Takeo Hirata

Takeo Hirata (平田 竹男, Hirata Takeo, born 16 January 1960) is a Japanese researcher at the Waseda University.

Takeo Hirata was born on 16 January 1960 in Osaka, Japan.

He went to Osaka Prefectural Otemae Senior High School during his younger years. In 1982, he graduated from the Faculty of Business Administration at the Yokohama National University.

After graduating from the university, Hirata was employed at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. In 1987, he received a post-graduate Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. From 1991 to 1994 he served as the First Secretary at the Embassy of Japan in Brazil. During that time, he became friends with Cafu, a Brazilian footballer. From 1999 to 2001, he was engaged in oil resource development in the Middle East, as the director for international petroleum affairs at the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.

In 1989, when the service industry office of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry considered expanding sports business, he met Saburō Kawabuchi during the preparation phase for the soccer's JSL study committee on professionalizing Japan's soccer league. He joined the advisory board and contributed to shaping the J. League's principles. He also took part in the Japanese bidding committee for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. In 2002, the Japan Football Association appointed him to be a General Secretary. He was mainly engaged in public relations and coordination with the international representatives. He also established the commission for matching international games of representatives.

In 2006, he resigned from the general secretary position, as his term had expired. Since July 2006, he had been the Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of honor. In 2008, he acquired a Degree in Engineering from the University of Tokyo.

He became a professor of the Graduate School of Sport Sciences at Waseda University. Graduates of his master (doctor) course at Waseda University include Masumi Kuwata, Tokimitsu Ishizawa, Naoki Soma, and Tomohiro Nagatsuka among others.

In addition to his own field Sports Business, he was also responsible for the lectures on energy and environment from his experience as a bureaucrat. Since March 2007, he served as an auditor at Rakuten. In 2009, he served as an auditor at Japan Association of Athletics Federations, and in 2010, he became the director of the Tokyo Marathon Foundation board.

• He is an official of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
• He was a former General Secretary and currently the Honorary Vice President of the Japan Football Association
• Professor at the Graduate School of Sports Sciences at the Waseda University
• Auditor of the Japan Association of Athletics Federations
• Chairperson of the Japan Society of Sports Industry
• Member of the board of the Tokyo Marathon Foundation, 2010

• "METI official Hirata to be executive of Japan soccer body.". Kyodo News International. 2002-07-16. Retrieved 2013-04-21. 

Takeo Hinata was interested in Sports science.