〈Chairperson〉
TAKANO Takako

Ecoplus is supported by a joy of joint work with various groups and individuals as well as your encouragement. Please join us and tell us your new project ideas!
〈Vice Chairperson〉
SUYAMA Yoshihisa
Associate Professor, Tohoku University
My research field is forest ecology. I do research to analyze forest plants’ ecology with DNA technology in both forests and the laboratory. I am also the official cameraman of ECOPLUS. I would like to keep steady and balanced involvement while contributing my specialties to ECOPLUS.

〈Director〉
OHMAE Junichi Digital media Consultant
Eighteen years have passed since starting the Yap Island Project with Takano. Thanks to many people’s support, we have been managed to continue. Our activities have expanded from environmental education to sustainability. We have always tried to be authentic. We prefer adopting the wisdom of our ancestors, who lived rooted in their communities, into modern life, rather than organizing big events that follow trends. Let’s enjoy real learning in order to connect cities and villages.
〈Director〉
KASAHARA Kimiko　　Editor
I work in publication of many kinds of books. When Takano published a book a long time ago, I was an editor. I participated in a TAPPO program in Tochikubo, I realized the power of ECOPLUS. Its appeal is in the field. ECOPLUS members, please participate in programs.

〈Director〉
Gregory Michel
Urban and Community Forestry Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Onondaga County
I work with youth in Syracuse, NY, doing environmental and service learning projects. I came across ECOPLUS when I was a graduate student in Tokyo. “People, Nature and Cultural Diversity” was the slogan that caught my attention. As a volunteer for Eco-Club and in working with World School Network I learned that there is wisdom in all of us and in all of our communities. We just have to be curious enough to find it and industrious enough to live by it. Hope to see some of you in 2009.
〈Director〉
MIYOSHI Masayoshi
Visiting Professor, Cyber University

〈Director〉
WATANABE Michio
Director, Business Management Division
International Development Center of Japan

In the last 20 years, I have worked as a consultant in developing countries primarily in technical cooperation projects or development studies in Japan’s ODA (Official Development Assistance). Recently, many Asian and African countries have attained high economic growth, but on the other hand, it appears that deterioration of the global environment has not been stopped. We need to maintain the environment on which our lives depend and at the same time poverty alleviation and improvement of living standards in developing countries may also be sought for. I would like to think about the ways and act to attain these goals with the members of Ecoplus which is rooted in Shiozawa and its people who have abundant traditional local knowledge and experiences.
〈Auditor〉
OGAWA Yoshiaki Businessman
I am a business person, but long before the recent world recession, I have been against the ideas such as, ”rich people are winners,” ”Japanese politics are pressured by the economic world,” ”American rule is a universal standard”. The supreme study of human beings must be a philosophy of seeking nature and happiness. I hope ECOPLUS seeks and presents this philosophy.