Experts
Ikuho Maeda
Acting Director, Program Development
Profile
Appointed to her current position in September 2025, she is responsible for expanding the revenue base of existing programs including human resource development and planning new programs centered around themes involving security.
Having spent her childhood in Saudi Arabia and the United States, she graduated from Keio University’s Faculty of Policy Management in 2000, and joined the Asahi Shimbun. Over the course of 14 years as a reporter at the Kofu and Aomori Prefectural bureaus as well as at the Tokyo headquarters, she covered a wide range of issues including education, caregiving, welfare, foreign residents, gender, nuclear power, and local governance. In the newspaper’s new business division, she edited current affairs learning materials for elementary and junior high school students, produced collaborative events with companies and schools, and led sponsorship acquisition and community-building for projects promoting women’s health and SDG initiatives. She has consistently worked to shed light on diverse social issues in an accessible way and to disseminate information that contributes to solutions.
In January 2023, she joined the International House of Japan, where in the Corporate Partnership Division she led corporate outreach for programs such as the “Institute of Geoeconomics” and the “Policy Entrepreneur’s Platform”, focusing on building sustainable revenue foundations to support the organization’s long-term operations.
Publications
Asahi Shimbun Aomori Bureau. “Kakunenn Money”: A Report from Aomori (Iwanami Shoten, 2005) [in Japanese]
“The Future Does Not Move Forward on its Own—It is Advanced by Those Who Take Action” (Asahi Shimbun full-page newspaper advertisement on March 8, 2021, International Women’s Day) [in Japanese]