Yoshitaka Ota
Director, Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus, School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, UW
Dr. Yoshitaka Ota has a background in social anthropology at the University College London. He has conducted ethnographic research on various coastal communities, including Palau, UK, Indonesia and Japan, studying socialization and cultural meanings associated with fishing practices. He is also director of the Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Center, an international initiative comprising an interdisciplinary team of 20+ institutes and cross-disciplinary scholars. As an anthropologist conducting social and cultural research on various coastal communities, one recurring theme he has witnessed worldwide is the inequity between who has access to and benefits from oceans and who relies on oceans to live. We need to create a new platform for ocean governance to identify the inequities that exist, develop knowledge-based solutions, and enact these changes to make oceans equitable for everyone.
