Kevin Placek is a senior program assistant at the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). He is based in SSRC’s Tokyo office where he works on the Abe Fellowship Program and New Voices from Japan. He is also a member of the organising committee for the Australia-Japan Youth Dialogue (AJYD), a diplomatic initiative to bring together young leaders from Australia and Japan for policy discussions and cultural exchange.

Prior to joining the Council, he interned for the Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC and for Taro Kono, a member of the House of Representatives, in the Diet in Tokyo. He received a B.A. and Master of International Relations from the University of Melbourne. A number of his articles have been published in The Diplomat, East Asia Forum, The Strategist, and New Perspectives in Foreign Policy.