International Standardization of Project Management: Historical and Systematical Understanding of the Impact of ISO21500

Mr. Masami Tanaka

President of the Japanese Standards Association

Biography:
Masami Tanaka is president of the Japanese Standards Association, an organization that serves not only as a Standard Developing Organization but also as a standard dissemination entity in Japan. He is also a visiting professor at the Graduate Institute of Policy Studies in Tokyo, Japan; vice president of the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee, where he works on standardization policy; and vice president of the Institute of International Harmonization for Building and Housing.

In his career, Tanaka has concentrated on organizational management and standardization policy. Before assuming his current position at JSA he had been president of the Japan Testing Center for Construction Materials, an organization that tests, evaluates and certifies construction materials and building components from 2008 to 2009. He was the director general of the Japanese Chemical Industry Association from 1998 to 2007, and also during that period, he served on several Japan Business Federation committees and as a board member of the International Council of Chemical Associations, which includes 26 national member bodies.

A former president of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) from 2005-2006, Tanaka has also been an ISO council member. From 1998 to 2007, he was chair of the Standards Center for Japanese Chemical Industry, and from 1995 to 2000, he was chair of the Standing Committee of the Pacific Area Standards Congress. From 1993 to 1998, he was secretary general of JISC in his capacity as director general of the standards department, Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Tanaka also participated in the Asia-Pacific Economic Subcommittee on Standards and Conformance.

Tanaka holds an M.S. in chemical engineering from Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan, and an M.Phil. in economics from the University of Sussex, Brighton, England