Dr Eiji Hinoshita is an Assistant Minister for Global Health and Welfare, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW). He started his professional career as a surgeon in Fukuoka, Japan. After post-graduate study of biochemistry, Dr Hinoshita joined in MHLW in 2001, where he acquired a wide range of technical experiences in public health, including disease control and prevention, regulatory science and so on. He has previously worked for Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), where he committed to global health including the governance of Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund, which was a Japan-based international public-private partnership fund for global health R&D. Before taking the current position, he served as Director-General, Bureau of International Health Cooperation, National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM), where he also committed to global health including the establishment of R&D platform between Japan and ASEAN countries.