Known as a key ally of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Amari Akira is a seasoned Japanese politician born in Kanagawa in 1949. A graduate of Keio University's Faculty of Law, he initially worked for Sony before transitioning to politics as a secretary to his father, Masaru Amari, a former member of the House of Representatives. Amari entered politics himself in 1983, successfully winning a seat in the House of Representatives.
Over his decades-long career, he has held numerous key positions, including Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, and Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy. Notably, Amari played a pivotal role in negotiating Japan’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), contributing to the nation's economic strategy. Furthermore, Japan’s economic security and semiconductor strategy would not have advanced to their current state without Amari’s contributions. He remains a highly influential figure in this field.

Richard Katz is a special correspondent at Weekly Toyo Keizai, a leading Japanese business
weekly. His duties at the latter include writing an opinion column on the Japanese economy
(https://toyokeizai.net/list/author/リチャード・カッツ). He now publishes a blog on Japan
called Japan Economy Watch at https://richardkatz.substack.com/. For two decades before, Mr.
Katz published The Oriental Economist Report, a monthly English-language newsletter on
Japan. While researching his latest book, he served as a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council
For Ethics in International Affairs.

At the end of 2023, his third book on Japan, The Contest for Japan’s Economic Future: Entrepreneurs vs. Corporate Giants (Oxford Univ. Press), appeared in English. It is set to come
out in Japanese and Chinese. His previous books, also published in Japanese, were Japan: The
System That Soured—The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Economic Miracle (M.E. Sharpe, 1998).
The second was Japanese Phoenix: The Long Road to Economic Revival (M.E. Sharpe, 2002).

He has testified before Congress several times about Japan, including a session on the lessons for
the US from Japan’s banking crisis.

He has taught about Japan as an adjunct professor of economics at the State University of New
York at Stony Brook and at the Stern School of Business at New York University.

He has written many op-eds for newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and the Financial
Times, as well as numerous essays for journals such as Foreign Affairs and The International Economy.

Mr. Katz received his M.A. in Economics from New York University in 1996.

TANIGUCHI, Tomohiko, Dr., served as Prime Minister ABE, Shinzō's primary foreign policy speechwriter for a total of 10 years. Among the many speeches Dr. Taniguchi helped craft were those delivered by Mr. Abe to the parliaments of Delhi, Canberra, and Washington, D.C., as well
as at Yad Vashem, Pearl Harbor, and Darwin, Australia.

Dr. Taniguchi, LLB (University of Tokyo) and Doctorate in National Security (Takushoku University), began his career as a print journalist with Nikkei Business, a leading Japanese weekly. During his time with the magazine, he undertook sabbaticals at Princeton University as a Fulbright Fellow, the Shanghai Institute of International Studies, and the Brookings Institution as a paid CNAPS fellow. From 1997 to 2000, he served as the magazine’s London correspondent, during which he was elected President of the Foreign Press Association in London, becoming the first president "from the east of Suez"

In 2005, he joined Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he worked closely with ASŌ, Tarō,
then Foreign Minister, and ABE, Shinzō, Prime Minister, assisting in the crafting of their speeches over a three-year period.

Academically, he was a tenured professor at the Keio University Graduate School of Systems Design and Management from 2014 to 2023, before assuming the role of Specially Appointed
Professor at the University of Tsukuba.

Dr. Taniguchi is a prolific writer, with one of his recent works being Prime Minister Abe's Speeches (in Japanese), which explores the achievements of the prime minister through his own words. His English articles have been featured in The Economist, Foreign Affairs, and The New York Times. He has also appeared live on international news networks such as BBC, CNN, CNA, and Al Jazeera English more than 500 times.

Born in 1957 in Takamatsu, Kagawa, he currently resides in Tokyo with his wife.

Rodrigo González is the Director for Tokyo of Economist Intelligence Corporate Network.

He works closely with regional business leaders to assist them in economic and market trends, business competitiveness, monetary and fiscal policy and general economic advisory to help them optimise their business strategies and further enhance their connections to their c-suite peers.

He has vast experience in statistical analysis, strategy consulting and market research in different industries in and outside Japan. Rodrigo is a published author in environmental and transport economics and has spoken at international conferences in global warming and fiscal policy throughout the world.

Rodrigo holds a PhD in Economics from Keio University and is fluent in Spanish, English, French and Japanese.