Kotaro Tamura is Adjunct Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He is also Visiting Professor at Hitotsubashi University Business School (ICS) and Innovation Fellow at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. His teaching and research focus on geopolitics, geoeconomics, technological innovation, and public policy, with particular emphasis on Asia.

Over the past decade, Professor Tamura has designed and directed executive education programmes for senior business leaders and policymakers from Japan, Southeast Asia, and the United States. At the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, he founded and continues to direct Insights into Regional Politics, Economics and Culture for Japanese Business Leaders and Policy Makers, one of the school’s longest-running executive programmes, which has graduated more than 500 senior executives and public officials across 27 cohorts. He has also developed executive programmes on climate adaptation, international disaster management, China market entry, and geopolitical strategy.

Professor Tamura served as a Member of the House of Councillors of Japan from 2002 to 2010 and was Parliamentary Secretary in the Cabinet Office during the first administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with responsibility for economic and fiscal policy, decentralisation, and government reform. He also chaired the Committee on Land, Transport, Infrastructure and Tourism in the House of Councillors.

Before entering politics, he worked in investment banking at Yamaichi Securities and later served as Editor-in-Chief of The Nihonkai Shimbun and Representative Director and President of Osaka Nichinichi Shimbun. Alongside his academic work, he is an active global investor, investing in venture capital funds and technology companies across Silicon Valley, Israel, Southeast Asia, India, and Africa.

Professor Tamura has held research and fellowship appointments at Harvard University, the RAND Corporation, Yale University, and the Milken Institute. He was also the first Japanese politician to be featured as the leading character in a Harvard Business School case study. He is the author of more than ten books on leadership, politics, and public affairs, with cumulative sales exceeding 1.2 million copies. His bestseller, Atama ni Kite mo Aho to wa Tatakauna! ("Don't Fight With Fools Even When You're Angry"), has sold more than 910,000 copies, was adapted into both a manga and a prime-time television drama, and has been translated into Chinese, Korean, and Thai. Professor Tamura is also a frequent commentator on international affairs and geopolitical risk for CNBC, CNA, and major Japanese broadcast networks.