Yuri Okubo joined the Renewable Energy Institute in 2015 as Climate Change Policy Advisor to develop and implement the Institute’s strategy to promote renewable energy from the climate change policy perspectives.
She started her career working for a NGO (CASA) in Japan and became a research assistant at the Department of Political Science of the University of Zurich where she was engaged in research projects on climate and sustainable development which were funded by the European Parliament, the German Federal Environment Agency and UK organizations. She joined the Foundation myclimate to set up its Japanese affiliation and support the global network. She obtained a master’s degree in International Relations at Kobe City University of Foreign Studies.
At Renewable Energy Institute, she specializes on climate change policies in general and her research focuses on global and domestic coal power business policies and trends. She also takes the lead for joint studies with international organizations.

Michiyo Morisawa is Japan Director of CDP, guiding the initiative since CDP’s global expansion in 2006.
Also, since Principle for Responsible Investment, PRI established the Japan network in 2010, she has expanded its ESG investment as Japan Head of Signatory Relation at PRI.
She has been a member of several committees under the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry. She has experience in international business development of financial services that worked to alleviate the risk of settlement in Citibank and others.
She holds a PhD in Environment from Tokyo University.

John Murton was appointed as the UK’s COP26 Envoy in November 2019. Most recently, he served as Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of Congo and Central African Republic.
John has considerable professional experience, notably in Africa and Asia. His previous appointments have included Deputy High Commissioner at the British High Commission in Nairobi, UK Permanent Representative to the UN in Kenya, UK High Commissioner to Mauritius and Ambassador to Madagascar.
In London, he was Head of the Foreign Ministry department dealing with the UK’s relations with East and South East Asia and Australasia, and has also completed previous postings in Japan and at NATO Headquarters.
Before joining the UK Government, John worked in Zimbabwe and researched his PhD in Kenya.

Seita Emori was born in Kanagawa in 1970. He joined National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) as Researcher in 1997 after completing his doctorate in the University of Tokyo. He has been working as the Deputy Director of Center for Global Environmental Research since 2018, and as the leader of Social Dialogue and Co-production Office since 2016. His area of specialty is future projections and risk studies of climate change. He is a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report (AR5) and 6th Assessment Report (AR6).

After graduating from University of Tokyo, Takejiro Sueyoshi joined the Mitsubishi Bank (the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ) in 1967 and worked for the bank until 1998. During his years with Nikko Asset Management as Deputy President, he was appointed as a member of the UNEP FI Steering Committee. In addition to the involvement in the UNEP FI activities in the Asia Pacific Region, he is giving many educational speeches about environmental problems and CSR/SRI in various government councils, seminars, universities and TV programs. Former member of the Council for Japan’s Prime Minister on Climate Change Policy and  a Trustee member of Carbon Disclosure Project. Currently Vice-Chair of Executive Board of Renewable Energy Institute and Chairperson of WWF Japan.
His publications include “Ondanka Kogi　(A lecture on Global Warming)” (Toyo Keizai), “Yugai Rensa (Chain of Harmfulness)” (Gentousha), “Green New Deal” (Editor,Kankyou Shinbun), “Saishin CSR Jijyo( The Newest Book on CSR)”(Hokuseido).

Member, House of Councillors
(Elected 2013 and 2016, Yamaguchi Prefecture)

Born: April 2, 1957, Tokyo
Party Affiliation: Liberal Democratic Party and Voice of The People
Education:
1980 University of Tokyo, Faculty of Engineering
1982 University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Engineering

Career:
1982 Engineer, Chiyoda Corporation (plant engineering and construction firm)
1990 Lecturer, University of East Asia/part-time lecturer, National Fisheries University
1995 Mayor, Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture (4 consecutive terms)
2010 Visiting Professor, Kurashiki University of Science and The Arts
2013 Elected to the House of Councillors
(Government)
2015 Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
(LDP)
2016 Director, First Cabinet Division, LDP
2017 Director, Fisheries Division, LDP
(HC)
2018 Chairman,Special Committee on Reconstruction after the Great East Japan Earthquake, HC
2019 Chairman, Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the House of Councillors
Deputy Chairperson, Research Commission on Fishery Policies, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Secretary-General, Japan-Nigeria Parliamentary Friendship League

Current Responsibilities:
State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry The director-general of the local nuclear emergency response headquarters

Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP)
Member of the House of Councillors
Proportional representation (elected once)

Biography
December 7, 1951 Born
March 1970 Graduated from Kochi Senior High School
March 1975 Graduated from Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law, Chuo University
June 1976 Joined a Law Office
August 1981 Joined Asahi Tatemono Co., Ltd.
April 1988 Returned to Sukumo City and inherited the family business (Aquaculture)
1989 Representative Director, Yamadai Fishery Co., Ltd.
April 1995 Elected to Sukumo City Assembly for the first time
April 1999 Elected to Kochi Prefectural Assembly for the first time
April 2003 Reelected to Kochi Prefectural Assembly (second term)
April 2007 Reelected to Kochi Prefectural Assembly (third term)
April 2011 Reelected to Kochi Prefectural Assembly (fourth term)
May 2011 Chairman, Kochi Prefectural Assembly
July 2016 Elected to the House of Councillors for the first time (24th General Election)
October 2018 Director, Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense, House of Councillors
September 2020 Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs (Suga Cabinet)

