Yasu Taniwaki is Economic Counselor and Telecommunications Attache, Embassy of Japan in Washington DC. He joined the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications) in 1984. After serving in several positions, including ICCP Division of the OECD (1987-1989), he served as Deputy-Director of the Telecommunications Policy Division (1993-1997), where he dealt with several telecommunications policies such as the reorganization of NTT, and a variety of deregulation programs of the Telecommunications Business Law (TBL). After serving as Secretary to the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications (2000-2001), he served as Director for Telecommunications Policy, where he drafted a report on new Japanese telecom competitive schemes compiled by the Telecommunications Council in August 2002 and a report on layered competition models in the IP age, compiled by the Study Group on New business Models in June 2002. He also contributed to setting up the Telecommunications Dispute Settlement Commission and Japanese Universal Service Fund, as well as to introduce the concept of ‘dominant regulations’ through revision of the TBL in 2001. He has served in his capacity since June 2002.
yasuhikotaniwaki@aol.com.