Climate & Energy Policy Seminar "Key Issues in Formulating the Strategic Energy Plan"

Yukari Takamura
Professor, The University of Tokyo

Her specialties are international law and environmental law. She graduated from the Faculty of Law at Kyoto University and completed doctoral coursework at the Graduate School of Law, Hitotsubashi University. After serving as a professor at Ryukoku University, a professor at the Graduate School of Nagoya University, and a professor at the Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IR3S) at the University of Tokyo, she has been a professor at the Institute for Future Initiatives at The University of Tokyo, since April 2019. She is a member of the Science Council of Japan, and has served as Vice President (in charge of international affairs) of its 25th term since October 2020. She was a visiting researcher at the University of London (2000–2001).
She also serves as Chair of the Central Environment Council, Chair of the Tokyo Metropolitan Environment Council, Chair of the Procurement Price Calculation Committee for the Feed-in Tariff Scheme for Renewable Energy, a member of the Asian Development Bank's Advisory Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development, and a Councilor of the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), among other roles. She is an editorial board member of the journals Sustainability Science and Climate Policy.
Her major edited works include Contemporary Developments in Environmental Regulation (co-edited with Noriko Okubo and others), The Dynamism of Climate Change Policy (co-edited with Hidenori Niizawa), and Climate Change and International Cooperation (co-edited with Yasuko Kameyama), among others. She received the Minister of the Environment Award for Meritorious Service in Environmental Conservation in fiscal year 2018.

Kenji Shiraishi
Researcher, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

After earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering from The University of Tokyo, he joined the Ministry of the Environment, where he worked on domestic and international climate change policy, and waste and recycling policy. After serving as Deputy Director at the Ministry and as General Manager of the Business Division at the Global Environment Centre Foundation, and studying at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, he currently researches renewable energy policy in Asia, including Japan, at the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Seiya Miyake
Representative Director, Renewable Energy Promotion Organization

After 13 years in the nuclear power division of Kansai Electric Power, he worked as a consultant across various industries at Arthur D. Little Japan and KPMG Consulting. He joined Minna Denryoku (now Updater) in 2016, where, as the head of its electricity program, he worked on developing a blockchain-based peer-to-peer electricity trading platform, among other initiatives. In January 2023, he founded the Renewable Energy Promotion Organization and became its Representative Director and President. He also serves as Representative Director of the Renewable Energy Advancement Power Companies Council (REAP).

Shintaro Yokokawa
General Manager, Siting, Power Source and Environment Department, The Federation of Electric Power Companies

He joined Kansai Electric Power in 1995 and worked on operations, maintenance, and planning at thermal power plants. At the head office, he was long involved in energy and environmental policy affecting the electric power sector, including climate change and air and water quality.
He has also been engaged in programs related to carbon credits and energy development in Japan and overseas, and has been on assignment at The Federation of Electric Power Companies since 2023. He handles policy matters including environmental policy related to GX, nuclear power siting, and safety for thermal and hydroelectric power generation.

Kaname Ogawa
Director, Policy Division, Electricity and Gas Industry Department, Agency for Natural Resources and Energy

He joined the then Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1997. In 2000, he studied at Yale University in the United States and earned a master's degree in international relations. From 2008 to 2010, he worked at the Mission of Japan to the European Union in Brussels. After returning to Japan, he spent three years as Deputy Director of the Policy Division of the Electricity and Gas Industry Department at the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy and of the General Policy Division of the Minister's Secretariat, working on the response to the Great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent review of energy policy. From 2015 to 2018, he promoted electricity market liberalization as Director of the Electric Power Industry and Market Office at the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy. From 2020, for four years, he served as Director of the Electric Power Infrastructure Division, handling electricity supply-demand measures and power network policy, and has held his current position since July 2024.

Kimiko Hirata
Executive Director, Climate Integrate

After working at a publishing company and gaining experience with an environmental organization in the United States, she worked at Kiko Network, an NPO, from 1998 to 2021. She has more than 20 years of experience analyzing and communicating on UN climate change negotiations (COP meetings) and climate and energy policy. Following the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, she worked to oppose plans to build coal-fired power plants, leading to the cancellation of many such plans, and was also recognized for shareholder proposals to financial institutions. In recognition of this work, she received the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize (the third Japanese recipient, and the first Japanese woman to be awarded the prize). In 2022, she was named to the BBC's "100 Women" list. She founded Climate Integrate in 2022, to provide fact-based information and support stakeholders' efforts in advancing decarbonization. She is a visiting associate professor at the Graduate School of Chiba University of Commerce and an advisor promoting environmental policy for Ichikawa City. She graduated from the University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo, and earned a PhD in Social Sciences from Waseda University.