Family: Wife and two children
Hobbies: Karate-do and fishing

Nigel Topping is the UK’s High-Level Climate Action Champion, appointed by the UK Prime Minister in January 2020. Nigel works alongside the Chilean High-Level Climate Action Champion, Gonzalo Muñoz. The role of the high-level champions is to strengthen collaboration and drive action from businesses, investors, organisations, cities, and regions on climate change, and coordinate this work with governments and parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Nigel was most recently CEO of We Mean Business, a coalition of businesses working to accelerate the transition to a zero carbon economy. Prior to that he was Executive Director of the Carbon Disclosure Project, following an 18 year career in the private sector, having worked across the world in emerging markets and manufacturing.

Masako Konishi holds Ph.D.in social governance from Hosei University, and MPA focusing on environmental policies from Harvard University.  She engages in UN climate change negotiation since 2005 and has been recognized as one of the experts on climate and energy policies.  She also serves as the Specially Appointed Professor for Showa Women University since 2017.  She is a certified meteorologist with twenty years’ experience as a broadcast journalist, and received the best weather presenter award at International Weather Festival in Paris in 2002.
She is a member of Public Advisory Committees of Ministry of Environment, Tokyo government, and 2020 Tokyo Olympic/Paralympic Sustainable Committee.  She is the author/co-author of many books, of which the most recent one from Routledge, “Routledge  Handbook of Environmental Journalism, Part IV: Environmental Coverage in Asia and Australia;  25. The status and Future of Environmental Journalism in Japan”.

Kazuhiro Inoda was born in Kyoto City. He started working at Kyoto City Government in 1990 and was inducted the Supervising Director of Global Environment and Energy in 2020. Last year, Kyoto City announced “Net Zero CO2 emissions by 2050” on the occasion of the 49th session of IPCC held in Kyoto. Inoda is tackling to review ordinance and climate action plan toward achieving the goal.

Head of the Responsible Investment Department of the Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co, Ltd since 2019. Prior to the Responsible Investment Department, Ishii was the head of Alternative Investment Group in the Equity Investment Dept. Prior to the Equity Investment Dept., Ishii was the head of Domestic Corporate Bond Investment Group in Fixed Income Investment Dept. and has 13 year experiences of credit analysis. Joined Dai-ichi Life in 1993.

17 years old. Inspired by Greta Thunberg and Severn Cullis-Suzuki, Saori Iwano started taking action on climate change in 2019 and as a member of Youth For One Earth, engaging in activities that call for climate action among youth in Japan. The organization hosted the Climate Crisis Youth Summit in February 2020 and gathered over 100 youth from throughout Japan. Her current activities expands to Japan’s climate measures and energy policy at different organizations.

Joined MARUI Co., Ltd. (now MARUI GROUP) in 1998. After working at a sales store, public relations, women’s shoes buyer, have been service product development officer and card planning in the Financial Sector since 2003. From 2005 to 2017, worked as a full-time officer of the Labor Union (Marui Group Union) and worked as a contact point for labor-management negotiations. In 2017, served as chief manager of Kitasenjyu Marui store and as manager of Nakano Marui since 2018, and has been in current position since April 2019.

Date of Birth : April 14, 1981
Place of Birth : Kanagawa, Japan
Political Party : Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Constituency : Kanagawa 11, Elected 4 times

Education
1988 – 2000 : Attended Kanto Gakuin Mutsuura Elementary, Junior, and Senior High School
2004 : Bachelor’s Degrees in Economics, Kanto Gakuin University, Kanagawa, Japan
2006 : Master of Arts in Political Science, Columbia University, New York, United States
Career
2006 : Research Associate at Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Washington, D.C., United States
2007 : Secretary to Junichiro KOIZUMI, Member of the House of Representatives
2008 : Chair for LDP Kanagawa Prefecture House of Representatives 11th Electoral District Branch
2009 : Elected to the House of Representatives (45th Election)
2011 : Director, Youth Division, LDP
2012 : Elected to the House of Representatives (46th Election)
2013 : Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Cabinet Office / Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Reconstruction
2014 : Elected to the House of Representatives (47th Election)
2015 : Director, Agriculture and Forestry Division, LDP
2017 : Chief Deputy Secretary-General, LDP / Elected to the House of Representatives (48th Election)
2018 : Director, Health, Labor and Welfare Division, LDP
2019:　 Minister of the Environment / Minister of State for Nuclear Emergency Preparedness

Family : Wife
Hobby：Baseball, Surfing, Reading, Rakugo, Bunraku (Japanese traditional puppetry)

Hiroko Kuniya started her carrier in broadcasting as a translator and an announcer of NHK（Japan Broadcasting Corporation）’s Seven O’clock evening News in 1981. From 1989 to 1993, she was assigned as an anchor of “World News” on NHK BS. She hosted “Close-up Gendai”, a daily current affairs program on NHK-TV from 1993 to 2016. She is a Trustee of Tokyo University of the Arts, a Trustee of Taylor Anderson Memorial Fund and a board member of U.S.-Japan Council. In May 2017, she was appointed to UN FAO National Goodwill Ambassadors to Japan and worked as a journalist covering topics related to the Sustainable Development Goals （SDGs）.
Awarded Broadcast Woman Prize in 1998, Kan KIKUCHI Award in 2002, Japan National Press Club Prize in 2011 and Galaxy Special Prize in 2016. She graduated from Brown University, US.

