Joji SUGAWARA is the Vice President of Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI), a Tokyo-based independent, non-profit, and non-partisan health policy think tank established in 2004. He also serves as an Advisor to Keizo Takemi, a former Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan. At HGPI, he is responsible for the Planetary Health Project, which addresses the nexus of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, alongside leading strategic initiatives on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) to advance global health equity. Additionally, he handles strategic management and planning, organizational operations, public relations, and fundraising. In his capacity as a parliamentarian advisor, he works mainly in global health policy analysis, presentations, and communication with the public. He has also actively contributed to global health governance reform, leading HGPI’s engagement in the WHO Civil Society Commission (CSC). He graduated from Chuo University’s Faculty of Policy Studies and holds a Graduate Diploma in International Public Health (GDipIPH) from the University of Queensland. He also completed the Global Health Diplomacy Workshop, which was organized in collaboration with the National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM) and the University of Tokyo, and completed the Global Health Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Tokyo in 2015. Earlier in his career, he gained valuable experience working with the Global Conference of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (GCPPD2016) for the 2016 Ise-Shima Summit, the first G7 Summit held since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which sparked his interest in policy dialogue and the decision-making process. He also serves as an Advisory Committee Member of the Civil Society Engagement Mechanism for UHC2030 (CSEM), a councillor of the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA), a Founding Board Member of the Planetary Health Alliance Japan HUB, the Chair of the Partnership Committee for the Planetary Health Alliance Annual Meeting (PHAM 2027) in Tokyo, and an advisor for the Japan Alliance on Neglected Tropical Diseases (JAGntd). Furthermore, he is an alumnus of both the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) and the French government’s Programme d’Invitation des Personnalités d’Avenir (PIPA).