Experts

PROFILE NAME

Daisuke Kawai

Project Assistant Professor
Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo

Daisuke Kawai is a Project Assistant Professor and Deputy Director of the Economic Security Research Program at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo. His research focuses on Indo-Pacific security and economic security, with a particular interest in critical and emerging technologies (CETs).

Commissioned by the Japanese government, he contributed to the development of Japan’s Economic Security Promotion Act and currently leads CET cooperation within the Quad. In a related capacity, he also serves as Senior Advisor for Quad Strategic Planning at the Quad Investors Network (QUIN).

In addition, he holds positions at Senior Researcher at Keio SFC Institute and Asia Fellow, the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Geopolitical Risk Advisor to the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai), one of the biggest business associations in Japan. He is also a member of multiple Japanese government councils and holds an advisory capacity in both the private and public sectors.

Previously, he was a Research Fellow for Indo-Pacific Affairs at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) and a Research Fellow at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS). He also worked with the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) Japan and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). He has received multiple honors, including the JIIA’s 60th Anniversary Essay Contest award, and has been nominated as young leader for Shangri-La Dialogue, Munich Security Conference, Raisina Dialogue. In 2024, he was named a David Rockefeller Fellow of the Trilateral Commission and appointed as the head representative of its Asia-Pacific group.