-owned Enterprises under trade agreements, subsidy regulation under FTAs, and procedural issues under the WTO dispute settlement procedures. His presentation title is: “Why is Japan Committed to the TPP?”.

Akai Ohi is an adjunct lecturer of the University of Tokyo, Hosei University and Showa Women’s University where he teaches the history of 20th century political thought. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 2017,with a dissertation on British political thought, especially on the ideas of ideas of political theorist Harold Laski (1893-1950). He held a fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science twice from 2011 to 2013 and 2015 to 2017. His current interest lies in “Neo-liberal Globalization”, and contemporary Japanese Politics after the end of the Cold War. The title of his presentation is: “The Politics of Reform: The Predominance of ‘the Reformative Conservative’ in Japanese Politics Since 1989”.

2017 Members

Manpei Hayashi was born in Kobe in 1981 and is currently a researcher at the Asia Pacific Institute of Research (APIR) in Osaka. He earned a BA in economics and MA in International Public Policy from Osaka University, and PhD degree in Policy and Management from Doshisha University. His research interests include the economic analysis of natural disasters, regional economic analysis, research on labor markets and subjective studies of well-being. He conducted research on well-being as part of a team at the Hyogo Earthquake Memorial 21st Century Research Institute. He moved to APIR in 2012 where he has focused on economic analysis of natural disasters in Asian countries. He has conducted field research in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, and researched post-disaster recovery following the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011.

Haruka Sakamoto is a primary care physician and is a PhD candidate at the University of Tokyo, Department of Global Health Policy. She earned her M.D from Sapporo Medical University in 2008 and worked as a physician in Tokyo for several years. She then received a scholarship from the World Bank for study in the Masters in Public Health program at the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health. From 2011-2013 and again in 2016 she worked in the Office of International Cooperation at the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare where she was deeply involved in health policy activities in Japan. As part of that work, she participated in WHO and G7 meetings as well as bilateral cooperation activities through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Her current research focuses on global health diplomacy, especially efforts to reinforce global health governance since the Ebola crisis in 2013.

Terumasa Tomita is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at Meiji Gakuin University where he teaches classes in international relations, international political economy and American politics. He received a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Tokyo in 2014 and worked as an assistant researcher at the JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Research Institute from 2011 to 2013. He held a fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science from 2013 to 2016 and was a research member of the Asia Pacific Institute of Research from 2014 to 2015. His current research focuses on U.S.-Japan economic policy, U.S. trade policy, and the anti-globalization movement.

2016 (B) Members

Setsuya Fukuda is a social demographer and full-time researcher at the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research where he conducts demographic research on the inter-relationships between gender, family formation and family policy. He received his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Meiji University. After graduate study, he worked as a researcher at Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany (2008–2011). From 2011–13, he worked in the government as an expert in the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, analyzing governmental statistics. In 2014–15, he received an Abe Fellowship, and conducted a US-Japan comparative study on educational differentials in marriage at the Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. His current research focuses on gender role division, couples’ well-being and fertility in international comparative settings, looking, in particular, at how Japan’s gender structure is going to change in relation to population decline and new family policies developed in ‘Abenomics’.

Naomi Uchida is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Economics of Saitama University where she teaches classes in urban planning, community development and urban theory. Prior to that, she was an assistant professor at Kanazawa Institute of Technology in Ishikawa prefecture. She received her Ph.D. in Architecture from Waseda University in 2006 and an M.A. in Urban Design and Planning from University of Washington (Seattle) in 2004. She is a member of several committees of local governments including city-planning commissions. Uchida engages in field surveys in Ishikawa, Saitama and Tokyo prefectures, where she collects information while working with communities, non-profit organizations, and local governments on urban projects. Her current research focuses on Japanese gentrification, urban revitalization, and community development.

2016 (A) Members

Kunio Nishikawa is an Associate Professor at the College of Agriculture, Ibaraki University, where he teaches and conducts research on agricultural economics, agricultural policy and Japanese agriculture. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in agriculture from the University of Tokyo. Nishikawa was a visiting academic at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, the University of Oxford from 2011 to 2012, and has been a special researcher for the Agricultural Policy Research Committee since 2010. As part of his research, Nishikawa engages in extensive field surveys in Ibaraki, Yamagata and Hiroshima prefectures, where he collects information and conducts interviews with farmers, local government officials and regional cooperative representatives. In doing so, he seeks not only to clarify how agricultural policy changes are affecting farm management and the structure of agriculture in Japan, but to contribute to the policymaking process.

Masaki Mizobuchi is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Economics at Nagoya University of Commerce and Business. He received his Ph.D. in Area Studies from Sophia University in 2012, and a B.A. in Cross Cultural Studies from Kobe University in 2006. From 2013‐14, he was an Ernest May Fellow in History and Policy at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Prior to that, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)/Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in 2012−13 and a Research Fellow of the Japan Forum on International Relations (JFIR) in 2011. His research interests include: Middle East politics, international security, military strategy, U.S. policy in the Middle East, and political Islam. Mizobuchi is fluent in Arabic and has lived in Syria and Lebanon. He is currently researching Japan’s counter‐terrorism operations, the ideological and military perspectives of the global jihadist movement, and appropriate strategies for the “war on terror”.

