Hisashi HIRAI is a Visiting Professor of Ritsumeikan University, and a Visiting Editorialist of Kyodo News, Japan, and He graduated from Waseda University department of law in 1975. He has worked in Kyodo News since 1975 in the foreign news section, also served as the manager of Seoul Branch, and correspondent at Beijing. He became a Senior Feature Writer and an Editorial Writer in 2007, and left Kyodo News in 2012. He was awarded the Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editorials Association Prize in 2002 for the Shenyang Incident (the incident which defectors from North Korea ran into the Consulate General of Japan in Shenyang, China). Also in 2002, he was awarded the Vaughn-Uyeda Prize for his news reports about the Korean Peninsula including the Shenyang Incident and the economics reforms in North Korea.
His selected publications include 「the Seoul Taryoung –beyond the anti Japan and hate Korea」 (Tokuma Shoten Publishing, 1993), 「the Japan Korea Child Rearing Battle 」 (Tokuma Shoten Publishing, 1995), 「Korea Taryoung –Too Dynamic Koreans’ Addresses」 (Business-Sha, 2005), 「Why do North Korea Isolate –Kim Jung-il, the Collapsing Military Priority System」 (Shinchosha Publishing, 2010), 「Leadership System and Heir of North Korea –from Kim Jung-il to Kim Jong-un」(Iwanami Shoten, 2011).

1952년 가가와 현(香川縣) 출생. 1975년 교도통신사 입사. 외신부, 서울 지국장, 베이징 특파원, 편집위원 겸 논설위원을 거침.
2002년 선양(瀋陽) 사건 보도로 신문협회상 수상. 같은 해 선양 사건이나 북한 경제개혁 등의 북한문제 보도로 본·우에다(ボ―ン·上田) 상 수상.
저서로 『서울 타령: 반일과 혐한의 틈바구니에서』(德間書店), 『일한 교육전쟁: ‘무지개’와 ‘별’이 수놓은 다리』(德間書店), 『코리아 타령: 상당히 다이내믹한 한국인의 현주소』(ビジネス社), 『왜 북한은 고립하는가: 김정일, 파국으로 향하는 ‘선군체제’』(新潮社), 『김정은 체제』 등이 있다.