Kazumasa Kusaka

Residency: May 30 – June 17, 2007

Residency Summary

Kazumasa Kusaka delivered talks both at the Center and at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography on topics of Japan's environmental policy to meeting economic and environment goals. He visited local energy-related companies, and was the keynote speaker for 2007 commencement at GPS.

Biography

Kazumasa Kusaka is an executive adviser to Dentsu Inc., one of the world’s largest advertising and marketing firms. Before joining the advertising industry, he served for 36 years in Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), rising to vice minister for international affairs in the reorganized Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry (METI) in 2004. He played a central role in Asia’s economic integration, promoting FTAs in the region as well as serving as a senior official negotiating the Doha development agenda of the WTO. He was instrumental in finalizing the Kyoto Protocol, and developing Japan’s energy and environment policies. In the 1980s, he launched a study group that resulted in the creation of APEC. He is a special adviser to METI and is active in regional cooperation with Asia and the Middle East.