DAISAKE HIRATSUKA is Director of the Regional Integration Studies Group and Director of the APEC Studies Centre at the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE), JETRO. He serves as Visiting Professor of Graduate School of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. He has been Coordinator of research project titled Challenges for East Asia since 2003, and presented many papers and lectures related to regionalization and regionalism in East Asia.