Takashi Inoue is Chairman and CEO of Inoue Public Relations Inc. (IPR), located in Tokyo. He is also a visiting professor at Kyoto University, Akita International University, and Communications University of China. In 1970 he founded Inoue Public Relations serving the high-tech industries during the early days of “Japan as No. 1.” His firm’s first foreign clients were two US high-tech startups: Intel and Apple. IPR was hired by Apple in 1980 and did the PR work for the 1984 launch of the MAC in Japan. Later on, when Japan INC’s trade surplus became a source of trade conflict, IPR successfully executed public relations programs that resulted in avoiding U.S. trade sanctions in the telecommunications, semiconductor and auto industries. Notably, IPR helped the U.S. auto-parts maker, Tenneco, realize de-regulation, and for that work won in 1997 the prestigious International Public Relations Association’s Golden World Award Grand Prize. In 2015 his firm won the Golden World Award for its work helping Concur change Japanese regulations for an innovative new product.
The author of several books in Japanese on public relations, his latest book, which is in English, takes on the challenges of globalization and new disruptive technologies under the title: Public Relations in Hyper-globalization: essential relationship management – a Japan perspective, Takashi Inoue, Routledge, 2018, London
