Ken-ichi Imai

Ken-ichi Imai is an internationally recognized expert on the economics and management of the firm, industrial organization and the economics of technological change and innovation. After receiving his Ph.D. from Hitotsubashi University, Imai went on to become an assistant professor, full professor and, eventually, Dean of the Graduate School of Business at Hitotsubashi.

In September 1991, he assumed the role of Director of Research at the Stanford Japan Center, stepping down in 2001. He was also named a senior fellow of IIS and a professor, by courtesy, of Stanford's Department of Economics, in 1991. In December 1991, he became chair of the Stanford Japan Center Foundation Board. Imai has been influential in both Japanese and international policymaking. In Japan, he has been actively involved in the development of national industrial policy at the level of MITI's Industrial Structure Consultative Council. Abroad, as a member of the drafting committee for the OECD's Technology, Economy and Policy Project, he has participated in discussions on the rules of conduct for multinational enterprises and global industry.

Imai has published widely in Japanese and English, and many of his books and papers have received prizes in Japan. His Industrial Organization of Japan's Energy Sector (in Japanese) was awarded the Economist Prize, and his Modern Industrial Organization (in Japanese) received the Nikkei Prize for Excellent Books in Economic Science. In addition, the Japanese government awarded its Prize for Social Science Research in Telecommunications to Imai's Industrial Society - The Process of its Evolution and Change (in Japanese). His Information Network Society (in Japanese) became a "long-seller" in Japan in 1984. As director of SJC-R, Professor Imai actively promoted collaborative research between the United States and Japan. For this purpose, he has organized and hosted a number of international forums, including: "A New Techno-Economic Paradigm for the 21st Century "The Age of New Engineering"; "Sensors, Information and Global Ecosystems"; "The Roles of Government in Economic Development: Analysis of East Asian Experiences" (sponsored by the World Bank); and the "Future of the Computer Industry". In Spring 1995, the Crown Prince of Japan awarded Professor Imai the government's Purple Ribbon for his cumulative academic and social contributions.