ABOUT

Epo Ishiyama, Founder, Executive Director 

A correspondent based in Bangkok for Mainichi Shimbun

As a Fulbright visiting researcher, she researched migration issues through a scope of domestic workers in the U.S. As a correspondent based in Bangkok, she covers Indo pacific and a wide range of topics but still focuses on migration and human trafficking and the crisis of journalism and democracy in the region.

Hanayo Oya, Founder, Program Manager

A journalist & documentary filmmaker, and an assistant professor at Syracuse University

Oya has dedicated her decade of professional career to journalism and social justice by using the power of reporting to shed light on stories about the most vulnerable members of our society. Her work has won numerous awards and been screened at prominent international documentary festivals, including Busan International Film Festival, the largest film festival in Asia. Oya currently serves as an adjunct researcher at the Institute of the Next Journalism and Media at Waseda University, Japan, where she researches the best journalism practices in the age of digital journalism. As a Fulbright scholar, She has researched at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to producing stories and conducting research, she has dedicated herself to developing aspiring journalists in Japan and around the world. Oya holds a master’s degree in Journalism (Waseda Univ, 2012).

Yasuyuki Saito, Founder, Administrative Manager

A specialist of public opinion polling at The Opinion Research Center of the Asahi Shimbun

He has been conducted opinion polls for 18 years using various kind of methods such as telephone, mail, and the internet, as well as joint international surveys with the United States, South Korea, and other countries. He has also conducted pre-election polls in national and local elections and statistical estimates of winning candidates. He has presented numerous presentations on survey methodology at American Association for Public Opinion Research annual conferences. In 2019, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to research at NORC at the University of Chicago as a visiting scholar, where he conducted research on pre-election poll methods in the U.S. He obtained a master's degree in electrical engineering at Chiba University. He is also currently a part-time lecturer on social survey research methodology at Saitama University.

Asako Takaguchi, Communication & Dissemination Manager

Reporter

Asako has more than 20 years of experience in working as a reporter. Mainly covered an economic field, but also she focused on covering domestic and global human-based feature stories on innovation, start-ups, and people who challenge beyond industrial and national boundaries.
She studied as a Fulbrighter at S.I Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and earned master's degree in New Media Management in 2022.
She also joined in a Jefferson Fellowship hosted by East-West Center in 2009, traveled to China, Hong Kong, and Japan to work with journalists from different countries. Also worked as a lecture at Rikkyo University in Japan and University of Iceland. She has a broad connection with journalists both in and outside the U.S. She also goes abroad to cover several global topics for her stories with her English solid ability.