1. Home
  2. About METI
  3. METI Senior Officials Profiles
  4. Director-General, Manufacturing Industries Bureau

Director-General, Manufacturing Industries Bureau

IBUKI Hideaki

picture of ibuki hideakiMr. Ibuki Hideaki has been serving as the senior role of Director-General, Manufacturing Industries Bureau at METI since July 2023. He assumed the position after serving in a wide variety of roles during a career at METI that started in 1991.

At METI, Mr. Ibuki has held positions of responsibility in key policy areas including macroeconomics, security trade control, investment regulation and patents. His responsibilities have also covered many key business sectors including automobiles, industrial machinery, media, fashion and design. Specifically, he planned, designed, and implemented policies aimed at enhancing Japan’s competitiveness in these fields.

Other key roles held by Mr. Ibuki at METI include coordinating economic policies across the Government of Japan at the Cabinet Office, regional economic policy at the Niigata Prefectural Government and the Kinki Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry. He also supported candidacy and operational work for the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Specific policy initiatives that Mr. Ibuki was involved with included designing and implementing policies to drive Japanese industrial competitiveness through tax incentives such as automobile-related tax systems; international taxation, triangular mergers and transfer pricing taxation. He also held responsibilities for the reform of Japan’s intellectual property laws through the Design Act, and the reform of protocols related to the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act.

Additionally, Mr. Ibuki contributed to the Cool Japan initiative to promote Japanese popular culture globally, government programs to promote electrification and autonomous driving as well as close involvement in trade agreements, most notably negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Between 2008 and 2011, Mr. Ibuki was posted to the Embassy of Japan in the United Kingdom where he was in charge of efforts to encourage the U.K. government to cooperate with Japan in key METI policy areas including trade, energy and the environment.

Mr. Ibuki graduated from the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Economics. He also earned a master’s degree (MBA in marketing) from the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University.
He was born in London on July 2, 1967, and raised in Tokyo.

Last updated:2023-08-29