SUZUKI Kazuto

Professor, Graduate School of Public Policy, The University of Tokyo

SUZUKI Kazuto is Professor of Science and Technology Policy at the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, Japan. He graduated from the Department of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University, and received his Ph.D. from Sussex European Institute, University of Sussex, England. He has worked for the Fondation pour la recherche stratégique in Paris, France as an assistant researcher, as an Associate Professor at the University of Tsukuba from 2000 to 2008, and served as Professor of International Politics at Hokkaido University until 2020. He also spent one year at the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University from 2012 to 2013 as a visiting researcher. He served as an expert in the Panel of Experts for Iranian Sanction Committee under the United Nations Security Council from 2013 to July 2015. He has been the President of the Japan Association of International Security and Trade.

KUGO Akihide

Senior Research Advisor, Mitsubishi Research Institute,Inc.

Akihide Kugo graduated from Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Tokyo and postgraduate school of International Studies at York St. John College, the University of Leeds. He received a doctoral degree in Energy Science from Kyoto University. His doctoral research was “Risk Communication for High level Radioactive Waste Disposal.” He began the professional career as a nuclear engineer at Kansai Electric Power Co. in 1978. During the career of Electric Utility Company, he had mainly dedicated himself for safe nuclear power plant operation for 30 years. After that, he engaged in creating self-regulating organization: Japan Nuclear Safety Institute (JANSI), which was funded by the Japanese nuclear operators based on lessons learned from Fukushima Daiichi Accident. Since establishment of JANSI, he joined it and dedicated himself for three years to develop leadership training program which targets the nuclear operators from CEO to front-line managers. After that, he looked after the JANSI international business to creating the relationship between the organization such as IAEA, OECD/NEA and WANO. He currently serves as Senior Research Advisor at Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc.

OKUYAMA Toshihiro

Senior Staff Writer, Asahi Shimbun
OKUYAMA Toshihiro has been a staff writer for the Asahi Shimbun, Japanese daily newspaper for more than thirty years and a member of its investigative reporting team in Tokyo since 2006. He has covered public prosecutors, the judiciary system, the Ministry of Finance, financial scandals and others.

He is an author of a book published in Japan titled “Declassification of the Lockheed Scandal―How Kakuei Tanaka Earned the Enmity of the US Government” which received the Shiba Ryotaro Prize of 2017. He also won the 2018 Japan National Press Club Prize for his reporting on the Panama Papers and Fukushima nuclear disaster, his contributions to teaching investigative journalism for young reporters, and the book. He has been a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists since December 2011 and a part-time lecturer at the Graduate School of Journalism of Waseda University in Tokyo since September 2008. He graduated from Faculty of Engineering at the University of Tokyo, where he majored in nuclear engineering.

SEKIYA Naoya

Associate Professor, Center for Integrated Disaster Information Research, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, the University of Tokyo.

Naoya Sekiya is Associate Professor at the Center for Integrated Disaster Information Research, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, the University of Tokyo. His research focuses on psychological and social aspects of natural and nuclear disaster, such as evacuation behavior and reputational damage. He has served numerous governmental committees on disaster response, including the Investigation Committee on the Accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Stations of Tokyo Electric Power Company, founded by the Japanese government. He has written a number of books, including Fuhyo higai: Sono mekanizumu wo kangaeru (Reputational Damage: Analyzing its Mechanisms) and Saigai no shakaishinri (Social Psychology of Disaster). He holds B.A. from Keio University and M.A. from the University of Tokyo. He was elected as the University of Tokyo Excellent Young Researcher in 2018.

KAINUMA Hiroshi

Associate Professor, The Kinugasa Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University

Born in Fukushima in 1984, KAINUMA Hiroshi obtained B.A. at Faculty of Letters, the University of Tokyo and M.A. at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, the University of Tokyo. He has written numerous books and articles in sociology, with special interests of Fukushima after the 2011 nuclear accident. His publication includes: Hajimete no Fukushima-gaku (First Guide to Fukushima Studies); Hyohaku-sareru shakai (A society being bleached); Fukushima no seigi ‘Nihon no kawaranasa’ tono tatakai (Fukushima’s justice – the struggle against ‘a never-changing Japan’); Fukushima-ron: Genshiryoku mura wa naze umaretanoka (Theory of ‘Fukushima’: Why nuclear power village was created?); Fukushima daiichi genpatsu hairo zukan (Encyclopedia of the “1F”; A Guide to the Decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station); and many others. His works deserved several awards, such as the Humanities and Social Section, 65th Mainichi Publishing Culture Award; Special Award, the 32nd Energy Forum Award; Special Award, the 6th Award of the Association of Regional and Community Studies; and the Award of Excellence, 36th Energy Forum Award.

