Weston S. Konishi

Weston S. Konishi is currently an adjunct fellow at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation in Washington, DC, where he served as director of programs from 2004 to 2007. In that capacity, he managed the Foundation’s exchanges, policy dialogues and research projects. Mr. Konishi also oversaw the Foundation’s Corporate Affiliates Program, and he was instrumental in the establishment of the Asian Opinion Poll Database in 2005. Mr. Konishi writes a monthly column on U.S.-Asia relations for The Daily Yomiuri, an English edition of Japan’s largest circulated daily newspaper. He has been interviewed by the Associated Press, Voice of America, Yonhap News, Kyodo News, and Yomiuri America, and his articles have been widely circulated throughout Asia and the United States. In the fall of 2006, he taught an undergraduate course on U.S.-Japan relations at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Mr. Konishi is a member of the United States Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific and he has been a participant in numerous conferences and young leaders forums. He is the recipient of the Nakasone Scholarship for the Aspen Institute’s upcoming Socrates Society meeting in July 2007. Mr. Konishi joined the Mansfield Foundation in 1999, after helping with the election campaign of Rep. Tom Udall in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Prior to that, Mr. Konishi lived in Japan for seven years. He received both his BA and MA from the International Christian University in Mitaka, Tokyo, where he was awarded a Monbusho (Ministry of Education) Scholarship. Mr. Konishi was born and raised in New York City.