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. His recent publications include "Military Innovation and Procurement Trade-Offs: Explaining Japan’s Drone Adoption," The Pacific Review, September 2026; "Japan’s Information Security and Defence Reforms: From Inner Circle to National Standardisation," The RUSI Journal 171, no. 1 (February 2026): 58-69 (co-autnored); From Decline to Surge: The Defense Industry in the Era of Excess Demand (Institute of Geoeconomics, January 2026) (co-authored). 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.

Visiting Research Fellow

Andrew Capistrano is a geopolitical risk consultant based in Tokyo, and Director of Research at PTB Global Advisors in Washington, DC, where he specializes in industrial policy, international trade and capital flows, and US-China relations. He is also a visiting scholar at the Waseda Institute of Political Economy and a visiting lecturer at the School of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University. Previously, he worked 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.