Katsuya Tsukamoto is Chief of the National Security Policy Division in the Center for Military History at the National Institute for Defense Studies, a primary policy research arm of the Japan Ministry of Defense. His research focuses on military innovation, Japan’s defense policy, and the Japan-US security relationship.

From April 2022 to March 2023, he was seconded to the Defense Policy Division of the Ministry of Defense, where he helped draft the National Defense Strategy released in December 2022. He is currently working on a book project featuring a comparative case study on Japanese, US, and British aircraft carrier development during the interwar period from the perspective of military innovation.

He earned his BA in International Relations from the University of Tsukuba, MA in Political Science from Aoyama Gakuin University, and both an MA in Law and Diplomacy and a PhD in International Relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. He was also a US Foreign Policy and International Security Fellow at Dartmouth College from 2018 to 2019.