Profile

President, Hyogo Earthquake Memorial 21st Century Research Institute; Former Governor, Hyogo Prefecture

Born in 1933. After graduating from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law in 1956, he joined the Ministry of Home Affairs. He served Hyogo Prefecture as Director of the Regional Section of the General Affairs Department in 1970, and later as Vice Governor in 1980. He was sworn in as Governor of Hyogo Prefecture in 1986 and served four terms over a span of 15 years. Currently, in addition to his present post, he serves as Director of the Hyogo Regional Policy Foundation and Headmaster of Hotoku Gakuen.

Professor, Bukkyo University; Former Japanese Ambassador to Sweden and Latvia

Born in 1940. Graduated from University of Tokyo Faculty of Law in March 1962.

Entered Ministry of Finance in April 1962. He assumed the post of Deputy Director-General of the Budget Bureau at Ministry of Finance, Deputy Vice Minister of Economic Planning Agency, Director-General of the Financial Bureau at Ministry of Finance, and Assistant Chief Cabinet Secretary for Internal Affairs. After he left the Ministry of Finance, he stayed in Stockholm as Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Sweden and Latvia from 1997 to 2000. Then, he assumed the president of the Japan Regional Development Corporation, a Senior Advisor to Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd. and he is currently appointed also as a director of Keimeisha foundation, a director of Poppins International Institute for Child Sciences and the chief director of WAC (Wonderful Aging Club), etc. beside his main assignment as a professor at Bukkyo University.

President, Integrative Medicine Japan; Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo

He was born in Osaka in 1928. Graduated from Faculty of Medicine, the University of Tokyo in 1954. He entered Tokyo University Hospital (Kimoto Surgery) and specialized in Cardio Surgery. He was appointed as a professor of Institute of Medical Electronics at the University of Tokyo in 1965. He established a world record in the survival time of a goat implanted with an artificial heart in 1989. After mandatory retirement at the University of Tokyo, he was appointed as President of Suzuka University of Medical Science, as a chairman of Medical Section in Science Council of Japan, and so on, then he founded Japanese Association for Alternative, Complementary and Traditional Medicine (JACT) in 1998 and also Integrative Medicine Japan (IMJ) in 2000 to be appointed as a chief director. He takes "a road to the integrative medicine" to realize "the medicine for the people".

Professor, Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, Kobe University

After studying doctoral course at the Law School of Kyoto University, he joined the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University as research associate in 1981. He then moved to the Faculty of General Education, Okayama University as associate professor in 1987. In 1993 he joined the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, Kobe University as associate professor and as professor since 1996. He served as dean to the same graduate school between January 2004 and December 2005.

He was seconded to the Japanese Embassy in the Philippines twice. The first assignment was political attaché between April 1992 and March 1994 and the second was Minster in charge of research and study between September 2008 and March 2010. He is specialized in Southeast Asian politics centering on the Philippine.