Maeda Masako

Professor at the Hirao School of Management, Kōnan University. After graduating from Waseda University, continued her studies at the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in the United States. She acquired her PhD in commerce at Keiō University. Has been a researcher specializing in the employment of women and childcare policies at the Life Design Research Institute (now the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute), deputy mayor of Yokohama in charge of medicine, welfare, and education, and chairperson of the Yokohama Association for International Communications and Exchanges. Took her current position at Kōnan University in 2010. Major writings include Daisotsu mugyō josei no yūutsu (The Despondency of the Unemployed Woman Graduate), Hoikuen mondai (The Child Daycare Dilemma), and Mushi kōreika, shusseisū zero no kyōfu (The Childless Aging Society: Fears of a Zero Birthrate).