Panelists
Machiko Inoue (Specially Appointed Professor, Department of Community and Family Medicine, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine)
Koichi Terauchi (Professor, Department of Women’s Health, Tokyo Medical and Dental University)
Mitsuko Nishimura (The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Tottori Prefectural Assembly Member)
Masuko Hashimoto (Midwife/Certified Infertility Nurse, Tottori Central Hospital, Patient Support Center)

Moderator
Haruka Sakamoto (Senior Manager, Health and Global Policy Institute)

Seiko Noda (Member, Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, House of Representatives)

Ms. Seiko Noda was Born in Fukuoka Prefecture, on September 3, 1960. She graduated from Sophia University in March 1983, and after working in the Imperial Hotel. during the 40th general election of the House of Representatives in July 1993, she was elected for the first time and has since been elected for ten consecutive terms. She has held various positions, including Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, and Special Minister in charge at the Cabinet Office. Since her initial election, she has focused on policies for women and children as her life’s work. As the chairperson of the Parliamentary League for the Promotion of Femtech, she also works on promoting women’s well-being. Privately, she gave birth to a son at the age of 50 in 2011.

Diane Danzebrink（CEO, Menopause Support）

Diane Danzebrink is a personal and corporate consultant, speaker, and educator, passionate about menopause and mental health. She is the founder of menopausesupport.co.uk and has led the call for better menopause care and support in the U.K. with her #MakeMenopauseMatter campaign. The campaign has been instrumental in ensuring that menopause is now on the secondary school curriculum in schools in England, and that medical students will learn about menopause from 2024. Her first book Making Menopause Matter will be published by Sheldon Press in May 2024.

Machiko Inoue (Specially Appointed Professor, Department of Community and Family Medicine, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine)

Machiko Inoue, MD, MPH, PhD is a family physician, Professor of Department of Family and Community of Medicine at the Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, and Director of the Shizuoka Family Medicine Training Program in Japan. As a family medicine educator and primary care researcher, she has been involved in a number of research projects and has published articles on quality of primary care, women’s health, and health services. She is Vice President of the Japan Primary Care Association, responsible for international and scientific affairs since 2020.

Koichi Terauchi (Professor, Department of Women’s Health, Tokyo Medical and Dental University)

Masakazu (“Masa”) Terauchi, MD, PhD, is the professor of Department of Women’s Health at Tokyo Medical and Dental University. He received his medical degree in 1994 and his PhD degree in Medical Science in 2003 from Tokyo Medical and Dental University. He worked as a research fellow at Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Lipids, Emory University School of Medicine from 2005 to 2008. His research interest is focused on women’s health, menopause and osteoporosis. He has authored more than 300 articles in the journals Cell Metabolism, Journal of Clinical Investigation, PNAS, Menopause, Maturitas, Climacteric, etc. He is a Certified Obstetrician-Gynecologist by the Board of Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and a North American Menopause Society Certified Menopause Practitioner. He currently serves as a board member for Japan Society for Menopause and Women’s Health (Vice President), Japanese Society of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Japan Osteoporosis Society.

Mitsuko Nishimura (The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Tottori Prefectural Assembly Member)

Ms. Mitsuko Nishimura ; Chairman of the Standing Committee on Welfare, Living and Hospital. Chairman of Tottori Tennis Association. In 2019, she was elected to the Tottori Prefectural Assembly. she compiled voices of working menopausal people and experts’ opinions and asked and proposed support for menopausal issues four times at the assembly from 2022 to 2023. After being elected for a second term in 2023, the prefectural government established the “Tottori Menopause Disability Consultation and Support Center” in August (the first of its kind in Japan), and the menopausal leave system came into effect for prefectural employees in October. A graduate of Waseda University, AYA generation breast cancer survivor, certified sommelier by the Japan Sommelier Association. In 1993, she joined Mainichi Communications (now Mynavi) and became a sommelier in 2003. In 2014, she made a U-turn to Yonago City, Tottori Prefecture , and contributed to the launch of a call center.

Masuko Hashimoto (Midwife/Certified Infertility Nurse, Tottori Central Hospital, Patient Support Center)

In 1981, she started working as a nurse and midwife at Tottori Prefectural Central Hospital. I mainly work in the obstetrics and gynecology ward, outpatient department, and infant intensive care ward. In 2007, I obtained the qualification Infertility nursing certified nurse. From the same year, I also served as a consultant at the Tottori Prefecture Eastern Infertility Consultation Center, where I provide infertility counseling, sex education for adolescent students, and fertility education for students and working adults. I have been working at the facility’s patient support center since 2018. Since 2023, I have also served as a counselor at the Tottori Prefecture Menopausal Consultation and Support Center, which I continues to do to this day. Member of Tottori Prefecture’s “Pregnancy and Childbirth Support Based on Your Wishes” network.
Member of Tottori Prefecture Cancer and Reproductive Medicine Subcommittee.

