I am a geographer working on cities from the perspectives of food, agriculture, green space, degrowth and multispecies/more-than-human thinking. I’m currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Environmental Design, Faculty of Collaborative Regional Innovation at Ehime University, as well as founding member and Director at the non-profit organization FEAST. This lab was founded in 2021 as part of my move to Ehime University from the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature. I also serve on editorial advisory boards for ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies and the Bulletin of Geography, as a member of the SCP in Cities Working Group of the Future Earth Systems of Sustainable Consumption and Production Knowledge-Action-Network, and recently as on the editorial team for special issues at the Journal of The Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture (2017-2021).

My PhD in geography, ecology and urban planning was awarded by Griffith University in 2015 for research on informal urban green space in Japan and Australia. My combined BA/MA in Japanese studies, biology and philosophy was awarded by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich in 2009 and included a thesis on participatory green planning in Sapporo.

I currently work on a number of research topics broadly related to urban sustainability, from transitions to sustainable food and agriculture systems to young children’s urban green space access, informal food, degrowth in Japan, and more-than-human planning. My interests include urban human-nature interactions, foodshed mapping, food system analysis, environmental justice, political ecology, sustainable consumption and production, and depopulation.

You can find me on Twitter, ResearchGate (including CV), Researchmap, and Google Scholar, or have a look at my hobby nature photography.

Past research appointments

FEAST Project, RIHN (2016-2021), Researcher/Senior Researcher

Role: Research and coordination for Working Groups 1, 5 and 6

Past teaching appointments

Doshisha University (2017-2021), Adjunct Lecturer

Course: Global Society and Environmental Issues (地球環境問題), Doshisha University Graduate School of Global Studies
Role: Lecturer and Course Coordinator (from 2020)
Language: English

Kyoto University (2017-2020), Adjunct Lecturer

Course: Foreign Food and Environmental Economics III, Kyoto University, Faculty of Agriculture
Role: Lecturer and Course Co-Coordinator

University of Tokyo (2017), Adjunct Lecturer

Course: Landscape Ecology Intensive Course (緑地創成学特論), University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Role: Lecturer

Doshisha University (2016), Invited lecture

Course: Introduction to Environmental Systems Science (環境システム学概論), Doshisha University, Faculty of Science and Engineering
Lecture: The relationship of cities with nature: entanglements of living things seen through the lens of food (都市と自然の関係：食から見る生き物の絆)
Role: Invited Lecturer

Griffith University (2011-2013), Teaching Assistant

Course: Urban Analysis, Griffith University, School of Environment
Role: Teaching Assistant in charge of course tutorials & assignment grading