SSS

Tomoaki Ishigaki

Director, Climate Change Division, International Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan

Mr. Tomoaki Ishigaki, Director of the Climate Change Division, has served for over 20 years in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has undertaken various responsibilities in international trade, legal affairs, U.S.-Japan security policy, and Japan’s security and disarmament policy at the United Nations. He also worked as Counsellor of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau (2010-2013) and Executive Assistant to Prime Minister Abe’s Economic and Fiscal Policy Advisor (2006-2007). He currently oversees Japan’s climate change policy and coordinates with relevant ministries in leading the negotiations on international rule-making as well as climate finance. He is a graduate of Amherst College and studied law at the University of Tokyo before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has written a number of articles on international law and disarmament affairs, spoken at various conferences and taught at Japanese universities on these subjects.

SSS

Tsuyoshi Fujita

Director, Center for Social and Environmental Systems Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES)

Professor Tsuyoshi Fujita is also Visiting Professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology in the field of applied energy, Alliance Professor of Nagoya University in the field of environmental science, as well as Visiting Professor of United Nations University in Japan. His research fields are eco industrial development, low carbon city, urban environment simulation system, circular economy planning and spatial LCA, where he has published around seventy journal papers. He is engaged in several national research projects to develop integrative urban technology and policy simulation system for Japanese and Asian cities and regions. He received a doctor of engineering degree from the University of Tokyo in 1997 as well as a MCP (Master of City Planning) degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991.

Moderator

Rajib Shaw

Professor, Graduate School of Media and Governance / Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus

Prof. Rajib Shaw is a Japanese national of Indian origin. Also a Senior Fellow of IGES and the Chairperson of SEEDS Asia, a Japanese NGO. Earlier, he was the Executive Director of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR), a decade-long research program co-sponsored by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC), the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and a Professor in the Graduate School of Kyoto University. His expertise includes community-based disaster risk management, climate change adaptation, urban risk management, and disaster and environmental education. He is a member of the United Nations global Science Technology Advisory Group (STAG); and the Co-chair of the Asia Science Technology Academic Advisory Group (ASTAAG). He is the editor of a book series on disaster risk reduction, published by Springer and has published extensively scientific journals and books.

SSS

Takeshi Komino

General Secretary, CWS Japan

Mr. Takeshi Komino also serves as General Secretary for Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN), Regional Steering Group member of World Humanitarian Summit (WHS), board member of Core Humanitarian Standard. In addition, he plays joint secretariat function for Japan CSO Coalition for DRR (JCC-DRR), Steering Group member of Humanitarian Innovation Forum Japan. He graduated from Doshisha University, and holds Development Studies M.A. from Brandeis University.

SSS

Mikio Ishiwatari

Senior Advisor, Disaster Management and Water Resources Management, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

Dr. Mikio Ishiwatari worked at the World Bank as Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist and as the focal point for the “Learning from Mega-disaster: Lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake” project in Tokyo. He led formulation of the Japanese assistance approaches of climate change adaptation and community-based disaster management and led the preparation and supervision of various JICA projects. He was instrumental in producing several project reviews and papers in the field of disaster risk reduction. Earlier, he worked at various positions of water resources management at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, Japan for 17 years. He worked as Urban Development Specialist at the Asian Development Bank.