Alex Kerr
Chairman of Iori Co., Ltd. Researcher of Eastern Culture.
Born in 1952 in Maryland, USA. In 1964, he came to Japan with his family ifor the first tine, and lived in Yokohama. Graduating Yale University and Oxford University in UK, majoring Japanese studies and Chinese studies respectively, he came back in 1977 to live in Kameoka, Kyoto. Ever since, he has been involved in the East Asian Traditional Culture,. In 2004, he founded Iori Company based in Kyoto that restores traditional old town houses and consults on regional development. Published "Lost Japan" (Shinchosha. 1993. Won Shincho-Gakugeisho), Dogs and Demons (Kodansha, 2002), Bangkok Found (River Books, 2009)
Eisuke KUMANO
Amita Corporation
Representative Director and President & CEO
Mr. Kumano was born in 1956 in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. He joined Sumieito Kosan Co., Ltd. (currently Amita Corporation) in April 1979 and has been Representative Director since November 1993.
Pursuing the goal of achieving a sustainable society, he initiated a business of material-recycling before any of Amita's competitors. In 2005, he founded the Amita Institute for Sustainable Economies (AISE) and in 2007 he established the Shinrin no Bokujo open range and dairy farm, also known as La prairie de la forêt [The meadow of the forest]. The company is broadening its business range as a provider of total environmental solutions. Currently, he is a board member of the Global Compact Board Japan, a part-time lecturer at Tohoku University, and the chairperson of both the Shinrai Shihon Zaidan and the Earth Design School, a Japanese NPO. His books include Shikou suru kanpanii [New Company Design] (published by Gentosha) and Shizen sangyou no seki [Century of the Nature Industry] (published by Soshinsha and AISE).
Amita Holdings Co., Ltd. www.amita-net.co.jp
Teruo KUROSAKI
Sasugasouzoushuudan Co., Ltd.
CEO
Mr. Kurosaki was born in Tokyo in 1949 and graduated from Waseda University, Dept. of Physics and Dept. of Applied Physics. After working as an importer and seller of antique furniture, he established IDEE and is broadly developing it as a business for cultural lifestyles centered on the theme of "Quest for Life." It involves both sales planning for original furniture as well as domestic and international designer productions. In addition, he is continually engaging in the creation of urban landscapes through endeavors such as the Tokyo Designers Block and the R-project. In 2005, he founded Sasugasouzoushuudan Co., Ltd. In September of 2005, he opened Schooling-Pad as a new place of learning within the Ikejiri Institue of Design (IID), which was built out of an abandoned middle school. In June 2006, he began conducting courses at Freedom University, which offers a free environment of teaching and learning. He is also a culture advisor at United Nations University.
Kurotero Blog www.kuroteru.com
Yoshiaki NISHIMURA
Living World
Planning Director/Representative Director
Mr. Nishimura was born 1964 in Tokyo and graduated from Musashino Art University. He is involved in three types of work: creating, writing, and teaching. He is the Representative Director of Living World, a design office primarily involved in community design. He is currently a part-time lecturer at Tama Art University. Some of his books as a researcher include Jibun no shigoto wo tsukuru [Make your work!] (published by Shobunsha/Chikumashobo), Jibun wo ikashite ikiru [live alive?] (published by basilico), Jibun no shigoto wo kangaeru mikkakan 1 [Think about your work for 3 days, vol. 1] (published by Koubundou).
Living World www.livingworld.net
Fumikazu MASUDA
Professor, Tokyo Zokei University (industrial design & sustainable projects major)
President, open house inc.
Representative, o2 Japan
Fumi Masuda was born in 1949 at Tokyo, Japan.After he graduated from Tokyo Zokei University, he has worked for a housing industry and a design firm before setting his own office as an independent industrial designer in 1978.
For the first half of his career, he has worked mainly on projects for major Japanese industries, including electric home appliances, electronic devices, audio visual equipments, transportations, packages and many other products from various deferent categories. The latter half of his career has been dedicated more to work for local SMEs as a design consultant. He also started teaching at Universities and design schools in late 1980's. Since 1989, he has been collaborating with o2, a worldwide network of environmentally conscious designers. Besides working on research projects on "design for sustainability", he is always trying to apply the philosophy and the method to his practical daily works.He is hosting "The International Conference of Design for Sustainability since 2006.He is currently specialized in design for sustainability including eco-design, universal design and Kid's design.
