E. Keith Henry  |  Advisors, Professional Associates and Staff



Tetsuo Kondo
Senior Advisor, Asia Strategy
Mr. Tetsuo Kondo has wide experience at the national level in policy making related to labor, health, and financial sectors. He began his public service in the Ministry of Finance and the Economic Planning where he spent 20 years. He served as Executive Director for Japan of the International Monetary Fund before entering the world of Japanese politics.

In 1975, he was elected to the Japanese House of Representatives and a representative of the Liberal Democratic Party. During his 20-year career as a member of the House of Representatives, he served in a number of senior government positions. In 1977, he was selected to serve as Parliamentary Vice Minister of Administrative Management. Two years later, he was selected to serve as Parliamentary Vice Minister of Education and in 1983 he was selected to serve as Parliamentary Vice Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries. In 1990, he became Minister of State for Economic Planning and in 1993 he was appointed Minister of Labor.

Mr. Kondo has also served in key senior positions within the LDP. In 1983, he was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Science and Technology, House of Representatives and in 1986 he was Director of the Communication Division of the Policy Research Council.1986 In 1994 he was Chairman of the Financial Problems Research Council of the party. From 1991 he was a senior member of the Committee on Budget, House of Representatives. In 1995, he was a member of the Committee on Health and Welfare in the House of Representatives.1995. Finally, in 1997, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Executive Council of the LDP, the party's chief policy making organ.

He graduated from Hitotsubashi University in 1955 and was selected for a Fulbright when he studied at The University of California, Berkeley and Harvard University. In 2000, he retired from the House of Representatives and established the Institute of for New Era Strategy (INES) and presently serves as its president.



Junta Asai
Analyst, Asia Strategy
Since joining Asia Strategy in 2009, Junta Asai has been involved in a number of projects as an analyst and researcher for such clients as PhRMA, Dell Computer, United Parcel Service, Perry Capital, and the Government of Singapore.

Prior to joining Asia Strategy, Asai was an analyst at INES, a Thinking Tank focusing on public policy issues impacting the health care, financial services, and energy sectors.

He graduated from Nihon University in 2009 where he majored in political science.



Mark Saito
Analyst, Asia Strategy
Since joining Asia Strategy in 2009, Mark Saito has been involved in a number of projects as an analyst and researcher for such clients as PhRMA, Perry Capital, and the Government of Singapore.

Prior to joining Asia Strategy, Mark was a founding member of the consulting and translation business at Catal, Inc., where he worked as the business director. He was involved in a number of high profile public campaigns particularly related to shareholder/corporate governance issues carried out by such foreign hedge funds as The Children’s Investment Fund (J-Power), Steel Partners (Bulldog Sauce, Sapporo, and Aderans), and Perry Capital (NEC Electronics).

Mark was extensively involved as an international liaison in marketing activities of such companies as Volkswagen, Audi, Philips, Nike, and Shinsei Bank through major Japanese advertisers Dentsu, Hakuhodo, and ADK.

Mark is a highly-skilled interpreter capable of simultaneous translation and also has an extensive experience in training the leading interpreters of the industry today. Some of the better-known public figures he has worked for in the past range from the former U.S. Vice President and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore and investor Jim Rogers, to the self-motivation guru Anthony Robins.

He graduated from Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, U.S. where he holds a bachelors in music in classical guitar performance and music theory.


Lee M. Sands
Professional Associate, Asia Strategy
Mr. Sands cooperates with Asia Strategy on all of the firm’s cross-border China-related research. Sands is Managing Director at Sierra Asia Partners. He has more than 30 years of experience in Asia, including 20 in China. From 1997 to present, Sands served as founder and Chairman of MBP Consulting, a boutique consulting firm advising international corporations regarding market access (both entry and penetration), government policy, and as a partner in Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw.

From 1991 to 1997, Sands served as Chief U.S. Trade Negotiator with China, in the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), in the Executive Office of the President. During this time, he negotiated and oversaw implementation of all major trade agreements with China resulting in market opportunities for thousands of key U.S. exports; formulated U.S. trade policy; managed negotiations; and oversaw compliance related to intellectual property rights, telecommunications, insurance and other areas with China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia. In addition, Sands created comprehensive strategies and tactics to address East Asian trade issues and assisted U.S. companies in designing market access strategies. Sands won USTR's distinguished negotiating award for his efforts. From 1986-88, Sands worked in the US Embassy in Beijing, in the Economics Section - where he won the State Department's Reporting Award for his work at the Embassy in reporting on developments in China's economic restructuring efforts.

Sands graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Asian Studies from City College of New York in 1973, a Masters of Philosophy in History from Yale University in 1979, with a specialty in Japanese and Chinese history, and a Master of Arts in Korean and Chinese language and history from Harvard University (1975). Sands speaks and writes the Chinese language. He is based primarily in China.


David Wagner
Professional Associate, Asia Strategy
Mr. Wagner cooperates with Asia Strategy on all the firm’s business communication-related research. He is a Tokyo-based business and communication specialist. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Asian History from Fort Lewis College (1984) and a Masters degree from the Monterey Institute of International Studies (1987) where he specialized in Japan’s economic and political system. Wagner has also studied at Kansai University of Foreign Studies (1982) and the University of Paris, Sorbonne (1983).

Since 1987, he has conducted over 1,000 seminars in Asia and North America for over 180 organizations such as AT&T, General Motors, Pepsi, Dow Chemical, Microsoft, Hitachi, Hyundai, NEC, Mitsubishi Electric, Sony, Singapore Airlines, Sumitomo Corp., and Toshiba.

Wagner was an in-house trainer for the Fuji Xerox Learning Institute, Prudential Relocation Management, GMAC Relocation Services, Berlitz International, the International Business and Management Institute in Tokyo, and The Institute of Public Administration and Management in Singapore. Currently, Wagner is a Lecturer at Temple University in Tokyo.

Applying well-known theories including Transactional Analysis and Neuro Linguistic Programming, Wagner is noted for his teaching style and ability to achieve desired results in behavior modification for his clients. From 1999 – 2000, Wagner created and hosted two separate 3-month series for NHK television watched by 1.5 million viewers in Japan. As a result of his unique teaching methods, many of the language series aired nationally on NHK continue to apply his interactive techniques.

Wagner has been a columnist for The Mainichi Daily News, The Daily Yomiuri and ASSOCIE magazine in Japan. He is also the author of 19 business communication books which appear in Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Some of his most recent books are listed below:
- MESSAGES! (NikkeiBP, 2003)
- International Business Leader Interviews (ALC, 2004)
- Mastering Business English (Kodansha International, 2004)