Mr. Masafumi Shukuri is the Chairman of the International High-speed Rail Association (IHRA), appointed in April 2014. His experience in the field of transportation is over 40 years and prior to taking this appointment, he held the position of the Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) of Japan from 2008 to 2012.
Mr. Shukuri entered the service of the Ministry of Transport (presently MLIT) in 1974 and has held many important positions since then. Before the Vice-Minister appointment, he had been working as the Private Secretary to the Minister of Transport, as the Counsellor of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, as the Director-General of the Road Transport Bureau, as the Director-General of the Policy Bureau, and as the Deputy Vice-Minister of the Minister’s Secretariat of MLIT.
Presently, he is the Visiting Professor of the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo. Since June 2018, Mr. Shukuri has served as the Chairman of the Japan Transport and Tourism Research Institute (JTTRI), and the Chairman of the Japan Maritime Center since 2021.
Mr. Shukuri’s career also include a diplomatic posting as a first secretary at the Embassy of Japan in Indonesia from 1984 to 1987. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Tokyo in 1974.
