Minako Morita-Jaeger is a Senior Research Fellow in International Trade at the University of Sussex Business School, a Policy Research Fellow at the UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO), and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy (CITP).

She is an international political economist with interdisciplinary expertise in law and economics, specialising in international trade policy. Her research adopts an interdisciplinary approach that combines International Political Economy, law, and economics to examine the multidimensional forces shaping the contemporary global trading system.

Her research interests include digital trade and digital governance; the nexus between trade and economic security; middle powers and the international trading system, including Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and the World Trade Organization (WTO); regulatory divergence and interoperability; and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Geographically, her expertise focuses on Japan, the United Kingdom and the Asia-Pacific region, particularly ASEAN.

Prior to joining the University of Sussex, and before her time at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), she held a number of trade policy positions across international organisations, government, and business. These included serving as an Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva, a WTO services trade negotiator for the Japanese Mission in Geneva, and a Principal Trade Policy Analyst at the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) in Tokyo. Through these roles, she gained extensive practical experience in trade policy formulation, negotiation, and advocacy at the global level.

This combination of academic research and policy experience enables her to bridge theoretical and practical perspectives on international trade and economic governance.