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. 

Tetsuji Ito is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2018-19.  Ito joined the Development Bank of Japan in 1995, and has been in charge of financing various fields, such as railway companies, urban development projects, and airline industries, etc.  Prior to joining APARC, he was Deputy General Manager and was responsible for planning corporate strategy and financing energy sectors, including the nuclear power related industry after the Great East Japan Earthquake.  Ito received his bachelor's degree of law from Tokyo University in 1995. 

Yosuke Hatano is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2018-19 and 2019-20.  Hatano has over seven years experience in the global energy trading business and energy infrastructure development projects at both private companies and in the private sector, including time as a branch office representative in Indonesia.  He joined the local government of the Shizuoka prefecture in 2014 and has experience in tourism promotion and destination marketing.  He has also engaged in the policies for small- and medium-sized enterprises promoting and developing the regional economy and industry.  Most recently, Hatano worked on international general affairs between the Shizuoka and the world.  He received his masters degree in international relations from Waseda University in 2007.

Jiazhong Fang is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2018-19.  Fang works as the President and CEO of PetroKazakhstan Inc., a joint venture of PetroChina Company Ltd. and Kazkhstan national oil company, KazMunayGas (KMG).  Prior to this position, he has over 20 years of experience working internationally for PetroChina Overseas in Africa and central Asia, mainly focusing on exploration and development of oilfields.  He earned his PhD of Petroleum Engineering at the China Petroleum University, and his Master and Bachelor degree of Geology at Northwest University of China.  

Umesh Desai is a global affiliate vising scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2018-19.  Desai has over 22 years experience in manufacturing of biopharmaceutical products and has been with Reliance Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd., India since 2007.  Currently, he is designated as Sr. Manager in the production team.  His current responsibilities include manufacturing activities (planning, execution, and manufacturing of biological products); communicating with support groups for the requirements as per the business demand within the organization; document submissions to the quality assurance group; preparation and business of BMR (Batch Manufacturing Record), BPR (Batch Packing Record) of biological products for the domestic and exports market as per the demand; and fulfilling the requirements.  Desai received his degree in chemistry from the D.G. Ruparel College of Arts, Commerce and Science, Mumbai University in 1992.  

Yasuhito Ando is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2018-19.  Ando is currently the Managing Executive Officer of Kozo Keikaku Engineering where he is in charge of the U.S. marketing department.  While at KKE, he developed a system to calculate the structure of buildings and also consults on processes from development to design and construction.  Most recently, he was engaged in the planning department focusing on business and personnel planning as well as involved in the information communication system development and management of IoE (Internet of Everything) business.