Professor Tran Van Tho is a highly influential Vietnamese economist in the fields of development economics and international economics. Born in 1949 in Quang Nam, he traveled to Japan on a government scholarship and earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Hitotsubashi University. Throughout a career spanning over half a century of research and teaching in Japan, he served as a Professor of Economics and later as a Professor Emeritus at Waseda University.
Beyond his academic achievements, Professor Tran Van Tho is one of the few foreign nationals invited to serve on the Council of Economic Advisers to successive Japanese Prime Ministers; he has also served on economic advisory bodies for the Vietnamese government. His research focuses on industrialization, East Asian economic development, and Vietnam’s development trajectory amidst international integration.
In recognition of his significant contributions to policy research and Vietnam-Japan relations, he has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, from the Japanese government in 2018. Professor Tran Van Tho is regarded as a vital link in academia and policy between the two nations and serves as an inspiration to generations of Vietnamese researchers and intellectuals.
