Dr. Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea. In 2013, she received a PhD in sociology from the Graduate School of Social Sciences, Hitotsubashi University. After working as a technical researcher at Hitotsubashi and as a specially appointed research fellow at Ochanomizu University, she joined the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE) in November 2014. She has been in her current post since April 2024. She also served as an adjunct researcher at the Institute of Comparative Economic Studies, Hosei University, from 2014 to 2020. Dr. Lee specializes in immigration policy and industrial labor policy. Her research interests include migrant labor in Asia and comparative studies of immigration and civil society organizations in Japan and Korea. At JCIE, she has worked on intellectual exchanges among Japan, China, and Korea, and on the Japanese-German Forum, and currently oversees the planning and management of studies on the global movement of people and collaborative projects with related stakeholders and organizations in Japan and Asia related to immigration and multicultural coexistence (globalization of Japan and foreign human resource program).

Her publications include “Challenges of and Coping with Immigration in Korea: The State, Civil Society, and Migrant Workers” (in Asia on the Move: Regional Migration and the Role of Civil Society, JCIE, 2015), “The Idea of ‘Temporary Employment’ Questioned: A Perspective on Policy for Foreigners from a South Korean Experience” (in Japanese) (Journalism No. 348, Asahi Shimbun Publishing, 2019), and “The Transition in Japan’s Immigration Policy: An Analysis of the Formation Process of the ‘Country of Choice’ for Immigrants” (MRTC Policy Report Series No.2023-03, Migration Research and Training Centre, 2023).