Mihoko Matsubara

Mihoko Matsubara is Chief Cybersecurity Strategist, NTT Corporation and an Associate Fellow with the Asia Studies Centre at the Henry Jackson Society.

In her role at NTT, she is responsible for public advocacy to strengthen or expand networks with global thought leaders in academia, government, and industry by sharing NTT’s and Japan’s cybersecurity efforts via publications and speakership.

Matsubara worked at the Japanese Ministry of Defence for nine years before receiving a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue an MA at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC. Afterward, she accepted a fellowship at Pacific Forum CSIS (now Pacific Forum) in Honolulu to research Japan-US cybersecurity cooperation.

Matsubara then joined Hitachi Systems as cybersecurity analyst, and next took a position at Intel K.K., Tokyo, as Cybersecurity Policy Director. Her most recent experience includes Vice President and Public Sector Chief Security Officer (CSO) for Asia-Pacific at Palo Alto Networks. Directly prior, she was CSO Japan for Palo Alto Networks.

She is a prolific writer and has spoken at various engagements internationally. She has a weekly cybersecurity column for the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper’s Keizai Premium (Economy Premium) digital edition. She has contributed articles and papers to the Council on Foreign Relations, Lawfare, and Royal United Services Institute. She was the first Japanese speaker at the NATO International Conference on Cyber Conflict in Estonia (2015).