Akihiko Tanaka is president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and professor of International Politics at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia (IASA), the University of Tokyo. Professor Tanaka's specializations include theories of international politics, contemporary international relations in East Asia, and Japan's foreign policy. He started his career as a researcher at the Research Institute for Peace and Security. In 1983, he became Research Associate at the College of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo, and was named Associate Professor in 1984. In 1990 he moved to the Institute of Oriental Culture (previous name of IASA) where he became Professor in 1998. He was also director of the Institute of Oriental Culture between 2002 and 2006, executive vice president of the University of Tokyo between 2009 and 2011, and vice president between 2011 and 2012. In addition, he was visiting professor at Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany, in 1986, and senior associate member at St Antony's College, Oxford. Professor Tanaka received the medal of honor with purple ribbon (shiju hosho) for his academic achievements in 2012. He has numerous books and articles in Japanese and English including the New Middle Ages: The World System in the 21st Century (Tokyo: The International House of Japan, 2002). He obtained a B.A. in international relations at the University of Tokyo's College of Arts and Sciences in 1977 and a Ph.D. in political science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981.