Yasu Ota

Columnist and TV commentator for Nikkei newspaper

Mr. Ota is a columnist and TV commentator for Nikkei, covering the Asia/Pacific region and global issues such as international trade, migration and digital innovation. Mr. Ota has over 30 years’ experience in journalism, more than half of which was as a foreign correspondent with assignments in Washington, D.C., Frankfurt, Germany, and most recently Singapore from April 2015 to March 2018.

During his career, Mr. Ota has covered the impact of major news events including the Asian Economic Crisis, the U.S.-Japan trade dispute, and European economic integration. Prior to his assignment in Singapore, Mr. Ota worked in Tokyo as an editorial writer and columnist, as well as one of the authors of Nikkei’s renowned front-page column “Spring & Autumn.” He now regularly writes a news column for the Nikkei Asian Review, an English language news media outlet of Nikkei.

Mr. Ota holds a degree in Natural Science from Hokkaido University in Japan, where he majored in Physical Chemistry, and graduated from a course of the Night Journalism Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).