Mr. Akashi graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1954. As a Fulbright Scholar, he studied at the University of Virginia and later at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.  He joined the United Nations Secretariat in 1957 and held numerous positions in the UN.  After serving as Ambassador at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations, he was appointed as UN Under-Secretary-General for Public Information and later for Disarmament Affairs, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Cambodia and then for the Former Yugoslavia, and then Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs until the end of 1997. He is currently Chairman of the Kyoto International Conference Center and Vice-President of the United Nations Association of Japan.

Dr. Hasegawa obtained a Ph.D. in international relations from Washington University, USA. Since 1969, he served the UN system for 37 years as the Resident Representative and  Coordinator of the UN system in the South Pacific, Rwanda, and Timor-Leste and in other capacities. General manager of the UNV Electoral Supervisors in Cambodia and Policy and Planning, UNOSOM II in Somalia before he was appointed UNDP Deputy Assistant Administrator for Asia and the Pacific, and later Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Timor-Leste and head of UN peace operations, UNMISET, UNOTIL, and UNMIT (2004-2006). He is currently a Distinguished Professor at Kyoto University of the Arts, Executive Director for Academic Exchange of UN Association of Japan, and President of GPAJ and AFICS-Japan.

Dr. Shinyo graduated from Osaka University and joined Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1972. He later studied international law in Germany at the University of Göttingen. Throughout his career, he served at embassies in Switzerland, China, and Germany. His roles in the Ministry included Director of Disarmament and UN Policy Divisions, and later, Director-General of the Multilateral Cooperation Department. He was appointed Ambassador to the UN and Germany. Retiring in 2012, he became Vice-President of Kwansei Gakuin University and is currently Dean at the same institution. He authored several books on UN and foreign policy, with one translated into German. Fluent in English and German. Dr. Shinyo chairs the NPO “Malaria No More Japan” since 2013.

Tadamichi Yamamoto is a diplomat, who served as UN Secretary-General's Special Representative and Head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) from 2016 to 2020. He served as a Japanese diplomat for 40 years from 1974. He was the Director in charge when Japan led the international efforts for peace in Cambodia, 1992-94; Director in charge of North America; Heads of political sections in the Philippines, Republic of Korea and the United States; Director-General for Public Diplomacy; Ambassador to Hungary (2012-2014) and Permanent Representative to UNESCO (2008-2010). He served as the Special Representative of Japan for Assistance to Pakistan and Afghanistan (2010-12), and was in charge of organizing the Ministerial Conference on Assistance to Afghanistan held in Tokyo (July 2012).

Inspector, Joint Inspection Unit of the United Nations System. Professor Emeritus, Osaka University. After graduating from Sophia University and obtained Master’s degree from the University of Tokyo's Graduate Division of International and Interdisciplinary Studies, he received his doctorate (International Public Policy) from Osaka University. He served as a special assistant at the Embassy of Japan in the United States, a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University, and a Senior Researcher at the Japan Institute of International Affairs before taking up positions at Osaka University, including Professor, Dean and Executive Vice President. He served twice at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations as a minister-counselor (2006-08) and as an Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative (2017-20). Members of the Board of Directors of the United Nations Association of Japan.

Born in 1944, Mie, Japan. BA and MA from University of Tokyo, PhD from Monash University, Australia. Taught at University of Indonesia, University of Malaya, University of Tokyo, then professor at Hosei University up to 2015. Also visiting Johns Hopkins University, University College, Oxford, and United Nations University, Tokyo. Served as President of Peace Studies Association in Japan, President of World Federation of UNESCO Clubs and Associations. Specialist on Southeast Asian Politics. His work on Southeast Asian politics in the 1980’s was awarded by IDE-JETRO.

Kae Yanagisawa has long-term experience in development cooperation, working at Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for more than 30 years.  Her major posts at JICA were Director of the Secretariat of Japan Disaster Relief Team, Director of East, Central Asia and the Caucasus Department, and Vice President. Then she was appointed as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the Republic of Malawi in 2016 and assumed the post till 2019. She had also been associated with the UN, serving as Senior Advisor on South-South cooperation of UNDP for three years.  Her current interests are political, security and economic issues of Africa.  She earned her master’s degree at the School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University.

Graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo in 1970. Joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 1999 Consul General of Japan in Los Angeles, 2001 Director-General for Economic Cooperation, 2002 Director-General for Foreign Policy, 2005 Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs (Political Affairs), 2007 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Canada and Representative of the Japanese Governmentto the International Civil Aviation Organization, 2010 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of the Government of Japan to the United Nations. In 2014, he became Director of the Hiroshima University Peace Center (current name), and in 2017 he became the center’s Honorary Director. He also serves as  Director of the United Nations University,Director of the TERASAKI CENTER at UCLA (USA), and Director of the East West Institute.Specially Appointed Professor of Kanagawa University from 2019.

He has exhibited sculptures in solo exhibitions, public competitions, and group exhibitions since 1967, and has been working mainly in the field of display work since 1972. 1983, he was in charge of doll production for Issey Miyake's "Body Works. Since then, he has worked with fashion designers to create many new mannequins. Major works include Issey Miyake's "Heart Exhibition" and "AUN Exhibition," Tomio Mori's "Mori's Clothes," and Rei Kawakubo's "Three Women Exhibition. He has also been involved in art direction and venue composition for museum exhibitions such as "Masks of Equatorial Africa," "Music and Instruments of Latin Africa," "KENZO," and "Contemporary Javanese Chintz," all at the National Museum of Ethnology. In industry-academia collaboration, he has worked on numerous projects, including the Nijo Castle Light-up and the Matsue Samurai Procession. He is constantly expanding the scope of his activities under the theme of "What is a people-friendly space?

Gonguuji of Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine. Visiting Fellow at the Kokoro Reserch Center of Kyoto University (2017-) Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Japanese Culture of Kyoto Sangyo University (2017-)Member of the Council for Gender Equality, Kyoto Prefecture (2013-2016)Religious Representative of the Scout Association of Japan (2013-) Councilor of the Association of Shinto Shrines (2013-) Vice chief priest of Iwashimizu-Hachimangu shrine (2013-) Executive Secretary of the Junior Chamber International Japan (2008-2009) Secretary-General of Japan Religious Committee for World Federation (2006)

Miki Sugimura is Professor of comparative and international education of Faculty of Human Sciences at Sophia University and has served as Visiting Professor at the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies for Sustainability (UNU-IAS), Senior Program Officer at the Research Center for Science Systems at the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Visiting Fellow at the JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development, a board member of the UN Association of Japan, and Vice-Chair of the Promotion of Sustainability in Postgraduate Education and Research Network under UNU-IAS. She was a member of the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO (2016-2022), and President of the Japan Society for Comparative Education (2017-2023). She was a member of the International Expert Group on the revision of UNESCO's 1974 Recommendation.