Mikio Ishiwatari is Senior Advisor on Disaster Management and Water Resources Management at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo. He has been engaged in the projects and research works of disaster risk reduction (DRR), climate change adaptation, and water. He led the formulation of the Japanese assistance policies on climate change adaptation and community-based disaster management. He served at the World Bank as Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist, and wrote “Learning from Megadisaster: Lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake.” He worked at various positions at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, Japan for 17 years.

He was a member of the Committee on Building Resilience to Natural Disasters of the Japan Science Society; and an experienced member of the Advisory Council of Development Assistance in Climate Change Adaptation under the Ministry of Land Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan; Steering Committee of Water and Climate Change of Asia-Pacific Water Forum, and other committees of government organizations.

He holds a PhD in international studies and MSc in Urban Engineering from the University of Tokyo.