role: Associates

Hiroki has extensive experience in institutional finance and financial services, working for over two decades in both NYC and Tokyo with an emphasis on cross-border US-Japan transactions and relationships. Specialties include equity markets, alternative investments (Private Equity, Hedge Funds), due diligence, risk management and deal execution. Financial services work also includes anti-money laundering, countering terrorist financing, funding of sensitive defense and intelligence projects and budgeting for transactions involving Japan and the United States.

His military career included numerous deployments and duties as a US Army military intelligence officer, assigned primarily to US Army Special Operations Command and 18^th Airborne Corps tactical units. After leaving active duty, he served as a US Army Reserve officer, performed US-Japan liaison duties and commanded a Civil Affairs unit based in Tokyo.

Post-military private sector career focused on financial advisory, consulting work, law enforcement liaison, business intelligence, security, and research services. Advised many organizations on risk reduction in Japan, with organized crime, fraud and rogue state or terrorist financing being recurring themes. Graduated from the United States Military Academy (West Point) with a Bachelor of Science and holds an MBA from Georgetown University.

Kamakshi Wason serves as the Global Chief Operating Officer and Director of Academic Programmes at the Tillotoma Foundation. She also heads the New Delhi Office, Tillotoma Foundation. She is a leading practitioner of Track 2 Diplomacy. Her research interests include Diplomacy, Defence, Gender, Climate Change, Central Asia, South Asia and Indo-Pacific. She is a contributor on international relations and diplomacy in prominent dailies globally. She speaks on diverse issues at various international and national forums. She is also focused on social entrepreneurship and providing a significant voice and diverse opportunities to the youth.

Mr. Bonji Ohara graduated from the National Defense Academy of Japan in 1985 and completed a master’s program at the University of Tsukuba in 1998. He became the leading pilot of the 101st flight division, Maritime Self-Defense Force, in 1998.

He enrolled in the General Course of the National Institute for Defense Studies in 2001. Mr. Ohara was stationed in China between 2003 and 2006 as a Naval Attaché and became a chief of the intelligence section, Maritime Staff Office in Ministry of Defense, in 2006; Executive Officer of the 21st air squadron, MSDF, in 2008; and Commanding Officer of the squadron the following year.

Mr. Ohara joined NIDS as a research fellow in 2010, worked for IHS Jane’s from 2011 as an analyst and business development manager, and for the Tokyo Foundation as a Director of Research before assuming the position of Senior Fellow in the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in June 2017.

Yoichiro Sato is an independent consultant in the areas of public relations, government affairs, and strategic communications. He is also a Senior Consultant at Brunswick Group, where he has advised Japanese or international corporate clients in those areas as a founding member of Brunswick Tokyo Office.

Prior to Brunswick, Yoichiro was a Vice President, Government Affairs, Executive Office at Goldman Sachs Japan, Co. Ltd. where he provided insights on geopolitics and regulatory developments. Before that, he worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the Office of the Prime Minister of Japan. He holds a Master of Arts in International Affairs from Columbia University and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Tokyo.

Dr. Titli Basu is an Associate Professor at the School of International Studies (SIS) in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), India. Her research interests include geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific, with special focus on East Asia. Earlier she worked as a Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA). In 2022, Dr. Basu was a US State Department IVLP Fellow on ‘Enhancing Regional Maritime Governance and Cooperation in the Quad’.

She was also a Visiting Fellow at the National Institute for Defence Studies (Ministry of Defence), Japan in 2017 , and a Japan Foundation Fellow at Institute for Social Science, University of Tokyo in 2010-11. Dr. Basu’s research work has been published in various international peer-reviewed journals, and her commentaries feature regularly in global forums.

Born in Tokyo in 1970, Misa Sakurabayashi graduated from Nihon University College of Art, Department of Broadcasting. After working as a freelance announcer, TV program director, and news desk at Nippon Broadcasting System (AM radio), she is now researching and writing about defense and security issues.

Sakurabayashi completed a special course at the National Institute for Defense Studies in 2013. She served as a member of the Ministry of Defense’s Study Group on Defense Production and Technology Infrastructure, also was a member of the Cabinet Office’s Study Group on Multi-Purpose Vessels for Disasters and was a member of the Round-Table Conference on Defense Issues of the Ministry of Defense.

Director of the Japan Security Research Association Corporation. Guest Researcher of the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals. Councilor of the Defense　Structure Improvement Foundation.

