President, Science Council of Japan
Member, IAC Board
Professor Hirowatari is President of the Science Council of Japan (SCJ). He is a graduate of the Faculty of Law at Kyoto University. He had served as a professor of the Institute of Social Science at The University of Tokyo since 1991 until his retirement in 2009. During the meantime, he held some major posts at The University of Tokyo, such as Director of the Institute of Social Science in 1998, Special Assistant to the President in 2001, and Executive Vice President in 2002. Since 2009, he has been Emeritus Professor at The University of Tokyo and serving as a professor of the School of Law at Senshu University.
Professor Hirowatari first joined SCJ in 2000 as a Council Member. He had chaired the Section II (for Law and Political science) during 2003 to 2005. Through the structural change of the academy in 2005, he was appointed as the Chairperson of Section I (for Humanities and Social Sciences) for the term between 2006 and 2010. After he served as Vice President (for Contacts with Government) in 2011, he was elected to assume the Presidency. He is the first President of SCJ with the academic background of social sciences in more than 60 years of its history.