Masaaki Awano is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at Shorenstein APARC for 2005-06. He currently works for the Japan Patent Office (JPO), one of the agencies of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), in the Japanese government. Awano has worked for the JPO as a patent examiner for more than twelve years, handling patent applications in the field of semiconductor devices. In 2000, he also took in charge of international affairs at the office, especially with respect to trilateral cooperation among the European Patent Office (EPO), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and JPO.

Awano completed his undergraduate study in physics at the University of Tokyo. He received an MS in the graduate school of science of the University of Tokyo, where he concentrated on plasma physics.