Professor Geoffrey Bownas, CBE
Recipient, Order of the Sacred Treasure with Sun’s Rays
Professor Bownas read Greats and Chinese at Oxford University www.queens.ox.ac.uk. He established the Department of Japanese Studies in Oxford University in 1954 and then became the University of Sheffield’s first Professor of Japanese Studies in 1965, pioneering the combination of the study of Japanese with the social sciences. In 1980 he was made Emeritus Professor www.shef.ac.uk and remains heavily involved in the sphere of Anglo Japanese relations and Japanese studies.

David Powers, MBA
Senior Partner, Japan Interface
David Powers originally trained in Russian at Cambridge University, and joined the BBC in 1972. His long association with Japan began with four years in Tokyo assisting NHK with its overseas broadcasts. In 1987-92, as the Tokyo BBC correspondent, he regularly broadcasted on Business Breakfast and the Today programme, covering the rise and fall of the bubble economy.
Dr Christopher P. Hood, Phd
Director, Cardiff University Japanese Studies Centre
After graduating from Sheffield University having studied Business Studies and Japanese, he spent one year on the JET Programme in Aichi Prefecture. He then returned to Sheffield University and in 1998 completed his doctoral research on Japanese education reforms and the influence of Prime Minister Nakasone. In 1999 he became an Associate Fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.