Author of the following articles and publications:

“The Miracle Ship Soya,”

“Opening the Sea: The Unknown Minesweeping Unit”

“Defense Industry Nobody Told You About” (Namiki Shobo)

” Self-Defense Forces and the Defense Industry” (PHP Institute)

“Japan Self-Defense Forces: The Great East Japan Earthquake” (Sankei Shimbun Publishing)

“Weapons Exports Alone Cannot Protect the Defense Industry” (Namiki Shobo), “Arigato Kongo Maru: Spirit of the Self-Defense Forces” (Sankei Shimbun Publishing)

“Economics of the Self-Defense Forces” (East Press)　

“Spirit of the Self-Defense Forces” (PHP Institute)

“Real Image of the Self-Defense Forces: Questioning the Preparedness of the 240,000 Self-Defense Forces Personnel” (Themis).

In addition, Sakurabayashi participated in the production of radio documentaries. In 2008, “My Dream,” a Nippon Broadcasting System (AM radio) news special that he scripted and composed, won the Grand Prix at the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan (NAB) Awards and the Grand Prize at the Agency for Cultural Affairs Arts Festival in the radio documentary category.

Dr. Satoru Nagao is a fellow (non-resident) at Hudson Institute, based in Tokyo, Japan. From December 2017 through November 2020, he was a visiting fellow at Hudson Institute, based in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Nagao’s primary research area is U.S-.Japan-India security cooperation. He was awarded his Ph.D. by Gakushuin University in 2011 for his thesis, “India’s Military Strategy,” the first such research thesis on this topic in Japan. Gakushuin University is a premier institution from which members of the Japanese Imperial Family have also graduated.

Dr. Nagao holds numerous other research positions, including senior research fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies, specially-appointed research fellow at the Japan Forum on International Relations, research fellow at the Institute for Future Engineering (strategy, defense policy), a lecturer in Gakushuin University, associate at the Society of Security and Diplomatic Policy Studies, research fellow at the Security and Strategy Research Institute for Japan, senior fellow at the Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka, and senior research fellow of the Indian Military Review, Visiting Fellow (Indo-Pacific) & Honorary Convenor, Japan of Tillotoma Foundation in India.

Dr. Nagao was a visiting scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in Washington D.C. He worked previously as a research fellow at the Tokyo Foundation and the Ocean Policy Research Foundation in Tokyo, as a post-doctoral fellow at the Research Institute for Oriental Cultures at Gakushuin University, and as a lecturer at Gakushuin University, Aoyama-Gakuin University and Komazawa University. He was also a security analyst at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and a first lieutenant of the Japan Ground Self Defense Forces (Japanese Army).

Dr. Nagao has authored numerous books and articles on security issues, and he also contributes to the column, “Age of Japan-India ‘Alliance’” at Nikkei Business, the journal of one of Japan’s leading newspapers.

Arnaud Sobrero is an expert in the Aerospace, Defense, and Security industry with more than 13 years of international experience. Arnaud has worked with well-established organizations such as the Dassault Group, Textron, and Raytheon Technologies in various capacities (Sales, Marketing, Strategy). Arnaud is currently based in Paris, France where he serves as International Business Development Director for Embraer’s Defense & Security business unit.

Arnaud has spent 5 years in Japan working closely with Aerospace and Defense entities and he was instrumental in establishing key partnerships between US firms and some Japanese tier 2 firms for Defense related activities.

In addition to his business development activities, Arnaud focused on providing detailed political, military, and economic situational reporting to senior leadership and on deriving new opportunities from geopolitical shift analysis in the North East Asian region.

His analyses have been featured in The Diplomat, and he is a contributing expert on Defense and Cybersecurity for the newly formed think tank ‘ITSS’ (International Team for the Study of Security).

A French citizen, Arnaud has lived more than 12 years in Asia and he is a graduate of the Institut de Relations Internationales et Strategiques (‘IRIS’), a top French think tank specialized in International Relations. He is currently a MA candidate at King’s College London in International Affairs (Cyber Security/Artificial Intelligence specialism).

Prasun is currently Senior Project Manager at AWL Inc, Corporation based out of Sapporo, Hokkaido. AWL is a leading Japanese startup in the video analytics field utilizing AI & deep learning solutions created by the engineers from 17 countries who contribute to implementation of AI in the real world along with bringing intelligence to the AI industry.

At ISIC, Japan, Prasun is the Director of Development, India responsible to promote a sustainable framework for present and future partnerships and cooperative actions between the Japanese Defence Industry and the Indian Defence Industry in the broader context of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, to address the full range of Defence Industry cooperation.

Prasun specializes in startup ecosystem creation and serves as a mentor on board of Japanese start-ups for business model expansion in across Japan, and collaborations outside Japan, specifically Asia and Africa.

