Mitsuhiro Mimura is a Professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute for Northeast Asia, University of Niigata Prefecture, Japan (ERINA-UNP). He graduated from the Department of Korean Language and Literature, Faculty of Foreign Studies, Osaka University of Foreign Studies, in 1993; and completed his Master's and Doctoral courses at the Graduate School of Law, Osaka University, earning a PhD in jurisprudence in 2001. He joined the Research Division of the Economic Research Institute for Northeast Asia (ERINA) in 2001 as a researcher, where he worked as a senior researcher before taking up his current position in 2023. His areas of specialization are the North Korean economy, economic exchange between the two Koreas, and economic cooperation in Eurasia. He has visited the DPRK nearly 40 times since 1996, mainly for academic exchange.