Shigeharu Kato is Deputy Director-General, Higher Education Bureau, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. He earned his Master of Public Policy at J. F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in 1986, and his Bachelor of Engineering at the University of Tokyo in 1980.

Joining the Science and Technology Agency in 1980, Mr. Kato worked mainly in the field of science and technology policy, nuclear energy development and nuclear safety regulation. He was stationed in the Permanent Delegation of Japan to the OECD in early 90’s as the science councilor.

He was appointed to his present position in July 2009. Since then he has fully engaged himself in internationalizing Japanese universities and promoting exchange and cooperation among universities in East Asian countries.

Specifically, he has been working on the CAMPUS Asia program, which was proposed at the Japan – China – Korea trilateral summit by then Prime Minister Kunio Hatoyama. The three countries have agreed to launch pilot projects this year. He is also organizing an International Symposium on exchange among universities in East Asia with quality assurance to be held in 17-18 March in Tokyo.

His present interest is how to best prepare Japanese youth so that they can collaborate with their colleagues in the globalized world.