Symposium Report

Tokutaro Nakai

Vice Minister of the Ministry of the Environment

Born in 1962. Graduate of the University of Tokyo. Joined the Toyama Prefectural government following service as chief inspector of the budget bureau of the Ministry of Finance. Has engaged in the establishment and popularization of Japan Sea studies. Following service as planning officer and chief budget officer in the Finance Bureau of the Ministry of Finance, he joined the Ministry of the Environment in 2011 following the Great East Japan Earthquake. Before assuming his current role in 2020, he served as section chief of general affairs for the Bureau of General Environmental Policy, section chief of accounting in the secretariat of the Minister, section chief in the secretarial section of the Minister, Assistant Vice-Minister to the Minister of the Environment, department chief for policy on waste and recycling, and supervisor for general environmental policy.

Fumiko Tanji

Author

Classical scholar and instructor of Kodo Kokushin-ryu (traditional incense-smelling ceremony). Her classical research includes “Gokan de yomu Genzimonogatari”(Reading the Tale of Genji with Five Senses). She lives in a forest in Karuizawa.
Her poem-tales “Kami no Sho”(Chapter of Hair)and “Tsuyu no Sho”(“Chapter of Dew) fuse music with literature, and her poetry has been set to music both in Japan and abroad.
She scripted the opera Mizuchi on a commission from Gunma Prefecture, an important source of water for the Tokyo region. Written as a “message to the future in the year 3000,” the opera is a wake-up call for modern society about dangers facing the global environment. It was first performed in 2001. In 2004, it was performed by the Japan Opera Association at the New National Theatre, Tokyo. It has been performed repeatedly since.
At the Tokyo University of Agriculture, she has lectured on folklore studies “Inisihe ni manabu”(Lessons of the Past).
Her essays include “Kaze no Kioku”(Memory of the Wind), “Kaze no Koyomi”(Calendar of the Wind), and “Mokusei suru Mori”(Forest of Tree Spirits). Her column “Mori no Saihu”(Musical Transcription of the Forest) has been serialized in the Japan Forestry Association’s Sanrin bulletin for nine years.

Kyoko Gendatsu

NHK Enterprises Executive Producer

Gendatsu joined NHK in 1988. She became a producer in 2006 after working as a news program director. She has overseen NHK environmental campaigns and produced many documentaries about climate change. In 2017, she took his current post and the NHK special “An Upheaval in the Business World: The Impact of the Decarbonization Revolution” was broadcast. She is the author of “Datsu plastic heno Chosen”(Working Towards Plastic Reduction). Vice Chairman of the Japanese Forum of Environmental Journalists. Provisional member of the Central Environmental Council. Expert member of the Environment and Energy Science and Technology Committee of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Reiko Kuroda

Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo, Specially Appointed Professor at Chubu University

Kuroda is Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, a TWAS Fellow, a member of the Club of Rome and a member of the W20 Steering Committee. She was formerly an Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.In 2012, she became a Professor at the Tokyo University of Science. In 2019, she joined Chubu University. She has received the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award, the Saruhashi Prize, the Nissan Science Award, the Yamazaki-Teiichi Prize, the Academia Prize of the Academic Society of Japan, the Prime Minister’s Commendation and a Commendation by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Shinji Isoya

Landscape architect, President of Fukui Prefectural University

Doctor of Agriculture, landscape architect and environmental scientist, active in landscape policy, environmental planning and regional planning. He has served as a member of the Science Council of Japan (as Chairman of the Environmental Studies Committee), President of the Landscape Institute of Japan, President of the Society of Living Science of Japan, President of the Outdoor Education Society of Japan, President of Tokyo University of Agriculture, as well as Director of the Fukui Satoyama Satoumi Lake Research Institute in 2013.

Haruo Funabashi

Representative Director of Sirius Institute

Funabashi was born in Tokyo in 1946. After graduating from the University of Tokyo, he joined the Ministry of Finance.
He served successively as Deputy Director of the National Tax Agency, Director General of the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission and Deputy Director of Land Transportation among other roles. Currently, he is Representative Director of Sirius Institute Co., Ltd. He is a visiting professor at the Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy. He is currently expanding his work with think tanks and consulting activities, mainly in the field of corporate ethics.

Yasuhiko Ito

Natural history filmmaker, insect researcher

Born in 1963 in Tokyo, Ito is a producer of natural history films and a biological researcher. After studying zoology at Gakushuin University and Minnesota State University, he enrolled in a doctoral program for marine biology at Tokai University, but left in the first term.

For over 20 years, he has travelled the world as a director of nature programs, producing numerous NHK nature programs and other shows. His great-grandfather was Hirobumi Ito, the first Prime Minister of Japan.

Kazuhisa Tsuboki

Professor, Institute for Space–Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University

Born in 1962. Meteorologist. Professor at the Institute for Space and Earth Environment, Nagoya University. Graduated from the Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University. After graduating from the Graduate School of Science at Hokkaido University, he worked as a research fellow at the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University), an assistant professor at the Institute of Oceanography at the University of Tokyo, an assistant professor at the Institute of Atmospheric and Hydrological Sciences, Nagoya University, and an associate professor at the Center for Global Hydrological Research, Nagoya University, before becoming a professor.

Ai Futaki

Aquatic artist, Guinness World Record holder, Ocean Ambassador for the Ministry of the Environment's "Connect and support forest-village-river-sea" initiative, mymizu Ambassador

Having acquired her second Guinness World Record for the longest cave swim in a single breath, Ai is a one-of-a-kind pioneer that connects land and sea, embodying a sense of unity with the ocean and living things. In addition to being a TEDxTokyo Speaker, she won the Gold Award at the 2012 World Media Festival for the Jyonetsu-Tairiku episode: Ai Futaki. She also appears in the NHK’s special program “Precious Blue,” which has become a series.

Yoshio Kishimoto

Executive director, Monozukuri Seimei Bunmei Kiko

Senior Researcher, Director of Operations, Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation

He joined the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1985. After serving as Director of the Small and Medium Enterprise Management Support Division and Director of the Organization for Small and Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, he was appointed Director-General of the Kyushu Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry in 2014. Beginning in 2003, he served as the first Director-General of the Office of Environment and Economy at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry for two years.

Mitsuo Ogawa

Shrine carpenter

Ogawa was born in Tochigi Prefecture in 1947. In 1966, immediately after graduating from Tochigi Prefectural Ujiie High School, he asked Tsunekazu Nishioka for an apprenticeship, but was refused. After training at a Buddhist altar shop in Iiyama, Hinomisaki Shrine and Sakataru Shrine,he became an apprentice of Nishioka Muneyoshi in 1969. As assistant to the master carpenter, he took part in the reconstruction of the three-storied pagoda of Horin-ji and the main hall and west pagoda of Yakushi-ji. In 1997, he founded Ikaruga Kosha.

Everett Kennedy Brown

Photographer

Brown was born in Washington, D.C., USA in 1959. He settled in Japan in 1988. He was artistic advisor to the International Center for Arts and Culture of Japan and received a commendation from the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs. Author of “Oretachi no Nippon” (Eyes on Japan; Shogakukan), co-author with Mr. Seigo Matsuoka of “Nihonryoku”(The Power of Japan; Parco) and many other titles.