Hikari Ishido is Professor of International Economics, Graduate School of Global and Transdisciplinary Studies, and Director of the APEC Study Center at the Faculty of Law and Economics, Chiba University (Japan). He graduated from the Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Economics at the University of Tokyo (with BA and BSc) and the Department of Economics, the University of London (with MSc and PhD). He formerly served as Programme Officer at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and as Research Fellow at the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE) within Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO). In the context of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), he often represents the country of Japan as an expert on formulating the Asia Pacific region’s trade and investment regime. He has given lectures at various international organizations including the United Nations, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) and the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC). He has published various journal articles as well as book chapters centering on the theory and empirics of international trade and investment. He serves as Secretariat of the research network among Japanese scholars, APEC Study Center Japan (ASCJ) (http://ascj.web.fc2.com/).