Ichiro Aoki is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at Shorenstein APARC for 2005-06 and 2006-07. He is also an official of the Ministry of Finance (MOF) in the Japanese government.

Aoki graduated in law from Tokyo University. He subsequently engaged in planning the tax system and the banking system in the MOF. He was involved in planning the pension system in the Ministry of Health and Welfare. He worked at the office of a Finance minister. He joined the task force in the Cabinet Office to promote decentralization. He also worked at the Financial Supervisory Agency as director for supervising financial companies. He participated in policymaking and submitting bills on these themes to the Diet.

Aoki's latest post was as director of the Cabinet Office, in charge of making the draft budget.