Hiroko Ōta

is a Japanese politician, university president and a researcher of economics. Her academic specialties are national public finance and economic policy. She is a noted lecturer of public finance and is a senior professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo.

Ōta served as the Japanese cabinet minister of economic policy, which is responsible for charging economic policy and public finance. Under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, she served as the chair for the Council for Promotion of Regulatory Reform. In April 2014, Ōta was appointed to the position of chairwoman of the board by Mizuho Financial Group, Japan's second-largest financial services group.

On 1 September 2022, following the return of the previous President, Akihiko Tanaka, to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), she was appointed as President of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.

Career 1976: graduates from Hitotsubashi University 1993: assistant professor at Osaka University 1996: professor of economics at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, (GRIPS) in Tokyo 2002: cabinet office counsellor 2006–2008: appointed to be Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy under the Abe administration and proceeding Fukuda administration 2008: returns to GRIPS as a professor 2009–2011: GRIPS vice president 2022-: GRIPS President