Professor, Faculty of Engineering Tokyo University

Prof. Takashi Onishi graduated from the University of Tokyo with his Ph.D, in 1980. He then became assistant and associate professor at the Technological University of Nagaoka, and an associate professor at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok before joining the University of Tokyo as an associate professor in  the Department of Urban Engineering. He became a professor there in 1995, and was appointed as professor in the United Nations University in 1996. He was elected President of the Science Council of Japan in 1998.

Prof. Onishi specializes in city, regional and national planning, urban development and land policies, and he has written more than 900 articles and books.

He is a member of various Japanese Government councils including the Advisory Committee for the Prime Minister on the Restoration Vision from the East Japan Great Disaster, the National Land Council, and the Industrial Structure Council of the Government. He also has experience  working as a World Bank consultant and OECD research committee member, and as an advisor for the Japan International Cooperation Agency for projects in Jakarta, Hanoi, Afghanistan and Cairo. He is the current President of the Japan Association for Planning and Administration, ex-president of the City Planning Institute of Japan and of the Japan Area Development Center.