Professor Manzenreiter is Professor of Japanese University Professor of Japanese Studies and Head of the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna, and one of the world’s leading anthropologists of Japan. Manzenreiter has made significant contributions to the study of rural Japan over several decades. Of particular relevance to the Symposium is his design and leadership of a multi-year team research project in the Aso region of Kyushu just north of Suye Mura that has produced several volumes and dissertations on a range of topics (rural depopulation, happiness and well-being, new agricultural practices, and more). He initiated this Aso project in part to update a group field project in the same region that was conducted 50 years previously by the then academic staff of the Institute.