Hisashi Kanazashi is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at Shorenstein APARC for 2007-08. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, he held positions at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), government of Japan, for about ten years, where he took charge of policymaking. His latest position at METI was as deputy directory in Small and Medium Enterprise Agency. He did his undergraduate study at Tokyo University, in the faculty of Engineering Science.