Remaking Supply Chains (Handouts and Video)

KYOJI FUKAO is Chairman of the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI), and University Professor at the Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University. Other positions include: Member of the Executive Committee of the Asian Historical Economics Society (AHES); Adviser, Maddison Project, University of Groningen. He has published widely on productivity, international economics, economic history, and related topics in journals such as the Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Income and Wealth, Explorations in Economic History, and Economica. Professor Fukao received his M.A. in Economics from the University of Tokyo.

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Joined the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) in 1996. After studying in the USA (Northwestern, Georgetown Law School, NY State Bar), working in the Defense Policy Division of the Defense Agency (US-Japan defense cooperation), the Trade Organization Department (WTO Doha Round negotiations) and the Finance Division of the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency (countermeasures against the 2008 financial crisis), he was a Policy Planning Officer in the Minister's Secretariat, where he implemented general coordination and measures in the wake of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake. After being involved in the launch of the Revitalization of Japan Strategy as a Policy Planning Officer in the Industrial Policy Bureau, he was posted to Singapore as an industrial researcher in charge of Asia, where he was responsible for economic integration in Asia. Upon returning to Japan, he was involved in trade strategy formulation and the globalization of industrial policy. In July 2017, he was appointed Director of the Healthcare Industries Division. After serving as Counsellor in the Ministerʼs Secretariat (overseeing information industry strategy and healthcare industries), he was appointed as Director of IT Industry Division in 2020 and Principal Director of Commerce and Information Policy Bureau in 2022, in charge of semiconductor and digital strategy of Japan. After serving as Counsellor in the Ministerʼs Secretariat (overseeing economic security policy) in 2023, he was appointed as Principal Director of Trade and Economic Security Bureau, newly established in 2024. As of July 2025, he assumes the posts of Deputy Director-General for Semiconductor, Information Policy and Deputy Director-General for Economic Security. As of October 2025, he assumes the additional post of Deputy Director-General for Manufacturing Industries Bureau. As of August 2026, he assumes the posts of Director General, Trade Policy, Ministerʼs Secretariat.

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Yasuyuki Todo, a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University, has been a Professor at the Graduate School of Economics, Waseda University since 2014, after serving as the Department Head at the Department of International Studies, the University of Tokyo. He is also a Program Director at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry. His research fields are empirical international economics and development economics, currently focusing on supply chains and economic security. He has published more than 70 academic papers in refereed journals including Nature Sustainability, the Journal of Industrial Economics, Research Policy, and World Development. He is ranked top 0.7% and 0.5% among researchers in economics and supply chain analysis, respectively, based on academic publications in the recent 5 years, according to ScholarGPS.

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Dr Kaewkamol (Karen) Pitakdumrongkit as the Executive Director of the International Secretariat of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC). PECC is a regional organization dedicated to enhancing economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. It is a thinktank and non-government observer of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). In this role, she drives the organization’s efforts to advance regional cooperation and policy dialogue across the Asia-Pacific.
Prior to joining PECC, she served as Head of the Centre for Multilateralism Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore where she led a team of researchers and managed a wide range of initiatives, including policy studies, stakeholder engagement, and capacity-building programs throughout the Asia-Pacific.
Dr. Pitakdumrongkit’s areas of expertise encompass Asia-Pacific economic governance and the interplay between regional and global economic frameworks. Her contributions to the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint 2025 as a commissioned expert reflect her commitment to shaping policy frameworks for regional integration. She regularly engages in executive teaching and participates in policy discussions at various international organizations.
Dr Pitakdumrongkit earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Science from the University of California, U.S.A., specializing in International Political Economy and International Relations. She also holds a B.A. in Political Science with a focus on International Relations from California State University, U.S.A.

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Professor C. Veeramani is Director and RBI Chair Professor at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram. With over two decades of experience in research, teaching, and policy engagement, his work spans international trade, global value chains, industrial development, and plantation agriculture. He has authored 70+ publications, including books, journal articles, and policy reports, and has provided policy inputs to the Govt. of India, RBI, EXIM Bank, World Bank, UNCTAD, and the Govt. of Kerala. He drafted Chapter 5, "Creating Jobs and Growth by Specializing to Exports in Network Products," in the Economic Survey of India 2019–20. He holds a Ph.D. from CDS/JNU and is a recipient of the Australian Leadership Award and EXIM Bank International Economic Development Research Award.

