Understanding Thai Politics

After graduating from the Department of Educational Psychology in the Faculty of Education at the University of Tokyo in March 1990, Nobuyuki Konishi joined NEC Corporation. He worked for 5 years in the Personnel Department of NEC.
Then he joined the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), where he worked for 27 years on international cooperation projects in developing countries over the world. He was involved in formulation and implementation of development cooperation projects in Southeast Asia in the fields of higher education and vocational training.
He has also been involved in private sector finance and investment projects for social business in developing countries.
Since April 2022, he has been working for the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF), where he is engaged in management of international cooperation and exchange projects with the Asian region, particularly South and Southeast Asia.

Maho Okumura graduated in 2021 from the Social Policy and Development Programme at the Faculty of Social Administration, Thammasat University in Thailand. She began her career at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, working in the Human Resources Division of the General Affairs Department. In 2024, she transitioned to the Strategic Dialogue and Exchange Program, where she now serves as the lead for Thailand-related initiatives. Her work focuses on facilitating political dialogue between Southeast Asia and Japan, with a particular emphasis on strengthening regional understanding and cooperation.

Dr. Prajak Kongkirati is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University. He has previously served as Associate Dean for Research and Academic Services, Head of the Government Department, and Chair of the Southeast Asian Studies Center at the East Asian Institute, Thammasat University.
In 2025–2026, he is a Visiting Fellow at Osaka Metropolitan University and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University.
He serves on the editorial boards of Asian Democracy Review, Thammasat Review of Economic and Social Policy, Thammasat Review, and New Mandala (the Australian National University). He serves on the executive committees of several research foundations in Thailand, including the Foundation for the Promotion of Social Sciences and Humanities Textbook Project, the Foundation for Democracy and Development Studies, and the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI).
Dr. Prajak’s research and publications focus on Thai politics, political conflict and violence, party and electoral dynamics, and democratization. His recent works include Thailand: Contestation, Polarization, and Democratic Regression (Cambridge University Press, 2024); “Power without the Polls: Thai-Style Authoritarian Fragility amid the Defeat of Military-Backed Parties” (Contemporary Southeast Asia 45, no. 3, 2023: 406–13); “From Illiberal Democracy to Military Authoritarianism: Intra-Elite Struggle and Mass-Based Conflict in Deeply Polarized Thailand,” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (2019), and When We Vote: Dynamics of Electoral Politics and Democracy in Southeast Asia (Matichon, 2019), a book recognized with an award from the National Research Council of Thailand.

Joined Nikkei in 1992. After covering industries such as automobiles, telecommunications, construction/real estate, energy, trading companies and electronics, he was stationed in Thailand for a total of eight years; 2010-15 as Bangkok bureau chief and 2019-22 March as Editor-in-Chief of Editorial Headquarters for Asia. He has been a member of Nikkei's editorial board since 2020 and is currently serving as a senior editorial writer. His book 'Thailand: Escape from Confusion' won the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Special Award in 2016.

Fumio Nagai got a bachelor’s degree from Kyoto University in 1990. He pursued Thai political history at Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University. After working at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University as research associate, currently he is a Professor at Graduate School of Law, Osaka Metropolitan University. His research interest covers Thai politics, local governance in Southeast Asia, international relations in Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asia. His major publication includes Changing Local Government and Governance in Southeast Asia (co-editor), JETRO-IDE, 2012 [in Japanese], Local Government in Thailand (co-editor), IDE-JETRO, 2008, Quantitative Analysis of Local Governance in Southeast Asia: Local Elite Surveys in Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia (co-editor), Koyo Shobo, Kyoto, 2019 [in Japanese], Approach to Southeast Asian Politics (co-editor), Koyo Shobo, Kyoto, 2025 [in Japanese] etc.

Tsuruyo Funatsu joined the Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization (IDE-JETRO) in 1991 and currently serves as Director of the Environment and Natural Resource Studies Group. She completed coursework in the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, University of Tokyo. Her research specializes in Thai area studies, with a focus on bureaucratic politics and elite formation through education, as well as the sociology of Southeast Asia, particularly local governance and environmental policy. Her major publications include the article “Chinese Entrepreneurs and Bureaucrats in Thailand’s Constitutional Revolution: An Analysis of the Founding Members of the Siam Chamber of Commerce” (Asian Economy, 2017), Origins and Evolution of Environmental Policies: State, Time and Regional Experiences (co-authored, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021), and the co-edited volume Rescaling the State in Southeast Asia: Dialogues between Urban and Area Studies (Minerva Shobo, 2024).