Professor Chihiro Watanabe
Acting Director Forum of X-Center Japan (FoXc-J)
Professor Emeritus, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Research Scholar International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Chihiro Watanabe graduated from Tokyo University with a bachelor’s degree in engineering (urban planning) in 1968 and received his Ph. D. (arts and science) in1992, also from Tokyo University.
Watanabe joined Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) in 1968 and spent 26 years there, chiefly working in the fields of industrial policy, industrial technology policy, and energy and environmental policies. He is former Deputy Director-General of Technology Development of the Ministry.
From 1995 Professor Watanabe Joined Tokyo Institute of Technology and worked as a professor at Department of Industrial Engineering and Management of the Graduate School of Decision Science and Technology of the Institute. He is former Vice-Dean of the Graduate School and also a Councilor (member of the council) of the Institute.
He was a leader of Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology’s (MEXT) 21st Century Center of Excellence (COE) Project: Science of Institutional Management of Technology (SIMOT), and was Director of the Research Center for the Science of Institutional Management of Technology.
He was a pioneer in developing a postulate of the co-evolution between innovation and institutional systems in a global society. He was selected as one of the world’s top seven researchers in the field of management of technology (MOT) and innovation by the International Association of Management of Technology (IAMOT), and was also identified as one of the world’s top researchers in the field of innovation analysis in MOT by IEEE IEEM in 2009. In home country, he was awarded JSSPRM (Japan Society for Science Policy & Research Management) Most Significant Contributor Award, and also Minister of Education, Science & Technology Award in 2009. In addition, he was awarded by the Emperor of Japan The Order of the Sacred Treasure (Gold Rays with Rosette) in 2014.
He is currently a Professor Emeritus of Tokyo Institute of Technology; Visiting Professor of National University of Singapore; Visiting Professor of University of Jyvaskyla in Finland; and Research Scholar of International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna.
His research fields are technology innovation management, institutional innovation, techno-economics, technology innovation, and technology policy.
He is an editorial board member of several international journals, including area editor in information technology and national policy of Technovation.