Kosuke Yokota is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2018-19.  Yokota is a section manager of Future Architect, Inc., an IT consulting firm in Japan.  He has over 10 years of experience in IT consulting and system designing, specifically financial industry systems.  Yokota graduated form Tohoku University with a masters degree in nuclear physics.  While at Shorenstein APARC, his research will focus on the Silicon Valley tech innovation ecosystem and the organic collaboration between universities, startups, venture capital and government.  

Keisuke Yamazaki is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2018-19.  Yamazaki has six years of experience as a computer engineer at The Asahi Shimbun, the national leading newspaper company in Japan.  Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, he has engaged in research and development about artificial intelligence and participated in projects related to topics such as "automatic article writer AI".  Additionally, he has four years of experience as a journalist.  Most recently Yamazaki was part of the Science and Medicine Department at The Asahi Shimbun reporting on the aerospace industry of Japan.

Takanori Tomozawa is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2018-19.  Tomozawa has served various positions at the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.  Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, he was Deputy Director of Energy Strategy Office, which is responsible for revising the Strategic Energy Plan of Japan.  He received his PhD degree in the Department of Technology Management for Innovation from the University of Tokyo in 2013.

Ramachandra Siddappa is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2018-19.  Siddappa has over 12 years of experience in handling production and operational technical management systems and has been with Reliance Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd., India since 2007.    In his current role as Senior Manager in the Production Management Group, some of his responsibilities include the production and technical operation of microbial and mammalian cell culture products; GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) aspects of manufacturing and documentation; audit management & compliance; technology transfer documentation and scale up design of recombinant products; equipment FAT (Factory Acceptance Test) & SAT (Site Acceptance Test) activity; and conducting & organizing internal training programs.

Prior to joining Reliance Life Sciences Pvt., Ltd., he worked for Shantha Biotechnics Pvt., Ltd. Hyderabad (Sanofi Division) in R&D upstream.  Siddappa received his post graduate degree in biotechnology from Kuvempu University, Karnatak, India in 2005.

Col. Masahiro Shizu is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2018-19. Shizu has almost 20 years of experience at the Japanese Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  In his experience, he has been a member of the Joint Staff Office and the Air Staff Office as well as commanded units of the Japan Air Self Defense Force.  Most recently, Shizu was part of the Defense Planning and Policy Department where he was responsible for acquisition of defense equipment and creating future military strategy, operational plans and capabilities.

Akira Muto is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2018-19.  Muto has over 25 years of experience in the Foreign Ministry of Japan with background in Russia and policy planning.  He served as director of the Russian division, deputy director general (Ambassador) in charge of former Soviet Union states, as well as director of policy coordination division.  Additionally, he served as director of free trade agreement and economic partnership division and the director of the fourth division of Intelligence Service. As a diplomat, his previous assignments included Washington D.C., Moscow and Boston (Consul General).  In recent years, he served as Cabinet Councillor at National Security Secretariat and was engaged in various international security affairs.  His research interest covers strategic relations among US-Japan Alliance, Russia and China in the Asia-Pacific region.

Ryoji Miyawaki is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2018-19. Miyawaki has over 20 years of experience in the energy industry as a business consultant with a background in digital technology, business strategy, marketing strategy and change management.  He was head of the utility industry at Accenture Japan from 2011 to 2018 as a management director.  Currently, he is the CEO at AAKEL Technologies Inc., a company for realizing decarbonization utilizing digital innovation in Japan.  His research interests cover energy market trading, P2P trading with blockchain, distributed energy resource optimization and artificial intelligence.

Yusuke Matsuda is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2018-19.  As a graduate of Nihon University, Matsuda began his career as a physical education teacher at a private junior and senior high school in Tokyo.  There, he devised a special curriculum, "Sports English", teaching his Japanese students completely in English.  As an adviser to extracurricular club activities, he was able to bring the once minor track team to advance to national level track meets.  After moving on to the board of education in the adjacent prefecture of Chiba and serving as an analyst of educational policies, he completed his masters in educational leadership at Harvard University.  Upon his return to Japan, he worked as a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers before establishing several non-profit organizations including Learning for All and Teach for Japan.  In 2017, he resigned his CEO position at Teach for Japan and pursued his second masters program at Stanford Graduate School of Business.  In addition to joining Shorenstein APARC, he is also a Country Manager at Crimson Education Japan. 

Matsuda is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Community and is also a Research Associate Professor at Kyoto University.  He earned his BA degree from Nihon University in the Department of Humanities and holds a Masters degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  He was selected as one of the 100 most influential people in Japan (Nikkei Business) and has published his book "Google, Disney yorimo hatarakitai kyositsu (a classroom you want to work more than Google and Disney)" in 2014 from Diamond.

Akihisa Makino is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2018-19.  Makino has been working since 2008 for the Japan Patent Office, one of the external agencies of the Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry (METI) of Japan, as a patent examiner, handling applications in the fields of polymer and medical science.  From 2016 to 2018, he was also in charge of the policy planning of supporting the intellectual property in universities and research institutions at the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED).  

Yangming Li is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Watler H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2018-19.  Li has over 30 years of experience in the IT domain.  Most recently, he was the President of Beijing Richfit Information Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation.  He oversaw 3,000 employees and was responsible for developing and implementing a market-focused, platform-based and internationalize business strategy.  He earned his bachelors degree in mathematics from Xiamen University and his MBA from Tsinghua University.