Yuka Hayashi is a Vice President at The Asia Group and a member of the firm’s Japan Practice. Leveraging decades of experience as a journalist in Japan and the United States, Yuka oversees the team’s research and analytical work across the Washington and Tokyo offices. She ensures that clients receive top-quality advice and cutting-edge materials that are also easy to digest.
Prior to joining The Asia Group, Yuka was a journalist for The Wall Street Journal for two decades. From Washington, she covered trade and economic security policy under the Trump and Biden administrations and international economy. Between 2004 and 2015, she was a Journal correspondent in Tokyo, where she wrote about Japan’s economy, society and East Asian geopolitics. She spent a year covering the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear accident.
Yuka’s work as a journalist was recognized by various press organizations, including the National Press Club, Gerald Loeb Awards and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. She started her career in journalism at Reuters and covered economic policy, business and finance at Dow Jones in New York and Tokyo.
Yuka is Co-Chair of the U.S.-Japan Council’s DC Region and serves as a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, a centrist think tank.
She has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Waseda University in Tokyo and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. Yuka, a Tokyo native, lives in DC with her husband Jay Sapsford and Wesley the big brown dog. She is a mother of two grown children.