Shinichi Kitaoka
Executive Director of Research

Professor Shinichi Kitaoka was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1948. He studied at the University of Tokyo (BA 1971, MA 1973, and Ph.D. 1976) and Princeton (1981-83), and has been teaching at Rikkyo University (1976-87) and at the University of Tokyo (1987-2004, 2006-present). He is a leading scholar in Modern Japanese Political and Diplomatic History and has published many books in this area and was given such awards as Yoshida Shigeru Award (1986), Suntory Award for Liberal Arts (1987), and Yoshino Sakuzo Award (1995). He contributes frequently to the major newspapers and magazines on various topics such as security issues, foreign policy, domestic politics, constitutional revision, United Nation, etc. In this area he was given Yomiuri’s Award for the Opinion Leader of the Year in 1992.Dr. Kitaoka’s activities as a public intellectual include the participation in bilateral talks with the US, China (Japan-China 21st Century Friendship Committee), Korea (Japan-Korea Joint Study of History), Germany, India, and Singapore. He was a member of the Taskforce on Foreign Relations for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (2001-2004) and served as Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations (2004-2006). After returning to the campus, he was appointed to a member of the Council to Consider Strengthening the Cabinet Capacity in National Security, a Member of the Council on the Legal Basis of National Security, a Member of the Study Group of Foreign Policy for Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and a Member of the Council to Consider National Security and Defense Policy that was established by Prime Minister Taro Aso this year.
Currently he is the Chairman of the Japanese scholars in Japan-China Joint Study of History that was established by President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2006 as well as the Chairman of the Japanese scholars to investigate so-called Japan-US Secret Agreement that was established by Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada in November 2009.

Takafumi Matsui
Senior Research Counselor


Yoichi Okita
Senior Research Counselor
Visiting Professor of National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS).
BA (Economics), University of Tokyo, 1966 and Ph.D., Harvard University, 1974. Joined the Economic Planning Agency in 1966. Served as the Vice-Minister for International Economic Affairs in 1997 and 1998. Served as Professor, GRIPS (1998-2008).

Shin Kawashima
Senior Fellow
Shin Kawashima is the associate professor of the Department of International Relations, the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, the University of Tokyo. He teaches the history of international relations in East Asia at Komaba Campus. He was educated at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (B.A.1992) and the University of Tokyo (Oriental history, M.A., 1992 and Ph.D, 2000). He taught at Hokkaido University’s Department of Politics, Faculty of Law during 1998-2006 before moving to the University of Tokyo in 2006. He served as a visiting scholar at the Academia Sinica in Taipei (Institute of Modern History, 1995-96), the Beijing Center for Japanese Studies (vice director, 2000-2001), National Chengchi University in Taipei (department of history, 2005) and Beijing University (department of history, 2005), and Awarded Japan Scholar at Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars(2009). He has studied Chinese diplomatic history based on Chinese diplomatic archives and recently started a study on the history of radio in East Asia. His first book, the Formation of Chinese Modern Diplomacy(Nagoya University Press, 2004), was awarded the Suntory Academic Prize in 2004.

Yuichi Hosoya
Senior Fellow
Yuichi Hosoya is professor in the Faculty of Law, Keio University. He earned academic degrees at Rikkyo University (B.A., 1994), the University of Birmingham (MIS, 1996), and Keio University (M.A., 1997 and Ph.D, 2000). He was assistant professor at Hokkaido University (2000-2002) and Keiai University (2002-2004). Since returning to Keio University in 2004 as an assistant professor, and then as an associate professor in 2006, he has taught Western diplomatic history, Cold War history, and history of European integration. He had been a fellow in academic programs such as the RIPS-CGP Fellowship Program of Security Studies (1998-2000), the US VIP Program by the US Department of State (2000), the Salzburg Seminar (2003 and 2005), and the Fulbright Fellowship (Princeton Institute for International & Regional Studies (PIIRS), Princeton University, 2008-2009). He was a visiting professor (Japan Chair) at the Centre Asie-Pacific, Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences-Po) (2009-2010). He has published many books and articles about the modern history of British diplomacy and international relations for which he was awarded the Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities (2002), the Sakurada Prize for a Book on Political Science (2007) and the Yomiuri Yoshino Sakuzo Prize (2010), and others.