Yasuko Kameyama

After graduating the University of Tokyo, I spent 2 years working for an insurance company in Japan. It was the time when global warming began to attract people’s attention internationally, and I felt I wanted to do something to tackle the problem. I changed my job and started working for National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), a government funded laboratory under Ministry of the Environment, in 1992. As a researcher with a background in international relations, I was able to get involved in multilateral negotiations at Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings under UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and attend expert meetings held by various international organizations. It was a period of exciting years working for NIES, but gradually I began to feel the need to involve young people. I obtained my current position in 2022, and have been in charge of a graduate program called Graduate Program in Sustainable Science (GPSS) since then.

Identify something you feel needs improvement. Address the issue head-on. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.