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Tsuyako Nakamura is a professor at the Faculty of Global Communications of Doshisha University. Her specialty is women’s labor issues in the U.S. and Japan. Currently, she is researching work-life integration and employment policy for women's advancement with Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Her major publications include co-authored books, Work-Life Integration (2021), Human Resource Management in the Era of EVP (Employee Value Proposition) (2018), Work-life Balance and Management (2017) and Creating Gender Equal Workplace (2004). She finished her Ph.D. course at Doshisha University after obtaining M.A. at Monterey Institute of International Studies in California as a Rotary International student. She was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Stanford University and Harvard University in 2009-2010. She has been active for social leadership programs including TOMODACHI MetLife Women’s Leadership Program as the first-year mentor/chaperone (2013), and Kansai Economic Federation's women's empowerment program as coordinator (2014-2023). From June 2021 to August 2024, she served as president of the Japan Academy of Labor Management.

David Flath, born in Dallas, Texas (1951), PhD in economics UCLA (1976), is Professor Emeritus of North Carolina State University, where he was employed from 1976 to 2008. After moving to Japan, he was an Adjunct Professor of Economics at the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research (2009-13) and then a Professor of Economics at Ritsumeikan University (2013-2022). Before that he had been a Visiting Professor of Economics at Kyoto University (2001-2) and at Osaka University (1995-6). Flath is the author of The Japanese Economy, Oxford University Press (now in its 4th edition, 2022), and numerous academic articles on the Japanese economy and on industrial organization. His Japan-related research has been supported by an Abe Fellowship and by grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Social Science Research Council, and the Japan-US Friendship Commission. His early forays into Japan were supported by the North Carolina Japan Center and by the Fulbright Program.

Barbara Kennedy, Ed.D., LMHC serves as the Dean of Students at Eastern Florida State College (EFSC). Prior to holding several positions in administration, she was a full-time faculty member for ten years, she developed curriculum for an AS Degree in Social and Human Services with concentrations in Aging and Domestic Violence, including developing the statewide framework. She also developed a study abroad program for students to travel to China as part of an internship in the Social & Human Services, Nursing, and Business disciplines. She partnered with the University of Central Florida to get the colleges first Fulbright Scholar from Turkey. Dr. Kennedy has been instrumental in establishing domestic abuse prevention training on all campuses at EFSC, and as a trained Licensed Mental Health Counselor she routinely uses critical thinking skills to assess people, programs, and outcomes. She currently teaches on-line courses in Psychology and Social and Human Services in addition to her administrative responsibilities. She is a licensed mental health counselor, and a certified autism spectrum disorder clinical specialist with a private practice that focuses on adults with autism. Her most recent research at the University of Florida led to the development of the college’s transition program for students on the autism spectrum. She is passionate about empowering others to help themselves.