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Biography |
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Koji Omi was born in 1932, in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. After graduation from Hitotsubashi University (Commerce), he joined the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) in 1956.
On assignment abroad with MITI, he served as Consul at the Japanese Consulate in New York from 1970 to 1974. Koji Omi became a reputable person in New York for his proactive role in acquiring up-to-date overseas energy related information during the first oil shock in 1973.
Returning to Japan, he successively served as Director of the South Asia & Eastern Europe Division, Trade Policy Bureau; as Director of the Small Enterprise Policy Division, Small & Medium Enterprise Agency (S & MEA); as Director of the Administrative Division, the Science and Technology Agency; and as Director-General of the Guidance Department, S & MEA.
In 1982, Koji Omi resigned from MITI to run in the House of Representatives (lower house) elections. First elected in 1983, he has served the House for a total of 26 years, until August 2009. He has occupied the posts of Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Finance; Director-General of the Commerce & Industry Policy Bureau, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP); Director-General of the Science & Technology Policy Bureau, LDP; Chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance; Director-General of the Election Bureau, LDP; and Acting Secretary-General, LDP; three times as Cabinet Member: Minister of Finance (Sept. 2006 – Aug. 2007); Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy, and for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs (2001-2002); Minister of State for Economic Planning (1997-1998).
Koji Omi is considered a key political figure and one of the most influential in the field of science and technology in Japan. One of his achievements included the central role he played in enacting the Fundamental Law of Science and Technology in 1995. This law contributed greatly toward making Japan a science and technology-oriented nation. As Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs, and for Science and Technology, he advocated for and was very influential in promoting the founding of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, regarded as an international and interdisciplinary graduate university with a “best-in-the world” concept in mind. He also founded the Science and Technology in Society (STS) forum with the aim of building a worldwide network among scientists, policymakers and business people. The STS forum has been successfully held annually in Kyoto, Japan since 2004, to discuss the “lights and shadows” of science and technology for the sake of humankind.
Moreover, Koji Omi is Chairman of Tempu Society, a philosophical organization that actively carries out “The Way of Mind and Body Unification” which is the teaching of the late founder, Nakamura Tempu, who overcame tuberculosis by practicing yoga in India.
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