Participant Biographies

Morimoto Satoshi

Morimoto Satoshi

Former Minister, Ministry of Defense, Japan
Plenary Session 4 - "North Korea’s Nuclear Threat"

Mr. Morimoto Satoshi was the 11th Minister of Defense (2012) who also served as a Special Adviser to the Minister of Defense (2015-2016 and 2017-2018). He is currently an Executive Adviser at Takushoku University where he also was the Chancellor from 2016 to 2021. He also was honored by Takushoku University as an Emeritus Professor in 2022. Before that, he held several positions in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Director of the Consular and Migration Policy Division (1991-1992) and Director of the Security Policy Division in the Bureau of Information Analysis, Research and Planning (1987-1991). He served as Counselor at the Japanese Embassy in Nigeria (1985-1987) and as First Secretary at the Japanese Embassy in the United States (1981-1985). He was a Senior Guest Researcher at the Brookings Institution (1981-1982) and Senior Fellow at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (1980-1981). Before he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he served in the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (1965-1979). Mr. Morimoto graduated from the National Defense Academy of Japan in 1965 and received a master’s degree from the Fletcher School at Tufts University in 1980.