I was born in 1946, just after the World War II, at a rural area where farming was practiced and was in a rich natural environment, though it is close to the metropolitan area of Tokyo and Yokohama in Japan. However, Japan went into the era of environmental pollution in return for economic development in the 1960s. When I was a university student, the concerns to the environmental issue have been raised from the 1970s. I got position as a professor at Miyagi University of Education (MUE) in 1994 and engaged in science education and environmental education. MUE and the affiliated elementary school joined the member of UNESCO ASPnet and went into action on environmental education and ESD (education for sustainable development). MUE proposed and made a network of universities (ASPUnivNet, now 11 member universities) to support the ASPnet that is over 1,000 member schools in Japan.

In 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami occurred and took the life of many people including school children and teachers. The disaster made us confirm that it should be most preferred to protect life at school. The education for disaster risk reduction is very important in the curriculum especially for teacher training course. Natural disaster is not the only earthquake but typhoon and flood that occurs every year in Japan. These disasters must be due to climate change. I believe that education is one of the most effective means to stop climate change and that the education at school is indispensable for the disaster risk reduction and stopping climate change. I am fostering high expectations for the affect of POP movement.

• Ph. D. (Tohoku University, 1976)
• Research Fellow of Alexander von Humboldt-stiftung in Germany, 1983-1984)
• Professor, MUE (Miyagi University of Education) (1994-2007)
• Director of Environmental Education Center, MUE (2000-2005)
• Vice president of MUE (2007-2011)
• President of MUE (2012-2018)