After completing her doctoral studies at the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, the University of Tokyo, Dr. Cheng joined the JETRO Institute of Developing Economies in April 2014. Her areas of expertise are international relations, global governance, and global environmental politics. In particular, her research has focused on issues related to climate change, and her contributions include participating in United Nations Climate Change Conferences, authoring and publishing papers in Japanese and English. From 2019 to 2021, she was a visiting researcher at the National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan, where she conducted research in the fields of international relations and environmental and energy policy. Notable academic books that she has authored include Japanese Environmental Diplomacy since the Kyoto Protocol (Mie University Press, 2013) and The Formation of Complementary Relationships among Overlapping Regimes: Negotiations on Climate Change, U.S.–China Relations, and the Paris Agreement (Gendaitosho, 2017).

Her research has focused on the positions of major countries, including Japan, China, the United States, and countries in Europe, in negotiations for the creation of international and regional regimes to deal with global challenges such as energy transition and climate change. She has analyzed, in particular, the roles played by these major countries. At present, her main focus is investigating energy, environmental, and industrial policies related to the transition to a low-carbon or decarbonized economy in East Asian countries, building on her previous research activities. Specific examples include a carbon dioxide emissions trading system, carbon tax, carbon neutrality, and natural disaster responses. In addition, from the viewpoint of international relations and security studies, she is examining the efforts of countries that are responding to the urgent climate crisis, while considerings the relevant global issues and the dynamics of international politics.