K.V. Kesavan is a Distinguished Fellow at Observer Research Foundation. He is one of the leading Indian scholars in the field of Japanese Studies and obtained his doctoral degree from the Indian School of International Studies, New Delhi. He was on the faculty of the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, for well over thirty years. In 2011, His Majesty the Emperor of Japan conferred on him the Order of the Rising Sun in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the advancement of Japanese Studies and the promotion of the understanding of Japan in India.

He is the author of several books on Japan. He has published numerous research papers in Indian and foreign academic journals on Japan’s foreign policy and domestic politics. He has been a recipient of Japan Foundation Fellowship (1973-74; 1988-89 ), Senior Fulbright Fellowship (1980-81; 1988), Shastri Indo-Canadian Fellowship (1993-94), etc. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Columbia University, New York; the University of California, Berkeley; the Australian National University, Canberra; Tokyo University; and so on. During 2003-2006, he was a Visiting Professor at the Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan; Kobe Gakuin University, Kobe, Japan; and the Ocean Policy Research Foundation, Tokyo. In 2001, the Japanese Government conferred on him Japanese Foreign Minister’s Commendation Award for his contribution to closer understanding between India and Japan. Professor Kesavan has lived in Japan for a very long time and is fluent in the Japanese language.