Hiroko Ōta (大田 弘子, Ōta Hiroko, born 2 February 1954 in Kagoshima, Kagoshima) is a Japanese politician, national 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.^[1]

This biography of a living person relies too much on references to primary sources. (September 2007)

Ōta served as the Japanese cabinet minister of economic policy, which is responsible for charging economic policy and public finance. In April 2014, Ōta has been appointed to the position of chairwoman of the board by Mizuho Financial Group, Japan's second-largest financial services group.^[2]

On 1st 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 ^[3]

• 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