Team

In addition to his role as Director of the DWIH Tokyo, Axel Karpenstein is, since 2022, director of the Tokyo office of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Previously, he worked at the DAAD Head Office in Bonn in the Strategy Department, where he led the development of the online data portal HSI-Monitor – Profile Data on University Internationality and conducted studies and analyses on student mobility and innovation analysis, among other things. Axel Karpenstein is a political scientist and economist (MA, MPhil Columbia University) with interests in innovation, knowledge and technology transfer, and university-industry collaboration. He has spent more than 20 years in Japan, including as an exchange student at Minami-Tama High School in Hachioji, as a MEXT and DAAD scholar at Kumamoto University, and as an Associate Professor of Politics and Economics at Saitama University. There, his responsibilities also included directing the overseas internship program of the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences and co-leading the university’s internationalization project.

Dr. Laura Blecken is Deputy Director of the DAAD Office Tokyo and Head of Programs at the DWIH Tokyo (German Centre for Research and Innovation in Tokyo. She manages the centre’s day-to-day operations, closely stays in touch with the Advisory Board members and Japanese partners at place and develops the DWIHs event concepts.

She received her PhD at Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and her thesis on the Japanese concept of “self-responsibility” was published in 2021 by the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ). She completed a double degree program and holds an M.A. in Japanese Studies from Keio University Tokyo and Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. She has extensive journalistic experience and worked at several broadcasting stations before joining the DAAD Tokyo in 2015 as Marketing Officer.

Tamayo Suzuki is a Program Officer to the German Centre for Research and Innovation Tokyo (DWIH Tokyo) and in charge of logistic management of events and partly accounting. She has been working at the centre since 2009.

Yu Takeuchi is in charge of communication and public relations at the German Centre for Research and Innovation Tokyo (DWIH Tokyo). She is responsible for marketing and outreach including the DWIH newsletter and social media presence.