Mariko Oi (moderator)
Mariko Oi has been a reporter/presenter for the BBC since 2006. She is the first and only Japanese reporter at the BBC. Mariko has covered major breaking news such as the Japan earthquake in 2011, US debt crisis in 2013, migrant crisis in 2015, President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima in 2016, the inter-Korean summit, the Trump-Kim Singapore summit and Palu tsunami in 2018, Christchurch mosque shooting, Japanese Emperor’s abdication and enthronement, the Trump-Kim DMZ summit, Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, the Rugby World Cup in 2019, the coronavirus outbreak, US-China trade war in 2020, Tokyo Olympics, China’s debt crisis in 2021, crypto crash, former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination in 2022, Fujitsu’s role in the Post Office scandal in 2023, and the global market sell-off which was triggered by Japan’s rate hike in 2024.

Keiko Kojima
Keiko Kojima appeared on TV and radio for 15 years as an announcer for TBS, winning the Radio DJ Personality Award in the 36th Galaxy Awards in 1999. Since going independent in 2010 she has been very active as a writer and speaker as well as appearing in various media channels. From 2014-23 she worked in Japan while shuttling between there and Perth, Australia, where her husband and two sons had moved for educational purposes. From 2017 to 2025 she was a Guest Researcher (at MeDi: The Association for Radical Review of Media Expression and Diversity) at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies. Since 2019 she has been a Research Fellow at the Institute of Current Business Studies at Showa Women’s University. Photo ©️Aya Kawachi

Kazuko Ito
Kazuko Ito is founder and vice president of Human Rights Now, president of Human Rights Now New York, and an attorney at law.  She is a member of the Gender Equality Committee of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. She is a board member of the Gender Law Society and International Human Rights Law Society in Japan. Ms. Ito has written numerous books and articles on human rights issues, including “Wrongful Convictions and Criminal Justice Reform in Japan” in the University of Cincinnati Law Review, a chapter in the book “The Global Me Too Movement: How Social Media Propelled a Historic Movement and How the Law Responded” (2020), and Business & Human Rights – Changing a society that doesn’t value people (Iwanami Shoten, Publishers, 2025).

Leo Lewis
Leo Lewis is a journalist with over 20 years’ experience in North Asia. He is currently the Tokyo Bureau Chief of the Financial Times, covering Japan’s macroeconomics and politics. In this role, since 2015 he has been reporting on a period of great change in corporate Japan, offering wide ranging cultural insights while keeping readers abreast of developments in financial markets. Prior to joining the FT, he spent 12 years with The Times, first as its Tokyo Correspondent and later China Bureau Chief.

Megumi Inman
Megumi Inman is a documentary director whose work spans feature films, major broadcasters, and streaming platforms. Known for her ability to unravel rich, complex narratives with emotional depth and visually alluring storytelling, she brings a sharp, investigative lens with a sensitive approach to stories that matter. Her work includes the award-winning Atomic People, BBC, 2024 (Co-director & Producer), The Contestant, Hulu, 2024 (Producer), Predator: Secret Scandal of Jpop, BBC, 2023 (Director) and the Oscar and BAFTA-nominated Black Box Diaries, 2024 (Associate Producer). Her fearless storytelling and commitment to truth earned her the Freedom of Press Japan Award from the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in 2023.