JCIC Leadership

Kenji Uesugi works for PwC Consulting LLC. He has extensive knowledge in consulting and has performed a broad variety of services in the field of cybersecurity to include cyber exercise, incident response advisory and M&A strategy. He also has played a vital role in the planning of international cybersecurity conferences.

Prior to joining PwC, he has more than 15 years of experience in the domestic market, working with a telecommunication company and a U.S. based cybersecurity company. He served as a product manager of cybersecurity service in these companies.

His main research theme is global cybersecurity regulations, public-private partnerships and security strategy.

CISSP ; Certified Information Systems Security Professional

Mr. Bonji Ohara graduated from the National Defense Academy of Japan in 1985 and completed a master’s program and got the Master’s Degree of Area Study at the University of Tsukuba in 1998.

He is a security expert studying Contemporary Chinese Politics, Chinese Security/Defense Policy, US-China relations, Japan-US Alliance, Japanese Security Policy.

He became the leading pilot of the 101st flight division, Maritime Self-Defense Force, in 1998. He enrolled in the General Course of the National Institute for Defense Studies in 2001. Mr. Ohara was stationed in China between 2003 and 2006 as a Naval Attaché and became a chief of the intelligence section, Maritime Staff Office in Ministry of Defense, in 2006; Executive Officer of the 21st air squadron, MSDF, in 2008; and Commanding Officer of the squadron the following year. Mr. Ohara joined NIDS as a research fellow in 2010, worked for IHS Jane’s from 2011 as an analyst and business development manager, and for the Tokyo Foundation as a Director of Research before assuming the position of Senior Fellow in the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in June 2017. Mr. Ohara also got a title of Senior Researcher in KEIO Research Institute at SFC in May 2020, assume a post of Policy Adviser for Japan Coast Guard in August 2022.

He concurrently serves as Senior Fellow at The Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Senior Researcher at Keio Research Institute at SFC, and Policy Adviser for Japan Coast Guard.

Over the past 20 years, Mr. Kobayashi has been involved in information security issues from a wide range of angles, from national policy planning to the establishment of internal systems for an individual company. In 1979, he joined the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), and worked in various departments focusing on informatization policy and technology development policy.In 1999, he served as the director of the Security Center, which had just been established within the IPA, and in 2005 he became the first counselor of the newly established National Information Security Center of the Cabinet Secretariat (NISC), leaving a remarkable mark in the early days of Japan's information security policy. After leaving government service in 2007, he continued to be involved in information security by serving as the general manager of the ISMS conformity assessment system at the JIPDEC, and most recently by providing direct guidance on raising the security level of companies.

Sawada joined JCIC as a Visiting Fellow. He concurrently works for BIPROGY Inc. (changed its corporate name from Nihon Unisys, Ltd. on April 1, 2022). After joining Nihon Unisys in 1985, he has involved in various fields such as area marketing, web marketing, and corporate branding including corporate magazine editing or corporate events planning. He also has abundant experience in government relations at corporate planning division. From 2009, he has been assigned to managerial tasks related to risk control such as risk management, business continuity management, information security management, CSIRT operation, and security export control. At BIPROGY, Sawada is currently in charge of designing, formulating, and promoting risk management strategy and cybersecurity strategy for a whole group. His main interested theme is the role of risk manager in dealing with risk management and cybersecurity. He is a Certified Fraud Examiner and Disaster Prevention Specialist (Bosai-shi).

Ayuko Hayashi joined JCIC after experiencing at a SIer, a think-tank, PwC Consulting and so forth. She has diverse areas of work experiences such as a security writer, forensic investigations as well as leading privacy assessments. Currently located in an APAC country.

Areas of interests are the geopolitics of cyberspace and data protection in the era of AI.

Takuya Hida works for Hitachi Systems, Ltd. He has experience in security incident response services, such as investigation of malware infections and information leakage, and the collection and analysis of vulnerability information and threat information.

He has engaged in the promotion of cyber-crime countermeasures and public-private partnerships when he was seconded to government offices.

Areas of interest are cyber-intelligence and cyber-crime.

i-University (iU) , Professor

Okayama University of Science, Faculty of Informatics, Guest Professor

Senshu University, Faculty of Network Information, Part-time lecturer

Information-technology Promotion Agency, Registered Information Security Specialist, Supervising committee, Committee member

Japan Network Security Association, Education committee, Director

Hirayama experienced a lot of system design and system construction projects in a large-scale distributed system centering on UNIX, and now he works as a security consultant in the consulting firm. Meanwhile, he also conducts activities related to industry, government and academia collaboration, including lectures at committee members and universities on security at multiple ministries and agencies.

In 2013, Hirayama was awarded Information Security Leadership Achievement (ISLA) Asian Award from (ISC)².

Contributing as a Visiting Fellow. He has worked as a Cloud Security Specialist at a global tech company and has worked in IT companies, think tanks and consulting firms in the past.

He has expertise in areas such as cybersecurity strategy, threat intelligence, digital architecture, and advanced technology.

At JCIC, he is engaged in research on cybersecurity policy and technology trends, and DX with Security.

CISSP, GCTI, RISS, etc.

As a security consultant, he identifies and analyzes issues for general corporate resources, and provides strategic planning and execution support for measures from the viewpoint of security. Through security audits, he also contributes to improvements of the security level of client companies by providing security solutions, trainings and lectures.

He started his career in the design and implementation of core systems as a UNIX engineer. He has an abundant experience in system integration especially in the field of government / public sector and the financial industry.

-Qualification-

CISSP ; (ISC)2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional

ISMS ; JRCA JISQ27001 assistant judge

PMP ; PMI Project Management Professional