Takako Izumi has been an associate professor at the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University, Japan, since 2013. She also serves as a program coordinator of the Multi-Hazards Program under the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), which comprises 60 universities and academic institutes in the Pacific Rim. She holds a Ph.D. in global environmental study from Kyoto University, Japan. Her research interests include international and regional frameworks and strategies for disaster risk reduction, international humanitarian assistance, and disaster risk reduction (DRR) initiatives at local and community levels. Since May 2015, she has been a member of the Asia-Pacific Scientific and Technical Advisory Group (AP-STAG) to support the efforts of governments and stakeholders in the implementation of the Sendai Framework for DRR.
Miwa Abe became an associate professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Sciences, TokaiUniversity, Japan, in 2022. She received her Ph.D. in global environmental study from Kyoto University, Japan. Her research interests include disaster recovery policy, social-environmental adaptation by resettlement after natural disasters at the local level, and crisis management by national and local administration. Previously, she had 7 year of experience as a firefighter in Kitakyushu City, Japan. After she joined academia, she worked for sustainable community development and community environmental management in Indonesia and other Asian countries under the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) Kitakyushu Urban Center as a researcher.
Kumiko Fujita is a researcher at the International Consortium on Landslides. She has more than 20 years of experience in education, research, and development for natural hazard-induced disaster risk reduction, with a Ph.D. in global environmental studies from Kyoto University, Japan. Her expertise is in applying Japanese technologies of mitigating and preventing natural hazard-induced disasters, such as landslides, debris flow, erosion, and flooding, to social implementation in disaster areas in Asian countries. She has coordinated training courses for foreign engineers provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). She also has coordinated science programs offered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Indonesia.
Rajib Shaw is a professor in the Graduate School of Media and Governance in Keio University, Japan. He is also a senior fellow of the Institute of Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) Japan and the chairperson of the Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS) Asia and the Church World Service (CWS) Japan, two Japanese NGOs. He is also a co-founder of a Delhi (India)-based social entrepreneur start-up, the Resilience Innovation Knowledge Academy (RIKA). Earlier, he was theexecutive director of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) and was a professor in Kyoto University. His expertise includes disaster governance, community-based disaster risk management, climate change adaptation, urban risk management, and disaster and environmental education. He is also the coordinating lead author (CLA) for the Asia chapter's 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has published 58 books and over 400 academic papers and book chapters.