Invited Speakers

Born in Hiroshima Pref. in 1953. He is a first-class architect and has a doctorial degree in engineering. During the stay in the US in 1989-1990, he had a chance to know about independent living by people with disabilities. This made him learn about universal design and also form a friendship with Ron Mace. After returning to Japan, he has been devoting himself to disseminate and develop UD. He has been active in establishing the right for person with disabilities in social life, but not from the welfare standpoint. At the same time, he makes statements on user-friendly and safe buildings and city planning for everybody.

Awards:

Ron Mace / Designing for the 21st Century Award in 2000.

Publications*:

Building a mechanism of universal design (Gakugei Shuppansha 2007/8): Universal design – asking questions concerning barrier-free (Gakugei shuppansha 2001/4); Barrier-full Japan – City planning from the viewpoint of an accessibility expert with disabilities ( Gendai shokan 1996/11), and others.

* Names of titles are semantically translated by interpreter