TOKYO --Kumi Yokoe, Ph.D., a well-known Japanese expert on American Politics, is joining The Heritage Foundation as Senior Visiting Fellow, the leading Washington think tank announced today at the Japan National Press Club. Yokoe, the first Japan Fellow in the newly created Japan Fellows Program, will study in Washington DC. With nearly 750,000 members, The Heritage Foundation is the premier institution in the US championing free-market policy solutions both at home and abroad.

  “We see that greater economic freedom and opportunity will secure Japan's prosperity and preserve the value of the US-Japan alliance long into the future,” said Walter Lohman, director of Heritage’s Asian Studies Center. “Kumi Yokoe will play a key role in bridging our two political cultures, learning what is needed to provide liberty-minded solutions to Japanese domestic policy issues, and communicating an understanding of these key principles to policy makers and opinion leaders.”

Yokoe’s prior endeavors make her well-qualified as a bridge between the political cultures of Japan and the United States. She has written numerous books, including six that deal with American politics and one specifically about the role of think tanks in the American political system. Over the last ten years she has consulted on electronic government and before that Yokoe was a Fellow at the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management. Yokoe was a visiting fellow at Princeton University.

Yokoe received her Ph.D. at Chiba University of Commerce in Policy science, with a dissertation on US think tanks. Her undergraduate major was business at Meiji University.

Yokoe has provided frequent editorials about the U.S. for segments on NHK’s Shiten Ronten, she has been a Monday morning commentator on TBS, and provided NTV with live commentary during the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. She has appeared on TV Asahi, CNN, and the BBC.

In print, Yokoe's opinion editorials have been seen in the Asahi, Mainichi, Tokyo, and Yomiuri newspapers, and she has published articles in AERA, Foresights, Nikkei online, SAPIO, Shincho 45, Toyo Keizai, and Voice, as well as others. She has been widely quoted elsewhere in the press.

  Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institution—a think tank—whose mission is to formulate and promote liberty-minded public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.  Its Asian Studies Center, begun in 1983, is The Heritage Foundation's oldest policy center.