Biographies

De-risking and diversification in tough geopolitical times: How can Japan andEurope cooperate more effectively?
Thursday 30 November 2023
Masakazu Toyoda currently serves as Chairman and CEO of the Japan
Economic Foundation (JEF), as well as Special Advisor to the Institute ofEnergy Economics of Japan; an Adjunct Professor at Japan’s National
Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS); and Director of the PacificInternational Center for High Technology Research. He is the former
Chairman and CEO of the Institute of Energy Economics (2010-2021); served
also for nearly a decade on both the Board of Governors of the Oxford Instituteof Energy Studies (2012-2021); and the International Advisory Board Councilof the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) in
Saudi Arabia (2011-2019). During his distinguished government career, heserved in numerous key positions within the Ministry of Economy, Trade, andIndustry of Japan culminating in his service as Vice Minister for International
Affairs (2007-2008). He also subsequently served as Secretary General of the Secretariat for Space Policy
in Japan’s Cabinet Secretariat. Mr. Toyoda holds a Master of Public Affairs degree from the Woodrow
Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University (1979), and an undergraduate
Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Tokyo (1973).
Ben Bland is the director of the Asia-Pacific programme at Chatham House.
His research focuses on the nexus of politics, economics and international
relations in Southeast Asia, as well as China’s growing role in the broader
region and the contours of US-China strategic competition. He was formerly
the director of the Southeast Asia programme at the Lowy Institute, a Sydneybased think-tank. He regularly briefs senior officials, parliamentarians andbusiness groups on regional issues, and contributes opinion and analysis tomany global media organizations including Bloomberg, CNN, the New YorkTimes, Reuters, and Nikkei Asia. In his earlier career, Ben was an awardwinning correspondent for the Financial Times, with postings in Hanoi,
Jakarta and Hong Kong, and experience reporting across Southeast Asia and China for more than adecade.
Andrew Cainey is a Senior Associate Fellow in RUSI’s Indo-PacificProgramme, who has lived and worked for most of the past twenty-five years in
China, Korea and Singapore advising businesses and governments, having firstvisited China in 1981. His particular areas of focus relate to China’sdevelopment, its growing role and influence across Asia and globally and theintersection of economic prosperity, technology and national security. Andrew
is the co-author of Xiconomics: What China’s Dual Circulation Strategy Meansfor Global Business (Agenda Publishing, 2023). He is also a founding director ofthe UK National Committee on China; a Senior Advisor to Boston Consulting
Group on China and geopolitics; and a non-executive director of Schroder Asian
Total Return Investment Company plc.

The Royal Institute of International Affairs

www.chathamhouse.org

Page 2 of 4Baroness Vere was appointed as Treasury Lords Minister on 14November 2023. She was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary ofState at the Department for Transport from 23 April 2019 to 14 November
2023, and Government Whip (Baroness in Waiting) from 21 December
2016 to 26 July 2019. Before entering politics, Baroness Vere spent 4 years
as the Executive Director of the Girls’ Schools Association, including 6months as the General Secretary of the Independent Schools Council.
Prior to that she was the CEO of Big White Wall, an online mental healthservice, and Finance Director at Recruit Media, a digital recruitment
agency. Her early career was spent in investment banking. The TreasuryLords Minister is responsible for economic security, financial sanctions, countering illicit crime andeconomic finance, Russia/Ukraine conflict, international climate and nature finance, and women infinance.
Professor Mariko Watanabe is a Professor with the Faculty of Economics at
Gakushuin University, where her research specialises in applied microeconomics
and the Chinese economy, firms and institutions. She has previously served as aVisiting Scholar at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University and aResearch Fellow with the Institute of Developing Economies in Japan. She holds BAand PhD qualifications from the University of Tokyo and an MPhil from the Schoolof Business at the University of Hong Kong.

