Akira Uno holds a Bachelor of Economics from Kyoto University. After serving as a director of Sumitomo Bank, executive vice president of Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company, and chairman of SMBC Consulting, in 2006 he was appointed senior executive of Japan Post Holdings where he worked on postal privatization. After retiring as a managing executive officer at the Japan Post Bank, he started teaching “Introduction to Public and Private Financial Services” as an adjunct professor in Kyoto University’s Faculty of Economics in 2010. In 2011, he was named a research fellow at the Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University.