Prof. Akiko Yamanaka serves as President of International Tsunami Disaster Prevention Society, Senior Diplomatic Fellow of Cambridge Central Asia Forum Cambridge University, Special Advisor to the President of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Special Advisor to the Mayor of Sapporo and Senior Visiting Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA). She served as Former Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs and Special Ambassador for Peacebuilding of Japanese Government as well as Special Ambassador for Awareness of the World Tsunami in addition to Elected Member of the Diet of Japan. She pursued her academic career as Bi-Fellow at Churchill College of University of Cambridge, Visiting Professor at the United Nation University, Graduate School of Hokkaido University and Senior Researcher at the University of Oxford in UK, Harvard University, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Brookings Institute in Washington DC in USA. She served other posts in the Diet included Director of Foreign Affairs Committee and Acting Director General of Defence Committee as well as Director General of the Women’s Bureau of the LDP. She launched “The Human Resources Development Program in Asia for Peacebuilding” as Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs and she also launched “The World Assembly for Women (WAW!)” and UK-Japan Global Seminar. She was awarded OISCA Award (for Contributions to Asia) and the International Soroptimist Japan’s Sen Kayoko Prize (for Contributions to International Understanding).