Open Forum 2020

Time of the event

Thursday, February 6, 2020 16:00~19:00 (Open 15:30)

Venue

THE CORE KITCHEN/SPACE (Shinbashi 4-1 -1, Minato-ku, Tokyo)

Sponsor

Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture Arts Council Tokyo

As a stage actor and director, he was involved in more than 40 productions and served as artistic director of various theaters. In addition to his artistic career, he has held senior positions in public institutions, including President of Syndeac (National Union of Arts and Culture Enterprises), Director of Theatre, Street Art and Circus Art at the Ministry of Culture and Communications, and Director of the National Theatre Centre (2010 – 2013). From 2014 to 2018, he served as Special Adviser for Cultural Events under current Mayor Anne Italgo, and has been in his current position since 2019.

As the city's first Chief Design Officer, appointed by current Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, he is engaged in policy development for architecture, landscape design, urban planning and the public realm of the future. Before starting in Los Angeles, he was an architectural critic for the Los Angeles Times from 2004 to early 2018. He has also been a professor at Occidental University since 2015, where he directed the Third Los Angeles Project, a series of public conversations about architecture, urban planning, and mobility in response to demographic change in Southern California.

After working on ecological land use planning, he founded P3 art and environment in 1989. It was based in the underground auditorium in the precincts of Tocho-ji Temple until 99, and since then has been developing various art and environment-related projects without specifying the location. Served as general director of Tokachi International Contemporary Art Exhibition Demeter (2002), curator of Yokohama Triennale 2005, general director of Beppu Contemporary Art Festival Mixed Hot Spring World (2009, 2012, 2015), director of Saitama Triennale 2016, etc.

He was born in Shimane Prefecture. He graduated from Kansai University of Foreign Studies. While still a university student, he joined Tower Records Co., Ltd., and was appointed President and CEO in 2005. In the same year, he established Napster Japan Co., Ltd. and concurrently served as its representative director. After serving as chief advisor to Tower Records, he established ORIGINAL Inc. in 2007 and became its representative director. In 2009, he established Time Out Tokyo and became its president. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Japan Tourism Agency, the Council for the Activation of Nighttime Tourism Resources, an expert member of the Cultural Program Promotion Subcommittee of the Tokyo Arts and Culture Council, a member of the Toshima Executive Committee of East Asia City of Culture 2019, a vice chairperson of the Toshima Ward After the Theater Advisory Committee, and an advisory board of the Liberal Democratic Party's Council for the Creation of a Time Market (Nighttime Economy). He has served as an expert member of the Advisory Board of the Japan Tourism Agency, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.