Born in 1960. Became a public servant to make Japan a more positive nation.
As a member of the Ministry of Home Affairs (now Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications), engaged local governments to promote regional growth with support from the national government, working in Yamaguchi, Iwate, Kanagawa and Ehime Prefectures.
From January 2001 to June 2004, served as Director General of the Planning Bureau of Nagano Prefecture followed by Vice Governor, promoting prefectural government reforms.
In 2007, resigned from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications under the belief that change is best achieved not through the central government, but from within individual regions.
In October 2009, after serving as Vice Mayor of Yokohama City, population 3.
7 million, was appointed as a private citizen to Vice Director of the Administrative Reform Secretariat of the Cabinet Office, where he oversaw budget screening to help reform the central government from the people’s perspective.
In September 2010, assumed the office of Governor of Nagano Prefecture and is now in his third term. Strives to build an active and bright prefecture through dialogue and cooperation with citizens.

Kamon Iizumi graduated from the Faculty of Law at Tokyo University in March 1984 and joined the Ministry of Home Affairs in April of the same year. He served as the head of the Local Public Finance Division of Yamanashi Prefecture and of Saitama Prefecture in 1993 and 1995, respectively. He was appointed various positions such as the Head of the Regional ICT Project Promotion Office in the Communications Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and as the Planning Director for Local Tax in the Policy Planning Division within the Local Tax Bureau at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. From 2001, he served as the Head of the Commerce, Industry and Labour Department and as the Head of the Environment and Citizens’ Affairs Department at the Tokushima Prefectural Government. In May 2003, he was elected as the Governor of Tokushima Prefecture and is currently serving his fifth term in office. He has been acting as chair of the Renewable Energy Council since 2013 and President of the National Governors’ Association since 2019.

Notable Positions
President of the National Governors’ Association
Member of the Governors’ Alliance for Supporting the Future Generation for the Revitalization of Japan
Chair of the Renewable Energy Council

Yuriko Koike was born in Hyogo Prefecture in 1952.
She graduated from BA in Sociology, Cairo University (October 1976).

She has been the Governor of Tokyo since July 2016. In July 2020, she was re-elected to her second term of office.
Prior to being elected to the post, she was active in national politics. She was a member of the House of Councilors and the House of Representatives for a total of 24 years from 1992, during which she has held major posts including Minister of the Environment, Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister for National Security Affairs, Minister of Defense, and Director of the Committee on Budget of the House of Representatives. As the first woman to serve as the Minister of Defense and the Governor of Tokyo, she is paving the way for women to be more active in society.

Hiroshi OZEKI joined Nippon Life Insurance Company after graduation from the University of Tokyo in 1987 and has held various roles in loan portfolio management, risk management, corporate strategies, hybrid capital finance, investor relations, ALM, and Asset Allocation of the Life Insurance General Account. Most recently, he has held an executive management role in New York as Regional CEO for the Americas and Europe of Nippon Life.
He was promoted to General Manager of Finance and Investment Planning Department in 2008. Continuing in his capacity as General Manager, Mr. OZEKI was assigned to Credit and Alternative Investment Department in 2009 where he worked for two years before being assigned to Investment Planning Department at Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Company.
In 2013, OZEKI returned to Finance and Investment Planning Department assuming the role of General Manager and a year later, he was promoted to Chief Investment Officer and became a member of the Board & Executive Officer. In 2018, OZEKI moved to New York and became the Managing Executive Officer, Regional CEO for the Americas and Europe and a member of the Board at Nippon Life Insurance Company.
In 2020, OZEKI was appointed to his current position of President and Chief Executive Officer at Nissay Asset Management Corporation.
OZEKI obtained a B.A. in Physics from the University of Tokyo and an A.M.P. from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He is also a Chartered Member of the Security Analysts Association of Japan.
He was awarded The Securities Analysts Journal Prize (1999) from the Security Analysts Association of Japan for his article on benchmark application to fixed income investments.

After coming from Hiroshima and receiving an MA in Humanities from Gakushuin University Graduate School in Tokyo, Minako Suematsu tested her hands in an internet based startup company.  In 2001, she helped News2u Co.,Ltd. to be established and then in 2017, appointed as the president of News2u Holdings Inc.  Later that year, she became the Chairperson and Publisher of The Japan Times, Ltd. In 2020, appointed as the Chairperson, Publisher and President of the Japan Times.  Minako has finalized the steps of the opening of an European style boarding school In Setouchi “Jinseki International School”,  the first certified elementary boarding school in Japan which opened in April 2020.