Dr. Kazutomo Abe is a Professor of Tokyo Denki University in Japan. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Hawaii. He served as a researcher/economist in the Economic Planning Agency and other government institutions in Japan for over 20 years, starting in 1980. He was an Economist in the Asian Development Bank from 1993 to 1996, and an Assistant to the Chair of the APEC Economic Committee in 1999. He was an Advisor in the Research Group of the World Bank in 2007/2008 on sabbatical leave. He joined the formal trilateral joint research project on the Free Trade Agreement among China, Japan, and Korea. His research interest includes international trade and development, econometric models, and current macroeconomic and financial issues in East Asia.