Kohtaro Ito is currently Senior Research Fellow at Canon Institute for Global Studies, and also a Lecturer at the Faculty of Sustainability Studies, Hosei University. In addition he is a Visiting Associate Professor at the Institute of General Education, Ritsumeikan University.
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In 2004 Kohtaro Ito began his career as staff for a Member of the House of Representatives. In 2006 he took a position at the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE) as an Assistant Program Officer.
Afterward, he was a Junior Research Fellow at Ilmin International Research Institute of Korea University. After coming back to Tokyo, he got a position at the Canon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS) and contributed to research and analytical activities of the team on Korean issues.
From 2015 to 2017, Ito-san served as a Deputy Counsellor at National Security Secretariat (NSS), Cabinet Secretariat to deal with Northeast Asian diplomatic and security issues, especially Korean affairs. Rejoined CIGS in July 2017. He is also a Visiting Associate Professor at Ritsumeikan University and Visiting Lecturer at Shukutoku University.
He received his bachelors and masters degree in policy studies from Chuo University in 2001 and 2004, and earned a PhD in Political Science from Chuo University in 2022. He was an exchange student at Korea University during graduate school.