Naoki Odanaka, born in 1963, receiving B.A. in economics (1986) and Ph. D. (economics, 1996) both from the University of Tokyo (Japan), is a professor of socio-intellectual history at the School of Economics, Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan) since 2005.

Specializing in the modern and contemporary socio-economic history of France, he is currently interested in the mechanism of the emergence of urban problems, starting with the drug deal, and the characteristics and effectiveness of urban policies, at municipal, departmental and national levels, in French provincial cities since 1960s.

He is also secretary of the “Social and Human Sciences” section of the Science Council of Japan since 2023, Japanese National Committee member of the International Committee of Historical Sciences since 2023, and the Steering Committee member of the Korean-Japanese Historians Congress since 2017.