About Masako Konishi

Masako Konishi

Japan Region Chief

Contact

Tokyo, Japan Office

Work

Areas of expertise:

Climate science and policy, energy transition, market mechanism, international climate negotiations

Masako Konishi is EDF’s Japan Region Chief, based in Tokyo, Japan. She serves as EDF’s principal representative in the country, leading the organization’s work on both energy transition and climate resilient fisheries & oceans priorities. 

Background

Before joining EDF Japan, Dr. Masako Konishi worked at WWF Japan from 2005 as a climate and energy expert, following a career as a television news anchor. For more than 20 years, she participated in the UN Climate Change Conferences (COP), closely following the negotiations that led to the adoption of the Paris Agreement.

She is a leading expert on environmental and energy policy in Japan and internationally, with extensive experience advising corporate executives on sustainability strategy and management.

She has also held a number of public positions, including serving as a member of the Central Environment Council of the Ministry of the Environment.

She holds an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Hosei University. She is also a Certified Meteorologist. She has authored numerous books, including her most recent publication, Climate Policies as an Agenda for the Media (Minerva Shobo, 2023).

Publications

Konishi, M. (2016). 地球温暖化は解決できるのか: パリ協定から未来へ! [Can Climate Change Be Curbed? From the Paris Agreement to the Future!]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.

Konishi, M. (2017). The impact of global NGOs on Japanese press coverage of climate negotiations: An analysis of the new “Background Media Strategy.” Environmental Communication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2017.1308403

Konishi, M. (2020). The status and future of environmental journalism in Japan. In D. B. Sachsman & J. M. Valenti (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Environmental Journalism (pp. 265–277). Routledge.

Konishi, M. (2021). 地球温暖化を解決したい: エネルギーをどう選ぶ? [How to Solve Climate Change: How Should We Choose Energy?]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.

Konishi, M. (2022). 気候変動政策をメディア議題に: 国際NGOによる広報の戦略 [Climate Policies as a Media Agenda: Communication Strategies of International NGOs]. Kyoto: Minerva Shobo.