Prasun has 15+ years of India Japan business leadership experience in technology, finance and collaborations. He has previously contributed actively towards Government of India’s Smart Cities Mission as the Head of Agra Smart City Limited’s Smart solutions PMC team and has worked in the PMU of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission).

From 2018 to 2020, Prasun completed the onsite, extensive MBA Leadership Development and Digital Transformation Program (DXP), at Japan’s Number 1 ranked MBA school, at the AACSB accredited International University of Japan (IUJ), Niigata. He achieved the distinction to be the Beta Gamma Sigma scholar, most outstanding business student, for the International Business Honor Society, an elite network of high achievers, business leaders, world changers. 

Prasun has also been extensively trained in Japan. He completed the ‘ICT in Emerging Market Economies’, program by the Association for Overseas Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Partnerships (AOTS), Japan in Aug-Sept 2017.Again, in September 2019, Prasun completed the Toyota Management System Grade 4 one week study program on ‘Toyota way of management for company-wide operational improvement’ by Toyota Management Corporation in Nagoya, Japan.

Prasun first came to Japan in August 2008, as an intern with the Biofuels Team at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) at Hayama, Zushi. Since then, Prasun has led several business delegations from India to Japan, for identifying technology partners and business collaborations in the fields of Science and Technology and has been involved in transfer of low carbon, net zero technologies from Japan to India.

Dr. Jagannath Panda is the Head of the Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs (SCSA-IPA). He is also the Editor for ISDP.

In addition to his primary appointment at ISDP, Dr. Panda is the Director for Europe-Asia Research Cooperation at the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies (YCAPS); and a Senior Fellow at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS), The Netherlands.

Dr. Panda also holds several adjunct affiliations in various think-tanks and institutions in Asia/Indo-Pacific. He holds a position of International Research Fellow at the Cannon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS) in Japan; a Senior Research Fellow at the United Services Institution (USI) of India, New Delhi; a Senior Fellow at the East Asian Security Centre at Bond University, Australia; and a Senior Research Fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies (JFSS), Tokyo. He was a fellow at India’s premier think-tank, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (now, Manohar Parrikar-IDSA) for one and half-decade [2006-2022].

As a senior expert on China, East Asia and the Indo-Pacific affairs, Dr. Panda’s research focuses primarily on India’s relations with Indo-Pacific powers (China, Japan, Korea, USA); China-India Relations, EU-India Relations; and EU’s infrastructure, connectivity, and maritime initiatives in Indo-Pacific.

Dr. Panda has testified to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission at the US Congress on ‘China and South Asia’. He is the Series Editor for Routledge Studies on Think Asia, and the Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Asian Public Policy (JAPP: Routledge).

Dr. Panda has a column titled “Asia’s Next Page” with Japan Forward, and is a keen follower of Chinese, Japanese and Korean affairs including Indo-Pacific power politics. He has been a Korea Foundation Fellow (2018) and Japan Foundation Fellow (2018). Dr. Panda has written for The National Interest, China Brief (Jamestown Foundation), The Diplomat, Nikkei Asia, 38 North (Stimson Centre), Asia Times, The Japan Times, The Diplomat, South Asian Voices (Stimson Centre), The Asan Forum, East Asia Forum, PacNet Commentary, Asia-Pacific Bulletin, The Independence (UK), The Strait Times (Singapore), The Hindu, The Indian Express, The Tribune and The Pioneer among many other international forums.

Dr. Panda is the author of the book India-China Relations (Routledge: 2017) and China’s Path to Power: Party, Military, and the Politics of State Transition (IDSA & Pentagon Press: 2010). His recent work includes Quad Plus and Indo-Pacific (Routledge: 2021); Scaling India-Japan Cooperation in Indo-Pacific and Beyond 2025 (KW Publishing Ltd. 2019), and The Korean Peninsula and Indo-Pacific Power Politics: Status Security at Stake (Routledge, 2020), India-Japan-ASEAN Triangularity (Routledge: 2022), and the Future of Korean Peninsula: Korea 2032 and Beyond (Routledge: 2021).

He has published in leading peer-reviewed journals like Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, Journal of Asian Public Policy (Routledge), Journal of Asian and African Studies (Sage), Asian Perspective (Lynne Reiner), Journal of Contemporary China (Routledge), Georgetown Journal of Asian Affairs (Georgetown), Strategic Analysis (Routledge), China Report (Sage), Indian Foreign Affairs Journal (MD Publication), Portuguese Journal of International Affairs (Euro Press) etc.