The Asia Foundation

Expertise: Trafficking in persons; human rights and gender issues; international relations; and international development.

Keiko Tamai left The Asia Foundation in February, 2010.

Keiko Tamai is the director of programs in The Asia Foundation's Japan office. She joined the Foundation in 2002, specialized in anti-trafficking in persons (TIP). Since she began at the Foundation, she has been leading counter-TIP activities through promoting collaboration among various stakeholders in the field. The Japan Network Against Trafficking in Persons (JNATIP), a network of Japanese anti-TIP NGOs, was established through one of the Foundation's programs.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Ms. Tamai worked as a journalist; beginning with the Kanagawa Shimbun newspaper, she covered such topics as migrant workers and international relations. She was awarded the Ikusenkai Fellowship and spent a year studying in the United States at the Graduate School of Journalism, Iowa State University, where she wrote numerous articles focused on Native American reservations in South Dakota.

After completion of her study in the U.S., Ms. Tamai worked as a freelance journalist in the Philippines for three years, reporting for the Japanese media, before returning to Tokyo. Immediately prior to joining the Foundation, she worked for The New York Times Tokyo Bureau.

Education: B.A. from Tsukuba University; M.S. in bioscience and agriculture from Nagoya University.