Vice-Minister for Land, Infrastructure and Hokkaido Development Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism

Kisaburo Ishii is Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT). He is in charge of policies on land, infrastructure and Hokkaido development. After graduating from Tokyo University, Law Department, in 1979, he joined the Ministry of Construction (now restructured as MLIT).

He has a rich experience in contributing to important issues of the policy agenda as he has been serving as Director for Housing Policy, Director for Urban Planning, Director for Urban Development, Executive Officer in the Urban Renaissance Agency and as Councillor for TPP in the Cabinet Secretariat.

Achievements

His major achievements are the development of the securitization framework for housing loans and the establishment of the landscape law. He was Director-General of the City Bureau before taking his current office in 2013. During his period as Director-General of the City Bureau, his leadership led the team to the success of amending the special law for urban renaissance to encourage compact city development.

He also dedicated himself to the reconstruction of Tohoku Region in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake, in particular, by facilitating the policy framework for encouraging collective relocation of those living in devastated areas. Mr. Ishii studied at Oxford University in the UK, and served as a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy, Tokyo University 2007-2009.