is a Japanese political scientist. He has held many roles such as the president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), president of the

International University of Japan The is a private university located in Minamiuonuma city in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. IUJ is the first graduate university in Japan, not offering undergraduate degrees, and one of the few Japanese universities which offers all courses in En ...

, professor at Japan's

GRIPS-Tokyo School of Security and International Studies Established in partnership with the Ministry of Defense (Japan), Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, SISP at GRIPS aims to equip scholars with academic and practical skills for u ...

, and Japanese ambassador to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

. His area of expertise is the history of Japanese politics and diplomacy, as a

political scientist Political science is the science, scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of politics, political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated c ...

and a

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

Early life

Kitaoka was born in

Yoshino Yoshino may refer to: * Yoshino cherry, another name for ''Prunus × yedoensis'', a flowering cherry tree * Japanese cruiser Yoshino, Japanese cruiser ''Yoshino'', a protected cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy Places * Yoshino, Nara, a town ...

Nara Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the northwest, Wakayama P ...

. His family owned a

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

brewing business and both his father and grandfather had served as the mayor of Yoshino. His great uncle was Juitsu Kitaoka, economist and former official of the

Ministry of Labor The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...

. Kitaoka graduated with a B.L. in June 1971 and received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

from the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

in September 1976. While studying at the University of Tokyo he lived at the all-male dormitory

Wakeijuku Wakeijuku (和敬塾), literally meaning "a place to seek harmony and respect", is an all-male dormitory located in the Mejirodai neighborhood in the Bunkyō ward of Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1955 by Kisaku Mayekawa, philanthropist and foun ...

Career

Kitaoka took a lecturership at

Rikkyo University , also known as Saint Paul's University, is a private university, in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan. Rikkyo is known as one of the six leading universities in the field of sports in Tokyo (東京六大学 "Big Six" — Rikkyo University, University of ...

; he became a full professor there in 1985. In 1997, he moved to his current position at the University of Tokyo. In 2004, he was appointed as Japan's ambassador and deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, a position he held until 2006 when he returned to academia.Biography of Kitaoka
White Rose East Asia Center. In 2006-2010, Kitaoka was the Japanese chair of the Japan-China Joint History Research Committee. Among other topics, the committee investigated the

Nanking Massacre The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Ba ...

. From 2009-2010, he chaired a Ministry of Foreign Affairs committee on the so-called Secret Agreements between the U.S. and Japan on the introduction of nuclear weapons into Japanese territory. Kitaoka was the Deputy Chairman of the Advisory Panel on Reconstruction of the Legal Basis for Security, an advisory panel to

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Abe Abe or ABE may refer to: People and fictional characters * Shinzo Abe (1954–2022), former Prime Minister of Japan * Abe (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Abe (surname), a list of people a ...

on the possibility of re-interpreting constitutional provisions to allow for collective self-defense.

Awards

In 2011 he was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon for his academic contributions.

Publications

Japanese language * * * * * * * English translations * * * *

References

External links

Kitaoka's GRIPS web page
retrieved May 15, 2014.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitaoka, Shinichi 1948 births Living people International University of Japan faculty People from Nara Prefecture University of Tokyo alumni University of Tokyo faculty Rikkyo University faculty National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies faculty Japanese political scientists 20th-century Japanese historians Historians of Japan Recipients of the Medal of Honor (Japan) 21st-century Japanese historians