Akihiro has extensive experience as an information-technology system engineer and project manager and as an IT-risk and business-continuity-management examiner at the Bank of Japan. Having served as Director of the Financial Systems and Bank Examination department and as Deputy Head of the Computer System Risk Examination section, he has deep knowledge of the intricacies of the central bank's on-site examination and off-site monitoring of financial institutions. Akihiro also served as the Manager of the Information System Services department, and he developed various IT systems as a project manager. He was also temporarily assigned to Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan, where he developed a deposit insurance system as Head of Planning and Research. He has authored several research papers on IT management of incidents, projects and outsourcing, in addition to the challenges of shared core-banking systems in Japan.