About Us

Katsuya Egawa 　　Former Certified Non-Profit Organization
Executive Director / Secretary General, United Nations Association for UNHCR

Born in Tokyo, Japan. Graduated from Waseda University, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Department of Industrial Management. Joined Sony Corporation, mainly in overseas business. He was stationed in Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark for 15 years and visited about 40 countries around the world. After returning to Japan, he moved to the position of Director of the Social Contribution Office and then to Executive Director and Secretary-General of the Sony Education Foundation. After retirement, he was inspired by Sadako Ogata and became involved in refugee assistance as Executive Director and Secretary-General of the United Nations Association for UNHCR. In the summer of 2019, he met Mr. Koyama and Mr. Arikawa and empathized with their passion for refugees who have fled to Japan due to persecution. He hopes to expand the support circle for refugee claimants still unknown to many Japanese people.

Hideyuki Koyama　　Representative Director, NPO Refugee Forum / Professor, Sophia University

He was in charge of Sophia Relief Services at Sophia University for ten years, where he worked in support of the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. He has been a member of the NPO NAMMIN Forum FRJ to support refugees coming to Japan and has been president since 2015. His mother’s family lives in Zushi, and he has a special affinity with Kamakura, where the Arrupe Refugee Center is located.

Daisuke Sugimoto　　Japan Lawyers Network for Refugees

Nana Yamamoto 　　NPO WElgee（Welcome Refugees）

Born in Yokohama, Japan. She spent her early elementary school years in Los Angeles, U.S.A., and her middle and high school years in Munich, Germany. When she was 17 years old, she spoke with people of the same age from a hill tribe in Nepal and became interested in the “work” and social activities of young people who never gave up on their self-realization and vision for society even in the face of adversity. After studying abroad in Vancouver, Canada while at Waseda University and an internship for industrial promotion in Shimokawa Town, Hokkaido, she assumed her current position. Her favorite beverages are beer, which she began drinking while living in Munich, Japanese sake, which she awakened to during the long winters of minus 20 degrees Celsius in northern Hokkaido, and 20 rupee chai, which she drank on the side of the road in India.

Kenji Arikawa 　　Director, NPO Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan

Born in Amami Oshima. Graduated from Nanzan University, Faculty of Law. As a student, he became involved in supporting the resettlement of Vietnamese refugees. His interest in Asia grew as he witnessed the situation of young Vietnamese of the same age who were forced to risk their lives to leave their homeland. He spent one year at the Asian Rural Institute in Tochigi, then was sent by JLMM, a general incorporated association, to Mindanao, Philippines, for four years. After returning to Japan, he worked for the Catholic Central Council and then for the Catholic Archdiocese of Tokyo, where he has supported refugees and migrants for 25 years. He is a father of three daughters.

The name of the Arrupe Refugee Center comes from the name of Father Pedro Arrupe (Spanish,1907-1991) of the Jesuit Order of the Catholic Church.

Father Arrupe arrived in Japan in 1938 as a missionary. Experiencing the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in 1945, he was dedicated to rescuing and caring for A-bomb survivors. In 1958, he was elected the First Director of the Jesuit Society of Japan and in 1965 the 28th President of the Jesuit Society.

During his tenure as Secretary-General, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) was established to respond to the catastrophe of Indochina refugees. JRS is currently working on refugee assistance activities in 56 countries around the world.