Professor Hiroko Yamane
Professor of International Economic Law, Economic Law and European Community Law at the Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo
Hiroko Yamane is a Professor of International Economic Law at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo, Japan. The Japanese government created GRIPS in 1997 mainly to train government officials both from abroad (60%) and from Japan, through M.A. or Ph.D. programs in Economics and Public Policy.
She specializes in Trade Law, Competition and Intellectual Property Rights(IPR). Her research includes IPR protection in developing countries (China, India, Thailand, Chile and Mexico), as well as competition, trade and other IPR issues. She has written widely about various aspects of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) , such as TRIPS implementation in developing countries, biotechnology invention, and public health. She also deals with questions relating to the boundaries of IPRs and competition in high-tech industries.
Before joining GRIPS, she taught as part of the Faculty of Law at Ritsumeikan University (Kyoto, Japan) and lectured at various universities including Osaka University, Nice University and the London School of Economics. She graduated from Tokyo University (B.A.) and earned her M. A., M. Phil. at Yale University. Additionally, she obtained her Diplômes d'études approfondies (D.E.A.) in International Public Law and European Community Law from the Faculty of Law at University of Paris II, and her Doctorat d'Etat from Fondation nationale des sciences politiques in Paris.
She serves as a member of the Japanese government's Industrial Structure Council (WTO Committee and IPR Policy Committee) and the Committee on WTO Capacity Building. She is a regular speaker at international conferences on trade and competition, while focusing increasingly on developing countries.