Naoyuki Agawa graduated from the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, with magna cum laude in 1977 after transferring from Keio University in 1975. Upon graduation, he joined Sony Corporation in Tokyo, Japan, and worked on international trade and copyright law matters. While at Sony he read law at and graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1984. He joined the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in 1987 and worked for its Washington, D.C. and Tokyo offices through 1995.  He is licensed to practice law in the state of New York and Washington, D.C.
Continuing to practice law with the law firm of Nishimura & Partners in Tokyo, Mr. Agawa joined Keio University as professor at its SFC campus in 1999 teaching American constitutional law and history. He was appointed Minister for Public Affairs at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C. in August 2002 and served there until he returned to Keio in April 2005. He was elected and served as Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University, between June 2007 and June 2009. He was appointed Vice President in charge of international affairs at Keio in July 2009. Mr. Agawa has also taught U.S. and Japanese constitutional law and history at the University of Virginia School of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, Elon University School of Law, Doshisha University and Tokyo University.
Mr. Agawa’s publications include, among others, The Birth of an American Lawyer, To America with de Tocqueville, The Friendship on the Seas: the United States Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Have You Found America?, American History through the United States Constitution, 2520 Massachusetts Avenue.
Mr. Agawa received the Yomiuri-Yoshino Sakuzo Award in 2005. He is a frequent contributor to such newspapers as Sankei, Yomiuri, Nikkei and Mainichi, and journals including Chuo Koron, Bungei Shunnju, and the Japan Journal.