Weston S. Konishi is a senior fellow at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation. From 2018 to 2020, he was the Director of Partnerships and Development at the U.S.-Japan Council. Prior to that, he was the inaugural William Reinsch Visiting Lectureship of East Asian Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. Previously, he served as the chief operating officer of Peace Winds America. From 2010 to 2013, he was director of Asia-Pacific studies at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis (IFPA), where he specialized in Japan and Asia policy issues.
In 2009, he served as an analyst in Asian affairs at the Congressional Research Service (CRS), authoring Japan’s Historic 2009 Elections: Implications for U.S. Interests, the first report to Congress focusing on the Democratic Party of Japan. He was also principal author of the CRS report South Korea: Its Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy Outlook. From 2007 to 2008, Weston was a Council on Foreign Relations/Hitachi International Affairs fellow in Japan, conducting research on Japanese foreign and defense policies at the Tokyo-based Institute for International Policy Studies (IIPS) and the National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS). From 2004 to 2007, Weston served as director of programs at the Mansfield Foundation, where he oversaw the Foundation’s exchanges, policy dialogues, research projects, and development activities. He co-authored, with Steve Clemons, the Japan chapter in Powers and Principles: International Leadership in a Shrinking World (Lexington Books) and is a contributing author in the edited volume, Strategic Yet Strained: U.S. Force Realignment in Japan and Its Effects on Okinawa (Stimson Center, 2008). From 2000 to 2008, Weston was a monthly contributing columnist on regional affairs for The Daily Yomiuri.
He is a member of the United States Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (USCSCAP), the U.S.-Japan Council (USJC) and a participant in numerous leadership forums, including the Aspen Institute’s Socrates Society and the U.S.-Japan Network for the Future. Weston received his BA and MA from the International Christian University in Mitaka, Tokyo, where he was awarded a Monbusho (Ministry of Education) Scholarship.