Makoto Yokoo
Makoto Yokoo researches distributed constraint reasoning and mechanism design. Yokoo worked at NTT from 1986 to 2004 and developed asynchronous backtracking and weak-commitment search. With collaborators he studied false-name bids in auctions and developed ADOPT for asynchronous distributed optimization. AAAI elected him a Fellow in 2011. Later dated work includes constrained two-sided matching and shared research on daycare allocation.
- Now at
- Kyushu University
- Works
- 493
- Citations
- 8,736
- h-index
- 42
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.
Timeline
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1986–2004
Research at NTT
Yokoo worked at NTT from 1986 to 2004. He explains distributed constraint satisfaction: agents seek a combination of actions that satisfies constraints between them. His work includes asynchronous backtracking and weak-commitment search, which let agents coordinate without a single centralized search process.
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2004
False-name bidding research
With Yuko Sakurai and Shigeo Matsubara, Yokoo published work on false-name bids in combinatorial auctions in 2004. His work on market design examines the possibility that one participant can act through several identities. The shared research examines assumptions about strategic behavior in automated allocation mechanisms.
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2005
Shared distributed optimization
Pragnesh Jay Modi, Wei-Min Shen, Milind Tambe and Yokoo published ADOPT in 2005. ADOPT uses conservative local cost estimates and asynchronous decisions for distributed optimization. The method provides quality guarantees under its stated problem framework.
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2011 and later
Recognition and matching mechanisms
AAAI elected Yokoo a Fellow in 2011. His research includes constrained two-sided matching from 2015 and later mechanism-design work. His 2023 work includes daycare matching with transfers and siblings, with several collaborators.
Sources and credits
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