Born in 1959 in Osaka. He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and completed a doctorate course in anthropology at the Universty of Tokyo. He was involved in Asian study projects and cultural exchange programs at the Asian Club Foundation, an extra-departmental body of MITI. He became an associate professor at Tohoku University of Arts and Design in 1992. In his area of expertise, anthropology, he has conducted research on traditional medical systems in India. He has broadened his field of activities through meeting people doing ecological work and engaging in grass-roots activities. *** He teaches anthropology, international relations and cultural design. His areas of study include design, the human body, inter-species communications, corporate vision in the next generation, digital media and so on. He has coordinated international conventions such as the Traditional Medicine Summit in Toyama Prefecture and the Asia Waterfront Convention, consulted for corporate and governmental organizations, planned urban and regional development, and planned and produced digital events like this Internet expo. He enjoys garden design and swimming with dolphins, an experience of heterogeneous communications. "Life has a latent drive to leap toward beauty," says Takemura. From his viewpoint, information environment design or multimedia, on which he started work in 1990, can be considered as in his area of study. He believes that digital media is a stepping stone toward eco-aethetetics as a new environment for humans. He has served as a member of numerous public committees and councils, including MITI's Human Media Project, the Science and Technology Agency's Commitee of Life Science Technology and the NTT Opinion Board Committee. He has endeavored to create interfaces between culture and technology. He is often invited as a guest speaker at international conventions. He has attracted people's attention by making original points in digital media forums that used to be dominated by people from industrial and technological backgrounds. In particular, he achieved great success in his presentation at the Doors of Perception 2 in Amsterdam in November 1994. He enunciated a new idea that Japanese culture in human experience and design of spaces will be an important resource for digital media design. This thesis is on the Web. (http://www.mediamatic.nl/Doors/Doors2/ Takemura/Takemura-Doors2-E.htm)

[back to FAQs page]