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Tsuyoshi Kawase is Professor at the Faculty of Law, Sophia University, as well as a faculty fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI), both in Tokyo, Japan.
Before joining Sophia University in 2007, Professor Kawase was formerly an associate professor at the Graduate School of Law and Politics, Osaka University (2004-07), a fellow at RIETI (2003-2004), and an assistant/associate professor at Kobe University of Commerce (1994-2001). He also was a deputy director of the Multilateral Trading System Department of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, representing the Government of Japan in several World Trade Organization (WTO) cases and negotiations (2001-2003). He also served as Chairman of Subcommittee on Trade Remedies, Industrial Structure Council, METI, Government of Japan.
Education: LL.B (1990), LL.M (1992), Keio University, Japan; LL.M (1994), Georgetown University, United States.

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TOMIURA Eiichi is President and CRO of RIETI since April 2024. He is also Dean, Faculty of Data Science, Otsuma Women's University. Prior to his current position, he was formerly Professor of Economics at Hitotsubashi University and Dean, College of Economics at Yokohama National University. He was also served for Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), Government of Japan till 2000.
He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992 and his B.A. in Economics from University of Tokyo in 1984. His research expertise is in empirical international trade, especially offshore outsourcing with firm-level data. His articles have been published in many journals including Journal of International Economics, Review of International Economics, and Regional Science and Urban Economics. He has received Economist Award, Nikkei Prize, and Kojima Kiyoshi Prize in Japan.

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Dr Eve Warburrton is a senior lecturer at the Australian National University's Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs. Her research is broadly concerned with problems of democratic politics and economic governance, with a particular focus on Indonesia and the Southeast Asian region. Eve's current research on the political economy of critical mineral development is supported by a Westpac Research Fellowship. Her work appears in both area studies and disciplinary journals, including Democratization, Electoral Studies, Extractive Industries and Society, Critical Asian Studies, and Journal of East Asian Studies. She is on the editorial boards for the Journal of East Asian Studies, and East Asia Forum Quarterly Magazine.

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After graduating from the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, he joined the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) in 1999. He served in divisions such as the Automobile Division, the Information Economy Division, and the Aerospace and Defense Industry Division, and worked at the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) before leaving METI in July 2014.
In September of the same year, he founded rimOnO Corporation, a venture company developing ultra-compact electric vehicles, and unveiled a prototype in May 2016.
He joined Honda Motor Co., Ltd. in July 2022, where he held positions in business development, economic security, government affairs, and corporate communications, before leaving the company in February 2026. He joined JOGMEC in April 2026.

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Professor Christopher Findlay was until October 2018 the Executive Dean of the Faculty of the Professions at the University of Adelaide. Earlier positions include Professor of Economics in the Asia Pacific School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University (ANU) (1999 - 2005) and Head of the School of Economics at the University of Adelaide (2005 – 2011). He is now Honorary Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. He was from 2019 to 2025 part-time Commissioner of the South Australian Productivity Commission. Findlay’s research interests include Australia’s economic relationships with Asia, especially in the services sector. His focus has been on the benefits of and the drivers of economic integration across economies, especially in the Asia Pacific region. He has also worked on the design of programs of structural reform.

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Riandy is an early-career researcher, specializing in international trade and development. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam, where he studies the environmental, socio-economic, and political-economy dimensions of Indonesia's ban on raw nickel exports. He obtained his PhD in Economics in July 2025 from the Australian National University (ANU), where he examined the developmental consequences of increased international trade openness in Indonesia. Riandy joined CSIS Indonesia as a researcher in the Department of Economics in 2025, where he led a project aimed at formulating a grand strategy to enhance Indonesia’s engagement in the global supply chain of green industry. His current research agenda focuses on green industrial policy and the implications of heightened US-China geopolitical tension on developing nations, especially in ASEAN. His commentary has been featured in major national and international outlets, including the Jakarta Post, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Conversation, East Asia Forum, and Indonesia at Melbourne.

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Shiro Armstrong is Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University. He is Director of the Australia-Japan Research Centre, Editor of the East Asia Forum, Director of the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research and Non-resident Fellow at the RIETI. He is also currently a Research Associate at the Center on Japanese Economy and Business at the Columbia Business School, Visiting Professor at Keio University and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Tokyo. Dr. Armstrong took his PhD in Economics from the Australian National University and has been a Visitor to Peking University and Harvard University. He is Head of the Secretariat for the Pacific Trade and Development (PAFTAD) conference series. He was the 2024 recipient of the Nakasone Yasuhiro Award.

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