KOBAYASHI Yuki

Research Fellow, International Peace and Security Department, Sasakawa Peace Foundation

Yuki Kobayashi is Research Fellow at the International Peace and Security Department within the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF). In France, he researched issues related to the Fukushima accident, including conducting field research in Japan, interviewing Japanese political and industrial leaders, and organizing seminars on nuclear safety. At Ecole des Mines Paris, he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the relationship between technical and political leaders during the response to/management of Fukushima. His areas of expertise include global and regional energy security, Japanese economic and energy policy, and international nuclear safety practices and norms.

ISOBE Koichi

Senior Fellow, Asia Pacific Initiative

Lieutenant General (Ret.) ISOBE Koichi is a senior fellow at Asia Pacific Initiative. He served as a senior fellow at Harvard University Asia Center from July 2017 to June 2019. LTG Isobe retired from active duty in August 2015 after a thirty-five-year career in the Japan Self-Defense Force, having served in his last two years as Commanding General of the Eastern Army. Prior to this final appointment, he held several other senior positions in Japan’s defense institutions, such as Director, J-5, Joint Staff, Commanding General of 7th Armored Division, as well as Vice Chief of Staff, Joint Staff. He graduated from the National Defense Academy in 1980. He obtains a Master of Arts in Military Studies from the Marine Corps University in 1996, and a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy from the National Defense University in 2003. He is the author of “Tomodachi-sakusen no Saizensen: Fukushima-Gempatsujiko ni miru Nichibei-doumei Renkei no Kyoukun (Operation Tomodachi: Process and Recommendations – The U.S.-Japan Alliance after Fukushima Nuclear Accident-,” which was awarded the INOKI Masamichi Special Prize in November 2019.

CHIJIWA Yasuaki

Senior Fellow, National Institute for Defense Studies, Ministry of Defense

CHIJIWA Yasuaki studied international politics at Hiroshima University (B.A.) and Osaka University (M.A. and Ph.D.). He was a visiting research associate at George Washington University, COE research fellow and JSPS research fellow (PD) at Kyoto University, assistant councilor at Cabinet Secretariat (National Security and Crisis Management), and visiting scholar at Columbia University. His research interests include Japan-US relations, Japan’s foreign and security policy. His publications in English include “Insights into Japan-U.S. Relations on the Eve of the Iraq War: Dilemmas over ‘Showing the Flag’,” Asian Survey Vol. 45 No. 6 (November-December 2005) and “Unfinished ‘Beyond-the-Threat Theory’: Japan’s ‘Basic Defense Force Concept’ Revisited,” NIDS Journal of Defense and Security Vol. 17 (December 2016). He won several awards such as the 6th Young Author Best Paper Award of Japan Association for International Security.

FUNABASHI Yoichi

Co-founder and Chairman, Asia Pacific Initiative

FUNABASHI Yoichi is an award-winning Japanese journalist, columnist and author. He has written extensively on foreign affairs, the US-Japan Alliance, geopolitics, geoeconomics and historical issues in the Asia Pacific.

He has a distinguished career as a journalist. He served as correspondent for the Asahi Shimbun in Beijing (1980-81) and Washington (1984-87), and as US General Bureau Chief (1993-97). In 2016 he became the first Japanese laureate of Stanford University’s prestigious Shorenstein Journalism Award. In 2013 he won the Oya Soichi Nonfiction Award for his book Countdown to Meltdown, on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident. He won the Japan Press Award, known as Japan’s “Pulitzer Prize,” in 1994 for his columns on international affairs. His articles in Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy won the Ishibashi Tanzan Prize in 1992, and in 1985 he received the Vaughn-Ueda Prize for his reporting on international affairs.

SHIBATA Narumi

Research Associate, Asia Pacific Initiative

SHIBATA Narumi is a research associate at API. She has career experience working in the social sector and overseas Japanese embassy(Israel) as well as in the technology industry.

She holds a BA in International Politics, Economics and Communication from Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan and MA in Political Science from Stockholm University, Sweden.