Biography

Junko Edahiro is one of most prominent environmental journalists in Japan. She has translated books of Lester Brown, Al Gore, Dennis Meadows, Donella Meadows, David Suzuki and many others into Japanese, and also writes by herself dozens of books on climate change, energy, happiness, systems thinking, and many other sustainability topics. She promotes and facilitates environmental communication and dialogue among governments, corporations and citizens.

She also invites prominent opinion leaders from the U.S. and Europe, and resides several networking events, which attracts hundreds of business people, policy makers, researchers, and concerned citizens.

She speaks on sustainability outside of Japan, too - in Reykjavik, Balaton, Montpellier, Hong Kong, Thimphu, Beijing, Bandung, London, Stockholm, Berlin, Davos and Washington DC. She also regularly attends the Fourth GNH Conference held in Thimphu, Bhutan in November since2008 as a member from Japan

In 2011, she founded the Institute for Studies in Happiness, Economy and Society (ISHES) to rethink on the relationship among happiness, economy, and society and explore better systems and indicators. ISHES engages in many activities, for example, seminars and study meetings for thinking true happiness in relation with economy and society.

 She was appointed as a professor, Department of Environmental Management, Tokyo City University in September 2014.

Expecting the Olympic and Paralympic Games to be held in Tokyo 2020, she has been serving as a member of Urban Planning and Sustainability experts' commission since 2015.

In 2017, she was appointed as a member-Central Environment Council of the Ministry of the Environment, and Round Table for Studying Energy Situations under the leadership of Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry.

From 2018, she will start teaching at a business school for professionals Shizenkan Leadership School to be launched in the same year, which aims to provide global leadership program to contribute to sustainable and stable development for the world based on the both spiritual values of Japan and Asia and western rationalism.

In the future, she hopes to engage in creating a new integrated system thought needed in the 21st century to be the one for the earth and environment, to be replaced the stagnant modern western thought, the root of the current global challenges in sustainability, while continuing her life work to connect the eastern countries including Japan and the western countries and to collaborate the likeminded professionals throughout the world.

Translation

and more.

Further details on Junko, click here.
https://www.ishes.org/en/aboutus/biography.html