Dr. Suzuki was born in 1959. He graduated from School of Medicine, Keio University (MD) in 1984 and trained as neurologist. He received PhD for public health from Keio University in 1996 and two Master's degrees from the Harvard School of Public Health (MPH in 1989 & MSc in 1990).
Dr. Suzuki has a professional career at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), Japan for 30 years covering infectious diseases, mental health, environmental health, food safety, international health, ageing & health, and health research policy. He also worked for the World Health Organization as Executive Director for Social Change & Mental Health, later for Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals (covering vaccines, immunization and biologicals) from 1998 to 2002.
He previously served as Vice-Minister for Health, Chief Medical & Global Health Officer at the MHLW from July 2017 to August 2020.