What Takaichi’s Snap Election Landslide Means for Japan’s Defense and Fiscal Policy

Senior Research Fellow

Hirohito Ogi is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Geoeconomics (IOG) studying military strategy and Japan’s defense policy. Before joining the IOG, Mr. Ogi had been a career government official at the Ministry of Defense (MOD) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) for 16 years. From 2021 to 2022, he served as the Principal Deputy Director for the Strategic Intelligence Analysis Office, the Defense Intelligence Division at the MOD, where he led the MOD’s defense intelligence. From 2019 to 2021, he served as a Deputy Director of the Defense Planning and Programming Division at the MOD. He holds a Master’s degree in international affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University, and a Bachelor’s degree in arts and sciences from the University of Tokyo. He is the author of various publications including Comparative Study of Defense Industries: Autonomy, Priority, and Sustainability (co-authored, Institute of Geoeconomics, 2023).

Visiting Research Fellow

Andrew Capistrano is Director of Research at PTB Global Advisors, a Washington DC-based geopolitical risk consulting firm. Specializing in economic competition between the US/EU and China, he analyzes how trade, national security, and industrial policies impact markets, and his firm’s clients include Japanese corporations and government agencies. He previously worked in Tokyo at the US Embassy’s American Center Japan and as a research associate at the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation / Asia-Pacific Initiative. Dr Capistrano holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley; an MA in political science (international relations and political economy) from Waseda University; and a PhD in international history from the London School of Economics. His academic work focuses on the diplomatic history of East Asia from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries, applying game-theoretic concepts to show how China's economic treaties with the foreign powers created unique bargaining dynamics and cooperation problems. During his doctoral studies he was a research student affiliate at the Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD) in London.