Yabe Akira
Position/Department/Division/Institution/Organization
Fellow, Energy System & Hydrogen Unit, Technology Strategy Center, New Energy and Industrial
Technology Development Organization (NEDO)CountryJapan
Career history
Yabe Akira has been a Fellow and former Director General of Technology Strategy Center of New
Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), National Research andDevelopment Agency of Japan.
He has published the “Comprehensive R&D Principle for Sustainable Society〔The NEDO’sPrinciple〕” with the member of Technology Strategy Center of NEDO in February 2020 where
the importance of “Circular Economy”, “Bio-economy” and “Sustainable Energy” would
be stressed to realize the sustainable society.
He has been challenging to produce the technology strategy for various fields of energy
engineering, such as the large scale and complicated energy system with much amount of variable
renewable energy, the acceleration of hydrogen society and the development of the battery forbattery electric vehicles and stationary battery storage.
He is also a Special Advisor & a Researcher Emeritus of National Institute of Advanced Industrial
Science and Technology (AIST), and a Member of Science Council of Japan. He serves for ISO(International Organization for Standardization) as the Convenor of ISO/TC281 Fine BubbleTechnology /WG3.
Before entering NEDO as a Director General of Technology Strategy Center for Energy System &Hydrogen Units at April 2015, he had been a Vice-President of AIST for 7 years as a Director
General for Environment and Energy Research Fields.
He completed PhD in Mechanical Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology at 1979
and joined Mechanical Engineering Laboratory (MEL) of Ministry of International Trade andIndustry (MITI) of Japan. He served as a Head of Fluid Engineering and Quantum Engineering
Innovation for Cool Earth Forum (ICEF)
7th Annual Meeting － Virtual Forum ―Research Lab and Research Planning Office for MEL. He became a Director for Advanced
Manufacturing Research Center on Micro and Nano Scale Science and Engineering, AIST on 2001,
Director of AIST Chugoku Regional Research Center and Director of Research Collaboration
Promotion Department.
He had been concurrently a Professor of Institute of Engineering Mechanics and Systems,
University of Tsukuba (1992-2010), Adjunctive Professor of Science University of Tokyo (19952009), Russell Severance Springer Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universityof California, Berkeley (2001), Professor (Cooperative Chair) of Tokyo Institute of Technology(2005-2013), Adjunctive Professor of Kanazawa Institute of Technology (1997-2013).
He also served as the President of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) (2013-2014).
He had been a member of working group for the NESTI 2050 (National Energy andEnvironmental Strategy for Technological Innovation towards 2050) which was published onApril 19, 2016 by the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation of Japan.
Awards/Publications
Best Papers Award from JSME (1984, 2001), Best Technology Development Award from Heat
Transfer Society of Japan (1990), Distinguished Research Award from Science and Technology
Agency of Japan (1994), Best Papers Award from Japan Society of Applied Physics (2002), BestPapers Award from Japan Society of Energy and Resources (2007)
Areas of expertise
Energy Engineering and Global Environment Protection, Renewable Energy Engineering, Energy
System Engineering, Hydrogen, Energy Conservation, Heat Transfer, Heat Pump Technology,
Mechanical Engineering, Ultra-fine Bubble Technology

Innovation for Cool Earth Forum (ICEF)
7th Annual Meeting － Virtual Forum ―