Tokyo Foundation


The Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research is a Japanese public policy think tank. It is a private-sector, not-for-profit institute conducting independent research and rigorous analysis of policy challenges confronting Japan and other industrial nations. It is also engaged in leadership development, administering several fellowship programs to nurture the next generation of leaders in countries around the world.
WWW Official Site

Overview

History

The Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research was founded on July 1, 1997, as the “Global Foundation for Research and Scholarship” with donations from the Japanese Shipbuilding Industry Foundation and Japan’s boat-racing industry following authorization by the Minister of Transport.
Nippon Foundation Chairman Yōhei Sasakawa serves as adviser to the president. Additional sources of its endowment at the time of its founding included 3 billion yen from the Ship and Ocean Foundation and 8 billion yen from the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.
It was renamed the “Tokyo Foundation” in May 1999; became a public interest incorporated foundation on April 1, 2010, upon authorization by the Cabinet Office; and adopted its current name, “The Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research,” in February 2018 as part of its reorganization into a more research-intensive institute for evidenced-based, theoretically informed policy studies.
Notable scholars like Gerald Curtis and Katsuhito Iwai, senior fellows when the organization was known as the Tokyo Foundation, are still associated with the think tank as distinguished fellows.

Activities

Its activities during the years as the Toyo Foundation centered on three domains, as expressed in its tagline: Developing People, Investing in People, and Transforming Society. Since its restructuring following its twentieth anniversary, the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research has aimed to become a public policy think tank that conducts rigorous, high-quality research, pursues its activities from an independent and not-for-profit viewpoint, and changes society for the better by offering a broad range of policy options. Its leadership development initiatives are focused on developing “socially engaged leaders with outstanding academic credentials who are capable of transcending differences in an increasingly divisive world.”

Current and past presidents

  • Kimindo Kusaka
  • Heizō Takenaka
  • Hideki Katō
  • Masahiro Akiyama
  • Takeo Hoshi
  • Izumi Kadono

Notable scholars and board members

Parentheses indicate position during their affiliation with the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research. Other titles cited are major, non-Foundation affiliations.