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Commissioner, Small and Medium Enterprise Agency

YAMASHITA Ryuichi

picture of Director-General for Industrial Science and Technology Policy and Environment Bureau Mr. Yuji Iida

Mr. Yamashita Ryuichi has been serving as Commissioner of the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) since July 2024.

After entering the ministry in 1989, he has mainly been working on developing institutions for legislative progress, financial and capital markets and tax systems, etc. in order to construct corporate renewal systems including venture creation, NPL disposal, business revitalization, and business restructuring.

Notably between 1995 and 1996, he worked toward establishing a stock option system and an angel tax system. From 2003 to 2004, he established the Industrial Revitalization Corporation, and subsequently was personally engaged in business revitalization at the organization.

In 2006, he was involved in the formulation of the Asia Gateway Strategy as an Assistant to Special Advisor to the Prime Minister in the first Abe administration.

Between 2007 and 2010, as a Counsellor to the Permanent Delegation of Japan to the OECD, he worked on the rollout of Japan's energy policy through IEA.

In 2011, following the TEPCO accident in Fukushima, he began working on establishing the Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corporation (NDF). He then went on to serve as the Director of the Iron and Steel Division, Director of the Economic and Industrial Policy Division, Director of the Policy Planning and Coordination Division in the Minister's Secretariat, and Director-General of the Natural Resources and Fuel Department. Subsequently, from 2017 to 2020, he was seconded to NDF, and at the same time, served as a director and executive officer at TEPCO, working toward Fukushima's reconstruction through restructuring TEPCO's management.

From 2020 to 2022, as the Director-General of the Industrial Science and Technology Policy and Environment Bureau, and Deputy Commissioner of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, he worked on policies toward carbon neutrality and energy security. 

Most recently, he served as Director-General, Manufacturing Industries Bureau in 2022, and as Director-General, Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau in 2023.

Last updated:2024-07-08