Naoko Funatsu joined the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) in 2016 as a Research Fellow for American politics, U.S. foreign relations, and U.S.-Japan relations. While working at JIIA, she also served as a visiting associate professor at Kyushu University and a part-time lecturer at Tokyo Denki University.
Her professional experiences include careers at the Washington, DC office of the East-West Center (EWC), a non-profit research and education organization funded by the U.S. Congress to improve U.S.-Asia relations, and as a graduate intern at the Hudson Institute, a non-partisan policy research organization, both in the United States. In these capacities, she conducted research and analysis of U.S.-Japan relations as well as the institutions’ program coordination and administrative duties. She also gained extensive professional experiences including research on American politics and economy in Tokyo at the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), the Japanese governmental trade and investment promotion agency, before going to the U.S. to pursue her graduate degree.
She earned her Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) from Georgetown University with an additional certificate in Asia Studies and her BA in Foreign Studies from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
She is a member of the Japanese Association for American Studies.