Dr Yu Jie is senior research fellow on China in the Asia-Pacific Programme atChatham House, focusing on the decision-making process of Chinese foreign
policy as well as China’s economic diplomacy. She frequently comments inmajor media outlets such as BBC News and the Financial Times and regularly
briefs senior policy practitioners from the G7 member governments and theSilk Road Fund in Beijing. She also advises major FTSE 100 corporates andleading European financial institutions on China’s political landscape. Yu Jie
has testified on China’s foreign affairs at various UK Parliament committees.
She was previously head of China Foresight at LSE IDEAS and remains as an
associate fellow. Prior to LSE, she was a management consultant, specializing in Chinese state-owned
enterprises investments in Europe and Chinese market entry strategies for European conglomerates atthe London office of Roland Berger.
Dr Chietigj Bajpaee is senior research fellow for South Asia in the AsiaPacific Programme at Chatham House. Prior to joining Chatham House, hewas the political risk advisor for Asia at Equinor (formerly Statoil), aNorwegian energy company. He has also covered Asia (with a particularfocus on South Asia) for Control Risks, IHS Markit (now S&P Global), theCenter for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC and theInternational Institute for Strategic Studies. He also held visiting
fellowships at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies andAnalyses and Vivekananda International Foundation in India. Chietigj
completed his PhD at King’s College London and the National University ofSingapore with a focus on India’s ‘Act East’ policy and relations with China. He holds a Masters’ degree inInternational Relations from the London School of Economics and completed his undergraduate studies
in Economics and Politics at Wesleyan and Oxford Universities.

Page 3 of 4

Takashi Hattori is Deputy Representative at the Japan-Taiwan Exchange
Association’s Taipei Office. He has previously served as Deputy DirectorGeneral for Trade Policy with the Trade Policy Bureau in Japan’s Ministry ofEconomy, Trade and Industry (METI) (2021-2022), as well as Director for
METI’s EPA/FTA Negotiations (2016-2018) and its Director for Climate
Change (2012-2013). Outside of government, Professor Hattori has been
Professor with the Institute of Economic Research at Kyoto University. His
research interests are trade policy, industrial policy, energy and climate policy
and international relations. Professor Hattori holds degrees from theUniversity of Tokyo, Harvard University, the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Kyoto University.
Masamichi Ito is Special Advisor, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry(METI) of the Government of Japan, and Director of Industrial Research, Japan
External Trade Organization (JETRO)) London, seconded from METI. Sincejoining METI in 2001, he held a number of positions in the government, includingTrade Negotiator in FTA division, Private Secretary to the Minister of State, andCoordinator for Parliamentary Relationship in Prime Minister’s Office. As a Special
Adviser to METI, he is currently in charge of analysing various economic andenergy issues in London basis. He has LLB from University of Tokyo and LLM
form Georgetown University Law Center.
Dr. Minako Morita-Jaeger is a Senior Research Fellow in International Tradeof University of Sussex Business School, a Policy Research Fellow of the UK Trade
Policy Observatory (UKTPO) and a Research Fellow of the Centre for Inclusive
Trade Policy. She studied international political economy, economics andinternational economic law and applies the inter-disciplinary approach for her
research in order to elaborate multi-dimensional factors that shape today’s world
trade. Prior to her research work at the University of Sussex and the LSE, she wasintensively engaged in trade policy in practice as an Economic Affairs Officer at
the UNCTAD in Geneva, a WTO services trade negotiator at the Japanesedelegation in Geneva, and a Principal Trade Policy Analyst at the Japan Business
Federation (Keidanren) in Tokyo. Her areas of research include: Free Trade Agreements, WTO, regulatory
cooperation, UK's trade policy, Indo Pacific and trade, trade and digital governance, and trade andeconomic security. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the LSE, an MA in European
Economic Studies from the College d’Europe and an MA in International Law and Economics from theWorld Trade Institute.
Mr. Naoyuki Haraoka has been Executive Managing Director of the Japan
Economic Foundation (JEF) since 2007. After graduating the University ofTokyo in 1978 (Bachelor of Economics), he joined MITI (Ministry ofInternational Trade and Industry) of Japanese government. Having been posted
in the industrial policy section and the international trade policy section for afew years, he was enrolled in a two year MPA (Master of Public Administration)
programme at Woodraw Wilson School of Princeton University in the US on aJapanese government sponsorship. After having acquired MPA at Princeton, herejoined MITI in 1984 as an economist. Since then he had been posted as Deputy
Director and Director of a number of MITI divisions including Research Divisionof International Trade Policy Bureau. He was also posted in Paris twice, firstly,
Principal Economist of Trade Bureau of OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation andDevelopment) from 1988 to 92 and secondly Counselor to Japanese Delegation of OECD from 1996 to 99.

Page 4 of 4

After coming back to MITI from his second stay in Paris, at the occasion of the government structuralreform in 2001 when MITI was remodeled as METI (Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry) he joined
the efforts to found METI research institute, Research Institute of Economy Trade and Industry as its
Director of Administration. He became Chief Executive Director of JETRO San Francisco in 2003 andstayed in San Francisco until 2006. He was Director-General of METI Training Institute from 2006 until
July, 2007 when he left METI permanently.