Toshihiko Fujii

Mr Toshihiko Fujii has done the gamut, from lobbying for the European Union on a wide range of issues from environment to trade policies, to being a prolific author on corporate social responsibility. He also lectures on public policy and business strategy when not wearing his METI hat as Deputy Director General of Global Energy Policy.

Mr Fujii, after joining the then Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) in 1987, has worked in various international and internal policy fields including the G7 Economic Summit, APEC, and domestic structural reform. From 2000 to 2004, he headed up the Japan Business Council in Europe, which is a Brussels-based non-profit organisation representing the interests of European companies with Japanese parentage, and acted as a lobbyist to the European Union on wide-ranging issues such as the environment, social, and trade policies.

Having returned to Japan in 2004, he served as the chief of the Trade Remedy Investigation Authority, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) for three years (2004-2007), and thereafter held responsibility for multilateral trade issues for four years (2007-2011) as Director and subsequently Principal Director, Multilateral Trade System Department. The WTO Doha Development Round negotiation and the WTO Dispute Settlement were two focuses of his responsibility. As of January 2011, he changed to the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, serving as Deputy Director General, Global Energy Policy, responsible for international aspects of natural resources and energy policy including international nuclear cooperation and natural resource related issues.

Mr Fujii also teaches, as Visiting Professor, at the Graduate School of Science, Saitama University. The focal theme of his research is interaction between public policy and business strategy. Active publication has made him known as one of Japan's best authors on Corporate Social Responsibility.