Akio Sashida, CFA, is a specially appointed research fellow at Japan Securities Research Institute. Previously he worked as a senior economist at Sanwa Bank Ltd., now MUFG Bank Ltd., in Tokyo, San Francisco, and London. He also held several management positions at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co., Ltd. He holds a BA in economics from Keio University and an MA in economics from Aoyama Gakuin University.