Takehara Masaya
Takehara Masaya is a student in the 2025-26 cohort of UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)'s Master of Public Administration (MPA).
Masaya is a Japanese civil servant with seven years’ experience at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).
Since joining METI in 2017, he has worked across innovation and digital policy: advancing the digital transformation of manufacturing, promoting startup and digital-driven economic cooperation with Asia, and shaping policies for new industry co-creation. After a secondment to the Cabinet Office—where he worked on legislation and planning for nuclear emergency preparedness—he returned to METI to focus on international digital affairs, contributing to negotiations at the G7 and G20 Digital Ministers’ Meetings and helping launch the Japan–EU and Japan–UK Digital Partnerships. He earned a Master of Public Policy (2024–2025) from the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government.
His interests center on mission-oriented industrial and innovation policy, particularly developing frameworks for their implementation, as well as the governance of the global economy.
Nationality: Japan
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