U.S.–Japan relations: past, present and future

20 maja 2009 r. w siedzibie Polskiego Instytutu Spraw Międzynarodowych odbył się wykład prof. Hideya Taida zatytułowany „U.S.–Japan relations: past, present and future (a businessman's view)”.

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Mr. Hideya Taida is a member of the Board of Trustees and professor (Global Business Program) at Akita International University (AIU). He is a Chairman & CEO of HM International Inc. and Managing Director of the Ark Hills Club in Tokyo. He is also a member of the Board of ECCO ASIA Pacific Ltd. and Advisor of Iittala (Finland), ECCO (Denmark), Danware (Denmark), and Mori Building Co. Ltd. (Japan), as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Japan Economic Foundation. Mr. Taida is an author of numerous publications, including Eikoku Bijinesu Gaido (Doing Business in the United Kingdom) and Europe’s View of Japan, and a member of the editorial board of the Gaiko Forum monthly.

Mr. Taida was born in Kagawa Prefecture on 10 November 1938. After graduating from the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of International Relations in 1961, he joined Marubeni Corporation and worked in the field of economic research, corporate planning, and corporate strategies for international affairs for 40 years. He was elected a member of the Board of the Corporation in 1993 and Managing Director in 1996, then Senior Vice President and Executive Officer in 1999, and served as a Managing Committee member of the Board of Directors until 2001. During his two stays in London—from 1977 to 1983 and from 1993 to 1997—he worked as Director of Corporate Planning of Marubeni Europe, BV, and then as Managing Director of Marubeni UK, PLC, later Chief Executive for Europe and Africa for Marubeni Corporation.

Mr. Taida was a Chairman of the EU planning committee of the Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) until March 2005 and is still an active member of the Keizai Doyukai (Japan Association of Corporate Executives). He was also Executive Vice President of the Japan Foundation and Executive Director of the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP) until the end of 2006. Currently, he is a National Council Member (Japan) of INSEAD.

He was a member of the UK–JAPAN 21st Century Group from 1997 to 2002 and a member of the United States–Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON) from 2004 to 2006; he is now associated with the Japanese Committee of Honour of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Mr. Taida was awarded the Honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in October 2002.