Profile

Akio Takahara is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and Emeritus Professor of The University of Tokyo. He specialises in contemporary Chinese politics and diplomacy. Akio received his DPhil in 1988 from Sussex University. He served as President of the Japan Association for Asian Studies, Secretary General of the New Japan-China Friendship 21st Century Committee, Dean of the Graduate School of Public Policy at The University of Tokyo, and Director of the Japan International Cooperation Agency Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development. Akio currently serves also as Senior Research Adviser and Councillor of the Japan Institute of International Affairs, among other positions. His publications in English include The Politics of Wage Policy in Post-Revolutionary China, (Macmillan, 1992); Japan-China Relations in the Modern Era, (co-authored, Routledge, 2017); “How do smaller countries in the Indo-Pacific region proactively interact with China? An introduction”, Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies, DOI: 10.1080/24761028.2024.2309439, 26 January 2024.