Profile

• Executive Director, Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution / Director, Reserch Center for Disaster Reduction System, Kyoto University

Graduated from Department of Civil Engineering, Kyoto University in 1969, and obtained PhD in 1976 from Kyoto University. He was Associate Professor in 1976, Research Fellow, University of Washington in 1981-82, Fulbright Senior Research Fellow at Princeton University in 1992 and got the full professor position in 1993. Now, he is Director of Research Center for Disaster Reduction Systems, DPRI, Kyoto University and also Executive Director of Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution established at Kobe since 2002. He published more than 400 technical papers and ten books in the fields of urban disasters and their emergency management. He is former President of Japan Society for Natural Disaster Science, Vice Presidents of Japan Society of Disaster Information and also Natural Hazard Society. He received the 1993 Japan Society of Civil Engineers Award and the 1994 Japan Society for Natural Disaster Science Award.

• Chairman, Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Chairman, Osaka Gas Co., Ltd.

After graduation from Kyoto University with BA in law, Nomura joined Osaka Gas Co., Ltd, the second largest gas utility in Japan, in April 1958. Within the company, he experienced various management positions in such fields as gas operations and marketing before serving as Executive Vice President (1994-1998) and President (1998-2003). He was appointed to the present position in June 2003. In the business and economic community in Osaka and the Kansai Region, Nomura served as Vice Chairman of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He was elected Chairman of the organization in March 2004. Within the Japanese gas industry, he serves as Vice Chairman of the Japan Gas Association since June 2002. Other public service affiliation includes; Member of Osaka Public Safety Commission (since 2000).

• Advisor, The Japan Foundation / Chairman, Mori Arts Centre

Passed the Foreign Service Examination in 1955 and Left University of Tokyo (Department of Liberal Arts) in 1956, joining the Foreign Service (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in the same year. He took up his post as Consul-General of Japan to Hong Kong in 1983, Director-General of the North American Bureau in 1985, Deputy Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1988 and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Permanent Delegation of Japan to the OECD in 1989. After serving as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Thailand from 1992 and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Kingdom from 1994, he was appointed to the position of President of the Japan Foundation in 1997. From 2003, he became Advisor to the Japan Foundation, a position he still holds, and became Chairman of the Mori Arts Center in 2004.

• Co-founder, Member, Board of Trustees, and Senior Fellow, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Jakarta

Jusuf Wanandi has long been Indonesia's best known analyst of Southeast Asian regionalism and the politics and foreign policies of Indonesia and the United States. He holds leadership positions in the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific, the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, the Prasetiya Mulya Graduate School of Management in Jakarta, and the Foundation of Panca Bhakti University in Pontianak (West Kalimantan). He heads the company that publishes Indonesia's leading English-language daily, The Jakarta Post. He co-founded Indonesia's most successful foreign-affairs think tank, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.He has co-authored or co-edited more than a dozen books, including Europe and the Asia Pacific (1998), Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region (1993), and Asia and the Major Powers (1988).

• Professor, Graduate School of Law, Kobe University

Graduated (in Law) from Kyoto University in 1967 and completed the master's course (Political Science) at the Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University in 1969. After experience in the posts of Associate Professor at Hiroshima University (1976) and Professor of Political and Diplomatic History at Kobe University (1981), he has served in his present position since 2000. He obtained his Ph.D. at Kyoto University in 1987 and held several research positions including as Visiting Scholar at Harvard University (1977-1979, 2002-2003) and London University (1990-1991).His main publications include U.S. Occupation Policy Towards Japan (two vols) (awarded the Suntory Academic Prize), The Occupation Era: The Prime Ministers and Rebuilding of Postwar Japan (awarded the Yoshino Sakuzo Prize) and The U.S. -Japan War and the Emergence of Postwar Japan (awarded the Yoshida Shigeru Prize). Aside from his academic positions, he also served as Chairman of the Council for the Japan-U.S. Center for International Exchange Fund, Chairperson of Subcommittee I of the Prime Minister's Commission on Japan's Goals in the 21st Century, President of the Japanese Political Science Association (1998-2000) and on the Board of Directors of the Japanese Association for American Studies.