Mr. Young-ji Kang, born in 1947 in Osaka as a second-generation Zainichi Korean, is the president of the East Asia Research Institute, which he founded in 1991. He graduated from Osaka City University with a degree in economics and has been deeply involved in promoting public dialogue in Japan on the peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula. He has served as a lecturer at Waseda, Kanagawa, and Tokyo Keizai Universities, and as a professor at Hokuriku University. He has held numerous public roles, including on the editorial board of the Mindan Newspaper, advisory committee member of the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan, vice president of the Korean Residents Cultural and Arts Association, and overseas adviser to South Korea’s National Unification Advisory Council. Since the 1990s, he has focused on North Korean ideology, politics, and economy, authoring several books and translations.