Board member; Japan design consultant association,
Jury of Good Design Awards since 1988,
Jury of Kid's Design Awards since 2007.
open house inc. www.openhouse.co.jp
[14th Presentation Profiles]
Chisato Nakahara
Director, Inaka Gaisha Tokyo Shiten
Title: Community Trade that Comes from the Farm
Out of her concern for issues such as poverty and class inequality, Ms. Nakahara, currently a fourth year law student at Keio University, sought out how to tackle these problems on the domestic front where they were closest to her, so she interned at Ryokan Yoshidaya during the summer vacation of her third year at university. Half of the business of Ryokan Yoshidaya is management of a traditional Japanese-style inn, and the other half uses farming to try to cope with problems faced by rural areas. After that, looking for ways to continue such activities in Tokyo, she gathered a handful of students and started the Inaka Gaisha Tokyo Shiten (which means "Rural Company, Tokyo Branch"), an organization which works to connect rural and urban areas. She is currently the director.
Takuto Motomura
President and CEO, Granma
Title: TBA
After completing high school, Mr. Motomura (born 28 April, 1984) started a temp agency in Aichi Prefecture. After gaining a year of business experience, his interest in business intensified, so he went on to fulfill his plans and study for a year in New York. While studying abroad, he traveled to Dhaka in Bangladesh and the African continent, the land of human origins. After experiencing this first-hand look into the fundamental benefits and burdens of capitalism, he turned his gaze to the market comprised of people earning less than 3000 dollars a year, known as the Base of the Pyramid (BOP). Going on-site to observe the underlying needs of people living in such conditions, he established a business that deals with products, from development through distribution, that create new jobs and are also priced profitably yet appropriately for the consumer. In April 2009, he founded Granma Inc. Along with creating CSR-related website and movie contents to support companies' branding and promotions, Granma is also undertaking marketing activities specifically geared to the BOP.
Tak Nishimura
President and CEO, Sow Experience Inc.
Title: TBA
Mr. Nishimura (born in 1981 in Tokyo) won a business plan contest sponsored by Panasonic while still a student in the Economics Department of Keio University. This made him eligible to receive a 30 million yen capital investment, but his project was later canceled. In 2005, he established Sow Experience Inc., a company that sells experiences as gifts. He also teaches "Future Work" at the Ikejiri Institute of Design's Freedom University.
[Facilitator Profiles]
Yoshiharu Sakai
Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization
Mr. Sakai (born in Hiroshima in 1973) graduated from Tokyo Zokei University. In 1997 he began working at the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization and was placed in charge of business operations of the Good Design Award following the system's privatization. He is currently working together with local governments in Tokyo and other areas on construction and implementation of design-related programs and also on collaborations with Asian countries. He is also in charge of planning exhibitions at the Tokyo Midtown Design Hub.
http://www.g-mark.org/
http://www.tokyo-design-market.jp/
Keigo Honda
Full-Time Instructor of Project Design at Kuwasawa Design School
After graduating from Tokyo Zokei University in 1996 and then working in the product planning and development department of an outdoor goods manufacturer, Mr. Honda (born 1974) became a full-time instructor of project design at Kuwasawa Design School. He is also the head of Honda Keigo Design, which plans and designs everyday and leisure goods. Focusing on partnerships with small and medium businesses, his specialties include the development of products that utilize local technologies. He also continues his activities to incorporate methods of Sustainable Design and Eco Design into product design by organizing workshops and other events. He has received the Good Design Award several times, won numerous product design competitions, and is a full member of the Japan Industrial Designers' Association.
Kazutoshi Tsuda
President, Suitendo
Specially Appointed Researcher, On-site Research Center for Sustainability Design, Osaka University Graduate School of Engineering
Mr. Tsuda (born in Shinjo village, Okayama in 1981) completed his master's and then received his doctorate from the Division of Diversity and Fractal Science at the Chiba University Graduate School of Science and Technology. In November 2008, he took a post as a specially appointed researcher at the On-site Research Center for Sustainability Design under the auspices of the Graduate School of Engineering at Osaka University. He is currently a part-time lecturer at Chiba University and the Alumni Association Director of the United Nations University Summer School for Bird's-eye View Experts on Environment. He runs Suitendo as a place where people can share diverse viewpoints in order to paint a more specific picture of sustainable living. He specializes in resource circulation and Sustainable Design.
www.tsudakazutoshi.com
www.suitendo.net