Lawrence Repeta

The focus of Professor Repeta's advocacy and research is transparency in government. He is a founding director of Information Clearinghouse Japan, an NGO devoted to promoting open government in Japan (www.clearing-house.org), a member of the editorial board of freedominfo.org, a virtual global network of transparency activists, and the primary author of works concerning freedom of information in Japan published at www.freedominfo.org.

In 2006, he published Yami wo Utsu : Secrecy and the Future of America, a compilation of profiles and interviews with reporters, activists and others who have used the Freedom of Information Act to expose deception by agencies of the U.S. government (published by Nihon Hyoronsha in Japanese). His "Local Government Information Disclosure Systems in Japan" was published by National Bureau of Asian Research (www.nbr.org). He was appointed an Abe Fellow by the Center for Global Partnership (www.cgp.org) to conduct research during the 2003-04 academic year at the National Security Archive, a non-profit research institute located at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. (www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv).

Professor Repeta is best-known in Japan as the plaintiff in a landmark suit decided by the Supreme Court of Japan in 1989 that opened Japan's courts to note-taking by courtroom spectators. In 2004 Professor Repeta joined the faculty of the newly-formed Omiya Law School, an institution created to take advantage of Japan's historical judicial reform program. He is a graduate of the University of Washington School of Law and member of the Washington State Bar Association in the United States.