Profile

Tadakatsu Sano spent more than 30 years at the Japan Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), where he worked with several MITI ministers in the field of international trade policy based on the newly established World Trade Organization (WTO) trade regime, including the U.S.-Japan auto negotiation and semiconductor talks. He contributed to launching the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) study of regulatory reform, which pushed the Japanese government to proceed with submitting a large number of bills to deregulate public sector activities such as telecommunications, energy supply industries, and financial business. He also served as director-general of the Trade Administration Bureau and worked with the U.S. Department of State on export control on strategic goods (or products). From 1993 to 1994 he was executive assistant to Prime Minister Hosokawa during the time Japan agreed to open its rice market to the world to ensure the success of the Uruguay Round.

From 1999 to 2001 he was chief of staff of MITI in the Minister's Secretariat and handled the reorganization of the Ministry's administrative reform. In 2001 he moved back to the Trade Directorate as director-general of the Trade Policy Bureau, where he tackled various issues involving China, including China's accession to the WTO, and the bilateral trade dispute over Chinese vegetable exports to Japan. From 2002 to 2004, he was vice minister of international affairs at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and was responsible for trade policy, including WTO issues; free trade agreements; regional issues such as APEC, OECD, and bilateral trade; and other specific international policy issues, including steel trade and international strategic energy interests.

Admitted

• Japan

Education

• Kyoto University (LL.B. 1969)

Languages

• English, French, Japanese