Hiromi Saito is an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics, Chiba University, where she focuses on health economics and innovation research. She is also currently a visiting scholar at the National Institute of Science and Technology Policy and a visiting research officer of at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) within the Cabinet Office. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Hitotsubashi University. Previously she has worked as a researcher at the Health Care Science Institute and as an assistant professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS). In 2011 she was a visiting scholar at Laboratoire d’Economie et de Sociologie du Travail (LEST) in France. Her current research focuses on health insurance and medical innovation, looking, in particular, at whether health insurance enhances medical innovation and how best to measure the economic value of medical innovation.

2015 (B) Members

Jun Makita works for the Japan Association of New Economy (JANE) as a policy planner and concurrently as a political science researcher at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Tsukuba University. Before joining JANE and Tsukuba University, he worked as a secretary to the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications (2013), and as a policy secretary to Diet members (2002-2012). He received a doctoral degree in Policy Studies at National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (2012), and two master degrees in International Studies from Durham University, UK (2007), and in Political Science from Waseda University (2002). His research focuses on the role of political organizations in the legislative process and on Japan’s new economy, including the rise and current situation of IT and Internet-based businesses.

Aki Mori is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Tsukuba University. Her research focuses on Chinese foreign and security policy, civil-military relations of China, and international politics in the Asia-Pacific. She has published papers on China’s evolving maritime policy, including naval modernization, China’s interpretation and practice of the UNCOLS, and civil-military relations. She also has been conducting research on the impact of China’s rise on the development of regional cooperation in East Asia. She and her colleagues interviewed more than 100 officials and experts in China, the ASEAN member countries other than Brunei, and the United States. Aki Mori studied Chinese foreign and security policy at the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China during 2007-2008.

Shinsuke Tomotsugu is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Peace Science at Hiroshima University. He earned his doctoral degree in Law (LL.D.) from Nagoya University in March 2010. He received a Fulbright scholarship to conduct dissertation research concerning the U.S.’s stance on nuclear nonproliferation at George Washington University 2008-09. His recent publications in Japanese include “Japan’s Attitude toward Antarctica from 1910 to 1963: At the Intersection of Idealism and Realism,” and “The initiative and setback of the “Asian Nuclear Center”: an aspect of the Eisenhower Administration’s East Asian diplomacy.” Before joining Hiroshima University, he worked as an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Nagoya College, 2011-13, and an Associate Fellow at the Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 2009-11.

2015 (A) Members

Takako Wakiyama is a policy researcher in the Climate and Energy Area and the Green Economy Area at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES). Takako has conducted research on climate and energy policy in Japan and other Asian countries. Her research focuses are low carbon transition analysis, and assessment of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Currently she is also engaged in an international research collaboration project with Open Climate Network, Climate Action Tracker and World Resource Institute that tracks and reports on the progress of key countries on climate change, and the APN low carbon initiative project assessing policy impacts and risks and returns of renewable investments. She holds master’s degrees in environmental and development, and in economics. She has previously worked in the international financial industry.

Tomoko Wakui 
works at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology (TMIG) as a researcher. She received her B.Sc degree in Engineering at Waseda University, and her Master and Ph.D degrees in Health Science at the Department of Social Gerontology, School of Health Sciences & Nursing, Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo. Her PhD research explored the role of community in family caregiving under the current Japanese long-term care insurance program. She also received an Excellent Young Researcher Overseas Visit Program fellowship from JSPS in 2010 and studied at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has been conducting comparative study about the impacts of family structure on caregiving arrangements in Japan and the United States. Currently, her research interests include balancing family, state, and community responsibility in caregiving in the context of aging societies with fewer children.

Taro Ohno 
has been an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Economics, Management and Information Science at Onomichi City University since 2011. He received a doctoral degree in Economics from Hitotsubashi University in March 2008. Thereafter, he worked as an economist at the Policy Research Institute of the Ministry of Finance from 2008 to 2011. His current research focuses on the tax system and social security. His analysis uses the Japanese government’s household micro data, which includes a measurement of the burden of taxes and social insurance premiums on households. He also works on assessments of the redistribution effects of various policies, and does micro simulation analysis to predict the effects of policies that are being considered.

2014 Members

Madoka Fukuda is Associate Professor of International Politics and China Studies at the Department of Global Politics, Faculty of Law, Hosei University. Her research focuses on Japan-China-Taiwan relations. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in media and governance from Keio University, and her B.A. from International Christian University. She also studied at the Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies, National Cheng-Chi University with a scholarship from the Ministry of Education of Taiwan. Her first book, The PRC’s Diplomacy and Taiwan: the Origin of the ‘One-China’ Principle (Keio University Press, 2013, in Japanese), won the 25th Special Prize for Asia-Pacific Studies from the Asian Affairs Research Council, Japan.

Chihiro Okawa is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Faculty of Law at Kanagawa University. He specializes in contemporary Japanese politics, particularly party politics. He was a managing researcher for the Tokyo University-Asahi Shimbun Surveys, which target Japanese politicians and voters. He received his LL.M. from the Graduate School of Law and Politics at the University of Tokyo in 2007. His recent journal articles include “Party’s Policy for 2012 General Election, and Future Perspective [in Japanese]” (Seikatsu keizai seisaku (192) (608) 2013-01) and “LDP vs. DPJ (4) From Trends of the Politicians and Voters in Japan till the Change of Government in 2009 [in Japanese]” (Kokka-gakkai zasshi 124(9-10), 2011-10).

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