Haruka Sakamoto (Senior Manager, Health and Global Policy Institute)

After Professor Haruka Sakamoto, MD MPH, PhD graduated from Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine and served as an internist at St. Luke’s International Hospital, she worked at the International Affairs and the Maternal and Child Health Divisions of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW). She has represented Japan at various international conferences including the United Nations General Assembly and the World Health Organization (WHO) General Assembly. She also participated in organizing the G7 Ise-Shima Summit and the G7 Kobe Health Ministers’ Meeting in 2016. She attended the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health with a scholarship from the World Bank and received a Master of Public Health degree in 2014. In 2021, she received a Doctor of Public Health degree from the University of Tokyo. Her current roles include Associate Professor, Department of International Affairs and Tropical Medicine, Tokyo Women’s Medical University; The 26th Associate Member; Consultant, WHO Western Pacific Regional Office; and Senior Fellow, the Tokyo Foundation Institute for Policy Research.

Takae Ito (Member, Democratic Party For the People, House of Councilors)

Ms. Takae Ito was born in Nagoya, Japan in 1975. She graduated from Kinjo Gakuin University’s Faculty of Letters in 1998, and after working as a news reporter for TV Osaka and at the Recruit Marketing Bureau, among others, she ran for public office in 2016 while on maternity leave and was elected for the first time. Currently, she serves as the secretary-general of the bipartisan Mamas and Papas Caucus, the bipartisan Reproductive Assistance Medical Care Caucus, and the bipartisan Privacy Caucus, and writes articles for the child-rearing website “Tokyo Sukusuku” and the magazine for working mothers “Domani,” etc. She believes that her mission is to communicate that politics and daily life are connected. Mother of two girls. She is currently serving her second term.

Megumi Kawashima (President, Keep Health Co., Ltd.)

Ms. Megumi Kawashima graduated from the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan . After completing her initial training, she completed the latter half of her training at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Shiga University of Medical Science. She trained as an occupational health physician at the Occupational Health Training Center, and has worked as an occupational physician for several companies, mainly Kao Corporation. Currently, she continues to work as an occupational physician at several companies while studying public health, and provides consulting services to companies to support the health of their female employees. She is a Certified Senior Occupational Physician, a Board Certified Supervisory Physician for Public Health and Social Medicine, and an Occupational Health Consultant.

Eri Shinsa  (Manager, Business Development Department, ASANOSEIHANJYO Co., Ltd. )

Ms. Eri Shinsa is an Industrial counselor and a Health and Productivity Management Expert Advisor（H&PM Expert Advisor). She graduated from the Graduate School of Career Design, Hosei University. After working for a medical software development company and a public research institute, she joined the company in 2012. After working in human resources and labor affairs in the Corporate Planning Department, she assumed her current position in January 2024. Corporate member of the “Visualization of Health Investment” Study Committee, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (September 2019-June 2020).

Helen Tomlinson (Head of Talent (UK & Ireland) at The Adecco Group / Menopause Employment Champion for the UK)

Helen Tomlinson is the UK Governments first-ever Menopause Champion. Working alongside the Department for Work and Pensions, Helen helps employers develop policies that empower women experiencing menopause to stay and progress in work. Applying the principles of Education & Allyship creating Cultural Change, Helen has built a clearly defined sector based strategy to support women across all aspects of intersectionality throughout their career from a women’s health perspective. Advocating for gender equity is the common thread throughout Helen’s 30-year career in the recruitment and employability sectors. In addition to her voluntary Menopause Champion role, Helen is Head of Talent & Inclusion (UK and Ireland) for the Adecco Group, the global leader in HR solutions. Her pioneering podcast on menopause and work inspired the Adecco Group to design and implement one of the UK’s first corporate menopause policies. Since then, Helen has supported companies of all sizes to create supportive environments, encourage open conversations, and help women thrive at work through menopause and beyond. With three decades of experience across commercial management, sales, and strategic HR planning, Helen helps organisations realise the business benefits of an enlightened approach – and drives positive, pragmatic change for employers and their people.

Eri Yoshimura (Senior Manager, Health and Global Policy Institute)

Eri Yoshimura graduated from Keio University with a BA in Law (Political Science). After graduating, she started her career at a Japanese medical device company. She then worked as a strategy consultant at IBM Japan. She provided global logistics consulting services for Japanese manufacturing companies in areas such as business process standardization and supply chain transformation. As a Rotary Foundation Global Scholar, she graduated from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) with a MS in Global Health. During her masters at UCSF, Eri focused on maternal and child health, and conducted field work and research. After graduating from UCSF, she joined Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) in 2016. Eri led health policy-related projects in Kanagawa Prefecture, conducted research with the World Dementia Council (WDC), and collaborated with the Faculty of Public Health at Mahidol University in Thailand to promote health for urban migrants in Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, Eri has planned, managed, and carried out several projects for themes like children’s health. She current leads projects for women’s health and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as kidney disease and obesity.