Nobuo Tanaka

Nobuo Tanaka   (academic, bureaucrat)
Born	1950-03-03
Nationality	Japanese
Alma mater	University of Tokyo, Case Western Reserve University
Member of	Trilateral Commission
Party	Liberal Democratic Party
Executive Director of the International Energy Agency  Executive Director of the International Energy Agency In office 1 September 2007 - 1 September 2011

Nobuo Tanaka attended one Bilderberg as International Energy Agency Executive Director.

Biograph

He was born on 3 March 1950 in Japan. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in the field of economics in 1972, and has an MBA from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (1979). In 1973 he began his career with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan (METI). In 1989 he joined the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as the Deputy-Director for Science, Technology and Industry, and served in 1991–1995 as the Director for Science, Technology and Industry.

In 1995 he returned to METI where he served as Director for Industrial Finance Division and as Director for Policy Planning and Coordination Division. In 1998–2000 he was posted at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C., as Minister for Energy, Trade and Industry. After returning to Japan in 2000 he took a post of the Executive Vice President for the Research Institute of Economy Trade and Industry, and in 2002–2004 the post of the Director-General for the Multilateral Trade System Department of METI.

From 16 August 2004 to 31 August 2007 Nobuo Tanaka was the Director for Science, Technology and Industry at the OECD, and head of the internal OECD Steering Group for the Centre for Entrepreneurship. On 1 September 2007 he succeeded Claude Mandil as the Executive Director of the IEA. On 1 September 2011, he was succeeded in this role by the Former Minister of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands, Maria van der Hoeven.

He is now Global Associate for Energy Security and Sustainability at the Institute for Energy Economics, Japan ("Eneken") in Tokyo. He is also a Professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Tokyo. He is also a fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University in New York where he has given lectures on subjects like Post Fukushima energy policy, the Shale revolution and energy security, China energy and sustainability, and the Integral Fast Reactor during frequent weekly visits to the Columbia Morningside campus each academic semester.

He is a vocal advocate for advanced nuclear energy for Japan and international cooperation between Japan and the Republic of Korea to build the first commercial Integral Fast Reactor in the world. On May 28, 2014 he hosted the Global Leader Program for Social Design and Management (GSDM) 15th Platform Seminar, The 79th Public Policy Seminar at the University of Tokyo titled "Peaceful and Safer Use of Nuclear Power: Role of Integral Fast Reactor". His research paper on the role of the Integral Fast Reactor was scheduled to be presented in the Spring of 2015 in New York.

Bilderberg

Tanaka attended the 2009 Bilderberg meeting.

In 2008 Tanaka said, “we can no longer expect low energy prices” and that addressing climate change requires a “paradigm shift” in energy production. He said we are living through the third oil shock: a period characterized by "tight markets" and increasingly volatile oil prices. Strong growth in demand for oil, upstream bottlenecks, a lack of spare capacity and a changing political scene all compound the situation. In the long-term, high prices may lead not only to more efficient uses of energy, but outright “demand destruction” as societies rationalize and individuals change their lifestyles. “Whole electric power sectors must be de-carbonised.”

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/2009	14 May 2009	17 May 2009	Greece Vouliagmeni	The 57th Bilderberg
Halifax International Security Forum/2012	21 November 2012	23 November 2012	Canada Halifax Nova Scotia	Spooky conference in Canada discussing the "New Normal" and Western nations' "special burden".
WEF/Annual Meeting/2008	23 January 2008	27 January 2008	World Economic Forum Switzerland	At the 2008 summit, Klaus Schwab called for a coordinated approach, where different 'stakeholders' collaborate across geographical, industrial, political and cultural boundaries."
WEF/Annual Meeting/2009	23 January 2009	27 January 2009	World Economic Forum Switzerland	Chairman Klaus Schwab outlined five objectives driving the Forum’s efforts to shape the global agenda, including letting the banks that caused the 2008 economic crisis keep writing the rules, the climate change agenda, over-national government structures, taking control over businesses with the stakeholder agenda, and a "new charter for the global economic order".
WEF/Annual Meeting/2011	26 January 2011	30 January 2011	World Economic Forum Switzerland	2229 guests in Davos, with the theme: "Shared Norms for the New Reality".

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