Takashi Kubota

Takashi Kubota is Professor at Waseda University Law School (since 2005) and a leading Japanese authority on international business law, digital currencies, and financial regulation. He earned LL.B. (Tokyo), LL.M. (Tokyo & Harvard) and Ph.D. in International Public Policy (Osaka), and has held visiting appointments at Queen Mary, ANU, Auckland and other overseas institutions. His current five-year JSPS project probes Central Bank Independence and Monetary Sovereignty in the Era of CBDCs.

Education

• Ph.D. in International Public Policy, Osaka University (2003)
• LL.M., Harvard Law School (1996)
• LL.M., University of Tokyo Graduate Schools (1993)
• LL.B., University of Tokyo (1990)

Research Interests

Kubota’s scholarship sits at the intersection of public and private international law, with particular emphasis on the legal architecture of money, cross-border payment systems, and the extraterritorial reach of financial sanctions. Recent work explores how AI, datafication and CBDCs challenge traditional notions of monetary sovereignty and democratic governance.

Publication Trends

Since 2020 he has authored over one hundred articles and case-notes, many in leading Japanese journals such as International Business Law. Recurring themes include the legal status of digital currencies, the interplay between anti-money-laundering rules and private law, and comparative analyses of UN and national sanctions regimes.

Awards & Recognition

• The Spirit of the Moot (2008)

Policy Impact & Grants

• Principal Investigator, JSPS KAKENHI grant “Central Bank Independence and Monetary Sovereignty in the Era of CBDCs” (2024-2029)
• Member, Japanese Ministry of Justice Strategic Committee on International Promotion of Japanese Law (2019-2021)
• Chair, Society of International Business and Legal Studies (2021-)

Labs & Teams

Kubota chairs the Society of International Business and Legal Studies and coordinates Waseda’s interdisciplinary research group on digital finance and economic security, which collaborates with central-bank lawyers, computer scientists and policy-makers across Asia-Pacific and Europe.