Saburo Okita

Saburo Okita (大来 佐武郎 Ōkita Saburō) (November 3, 1914, Dalian, Kwantung Leased Territory – February 9, 1993, Tokyo, Japan) was a Japanese economist and government official. Okita graduated from Tokyo Imperial University. In 1937 he worked as an engineer with the Ministry of Posts. Later on he would hold numerous government positions, including chief of research for the Economic Stabilization Board in 1947, chief of the economic cooperation unit for the Economic Planning Agency in 1953 and later director general of their planning bureau in 1957, and then in 1963 the director general of the EPA development bureau. In each of these positions he played an important role under the economic plan of then prime minister Ikeda Hayato, which greatly helped Japan's postwar economy. In 1964 Okita became the president of the Japan Economic Research Centre, and later served as its chairman from 1973 to 1979. From 1979 to 1980 he served as the minister of foreign affairs, and continued to be one of Japan's foremost academic spokesmen.^[1] He subsequently held numerous other positions including President Of International University of Japan and as an advisor to the ministry of foreign affairs in 1982, and in 1989 as chairman of the Institute for Domestic and Policy Studies in Tokyo.

He received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1971 for International Understanding. In 1985 he became a Companion of the Order of Australia, and in 1986 was made a Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.^[2]

Works

• The Future of Japan's Economy (1960)
• Economic Planning (1962)
• Future Vision for the Japanese Economy (1968)
• Japan and the World Economy (1975)
• Developing Economics and Japan: Lessons in Growth (1980)
• Japan's Challenging Years: Reflections on My Lifetime (1983)

Preceded by Sunao Sonoda

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan 1979–1980

Succeeded by Masayoshi Ito

Notes

1. ^ "Okita Saburo." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006.
2. ^ Saburo Okita, Senior Adviser to the Rector (1979). (URL accessed July 17, 2006).

Reference

Fengbo Zhang: Cherishing the memory of Saburo Okita

Persondata
Name	Okita, Saburo
Alternative names	Saburō, Ōkita; 大来 佐武郎
Short description	Japanese economist
Date of birth	November 3, 1914
Place of birth	Dalian, Kwantung Leased Territory
Date of death	February 9, 1993
Place of death	Tokyo, Japan