IOKIBE Makoto is Chancellor of the University of Hyogo and President of the Hyogo Earthquake Memorial 21st Century Research Institute. He is also Professor Emeritus of Japanese political and diplomatic history, Kobe University and Former President of the National Defense Academy of Japan. After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, Professor Iokibe was appointed Chairperson of the Reconstruction Design Council in Response to the Great East Japan Earthquake, a government-established advisory panel of scholars and experts for formulating governmental reconstruction guidelines. Following the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake, he served as Chairperson of the Expert Group for Reconstruction and Recovery from the Kumamoto Earthquake. Among his many publications, his volume Nichibeikankeishi (Yuhikaku, 2008) has recently been translated by the Japan Library and published as “The History of US-Japan Relations: From Perry to the Present” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).
