NAKAMURA，Tamiko (Law group leader, Project leader)

Attorney at law
Lybra Law Office
Oita Bar Association

A lawyer who failed to become a scientist
While complaining about arguments over science in court, I found myself appointed　leader of the project. I am always exhausted from misunderstandings caused by cultural, linguistic, and personality differences between me and scientists I work with. I hope to heal the fatigue with piano and wine, but my daily tasks as a lawyer do not allow me to enjoy them fully.

Admitted to Faculty of Agriculture, Kyoto University in 1989, and later changing course to Faculty of Law in 1990. Passed the national bar exam in 1995.
Main areas of interest: family law, children’s rights, and “science and law”.
Representative of the project “Legal decision-making under scientific uncertainty,” which was initiated in 2009 by Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX) of Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).
Deputy Secretary Generals of the Secretariat of Committee on Family Law Legislation at Japan Federation of Bar Associations

OTA，Shozo

Professor of Law
Graduate Schools for Law & Politics
The University of Tokyo

A jurist that believes the study of law should place more emphasis on studies of humans and policies.
My biggest enjoyment is having wine with the fellow team members of Tokyo University who won three-consecutive championships twice at Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition, which is supported by Sumitomo Group and other organizations.
Also I enjoy contract bridge, fly fishing, photo shooting and image processing, and bird watching, though I am not very good at any one of them.
1982 Obtained Master of Law (Code of Civil Procedure), and became Research Assistant at Faculty of Law, the University of Tokyo.
1984 Assistant Professor at Faculty of Law, Nagoya University (Code of Civil Procedure)
1991 Assistant Professor at University of Tokyo Graduate Schools for Law and Politics (Sociology of Law, Law & Social Science).
1997 to now Professor at the same Graduate Schools.
I have also taught as Visiting Professor at schools including the University of Michigan Law School, Columbia Law School, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Faculty of Engineering of Kyushu University, Faculty of Law of Hitotsubashi University, Keio Law School, and Sophia Law School.
Main areas of interest: law and social science, law and economics, law and negotiation, law and artificial intelligence, ADR (alternative dispute resolution), and science and law.
Main publications (books): “Basics of Proof Theory in Court: Bayesian Reconstitution of Factual Findings and Burden of Proof” (Koubundou, 1982), “Theory on Civil Dispute Resolution Procedures: Theoretical Analysis of Negotiation, Conciliation, Mediation and Trial” (Shinzansha, First Edition: 1990), “Theories and models in the social sciences　7: Law” (University of Tokyo Press, 2000).

KAMEMOTO, Hiroshi

Professor
Kyoto University
Graduate School of Law
Specializing in philosophy of law

It has been decades since he left his parents’ home declaring that he would take a handicap and beat Shogi (Japanese Chess) champions. Now his “battlefield” has shifted from Shogi to philosophy of law, but he still retains his attitude of defying authority just like a boy who cried out “The King is naked!”
A critic with a sharp tongue, and also the head of the laboratory reputed to be the most cluttered in Kyoto University.
By Nakamura.

TSUDA，Toshihide

Professor, Medical Doctor
Environemental Epidemiology
Okayama University Graduate School of Environmental Science
My specialty is evaluation of the influence of environmental exposure on human body.
In the past, I was a clinician.
One of the patients I met at that time was a patient of pollution-related disease and suffering from cancer. Since then, I have specialized in scientific explanation of causal relations between environmental exposure and disease.
Such causal relations cause problems for humans in many situations, and they are related to various medical issues including pollution, occupational disease, drug approval, side effects of drugs, food or facilities causing food poisoning, cancer-causing substances, tobacco, outbreak of disease such as infectious ones and so on.
In relation to EBM (Evidence-Based Medicine), I have recently been involved in areas such as the meaning of science, issue of science and medicine in law, and issues related to media and administration.

1985 Graduated from Faculty of Medicine of Okayama University, and passed the national examination for medical practitioners
1989 Finished Graduate School of Medicine, Okayama University
1990 Became Research Assitant at Medical School of Okayama University, and later became a lecturer at the same School.
2005 to now Professor at Graduate School of Environmental Science, Okayama University
Main publications (books):
“Basic Epidemiology for Citizens” (Ryokuhu Shuppan), “Law, Epidemiology, and Civil Society - Utilization of Scientific Methods in Legal Policy” (Co-authored) (Bokutakusha)

SUMIDA, Tomohisa

Ph.D student
The University of Tokyo
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
Research Fellow (DC1) of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Currently in Doctoral Program (history of science / science philosophy) at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Visiting Researcher at University of California, Berkeley since July of 2011

MATSUO, Yoh

Lecturer
Kinki University
Faculty of Law

Specialty: philosophy of law
Lecturer at Faculty of Law, Kinki University
When I was a sixth grader, I wrote in the school year book that my dream was to become a “physicist” in the future, but unexpected course of events have led me to work in the field of law.
A graduate of Ritsumeikan University, and interested only in ordinary people.

WATANABE, Chihara

Professor
Faculty of Law,
Ritsumeikan University

After graduating from Faculty of Law, Kyoto University, in 1992, I specialized in sociology of law at Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University. I have worked for Faculty of Law of Ritsumeikan University since 1998, teaching sociology of law and legal process theory.
My main interests are handling of science in court and medical malpractice lawsuits.
Though I am lazy by nature, I’d like to work on new challenges with plenty of curiosity.

YANAGIHARA, Toshio

Lawyer at Muto Law Office

HONDA, Satoe

Working at Lybra Law Office, Research Assistant for JST RISTEX Project

She tries to return the favor to the project leader Nakamura, as conscientiously as the turtle in a Japanese legend that repaid a favor to his rescuer Taro Urashima.
Having spent 12 years in Europe, she also resembles Urashima, who, after his return from the palace under the sea, found that so many years had passed.
Not only while I am abroad but also when I work in this project, the words exchanged are so incomprehensible that they are converted into question marks in my brain.
Still, as Research Assistant of this “Law and Science” Project, I believe what matters is the abilities to communicate and sympathize, and the will to convey my ideas to others.
Career Counselor, Certified Career Consultant, and lecturer on human rights
Representative of “Life Support for Foreigners”, Representative of Office Honda