Shinichi Kitaoka

Born on 20 April, 1948

Shinichi Kitaoka is Professor of Modern Japanese Politics and Diplomacy at National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies ( GRIPS ) . He studied at the University of Tokyo (Ph.D. 1976); taught at Rikkyo University (1976-97) and his alma mater (1997-2004, 2006-March, 2012); and served as Ambassador to the United Nations (2004-2006).

Kitaoka has published many books on Japan’s military, diplomacy, party politics, and intellectuals and was honored by the Yoshida Shigeru Award (1986), Suntory Award for Liberal Arts (1987), and Yoshino Sakuzo Award (1995). He also contributes frequently to the major newspapers and magazines on Japan’s security policy, foreign policy, and party politics and was given Yomiuri’s Award for the Opinion Leader of the Year in 1992.
He received the Imperial Medal with Purple Ribbon in November, 2011.

Kitaoka has been on the advisory panels for many foreign ministers and prime ministers and has participated in various second track talks such as Japan-China, Japan-Korea, Japan-Germany, Japan-India, and Japan-Singapore. Among his recent appointments are the Chairman of the Japanese scholars in Japan-China joint study of history (2006-2009) and the Chairman of the Committee to investigate the so-called Secret Pacts in the Japan-US Security Treaty (2009-2010).　 He has been serving as Executive Director of Research at Institute for International Policy Studies (2009-Present).