Experts

Lieutenant General, Japan Air Self-Defense Force (Ret.)
General Oue was born in 1959 in Nara Prefecture, Japan. He entered the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) as a graduate of the National Defense Academy in 1982. Throughout his military career, he had been involved with policy development and program promotion, as well as budget request regarding BMD, F-35 introduction, Joint Staff reorganization and more.
 
Upon promotion to Lieutenant General he assumed the position of Commandant of the Air Staff College. Afterwards, he served as a Commander of the Northern Air Defense Command, responsible for coping with missile launches from North Korea, responding to Russian air activities to defend the territorial aerospace of Japan, and maintaining readiness to provide forces with other defense sectors’ operations. He retired in August 2017 as a Commander of Air Materiel Command, responsible for logistic operations of all Air Self Defense Force activities.
 
Lieutenant General OUE earned his Master of Public Administration from J. F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in 1997, and Master of National Security Strategy from the National War College, National Defense University of the U.S.A. in 2002. Between July 2019 and June 2021, he served at the Harvard Asia Center as a Senior Fellow.
 
Lieutenant General Oue has been a senior fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation since September 2024. He also serves as a special policy advisor to the Minister of Defense since December 2023, while assuming a consultant senior fellow, Asia Pacific Initiative, a member of policy proposal committee, Japan Forum for Strategic Studies and a director, Japan Security Research Association.