Paola Cavaliere is Senior Research Fellow, University of Milan. She holds a BA in Japanese Language and Literature (University of Venice, Italy) and received a double PhD degree in East Asian Studies (University of Sheffield, UK) and Law (T¿hoku University, Japan). Her research interests are in the area of gender, religious civil society and disaster in Japan. She is the author of Promising Practices: Women Volunteers in Japanese Religious Civil Society (2015) and has published extensively on a gendered approach to Japanese faith-based volunteering and disaster, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Junko Otani, DDS, MPH, MS, PhD, is a Professor at the Graduate School of Human Sciences at Osaka University. She also serves as Regional Director of the East Asian Center for Academic Initiatives (Shanghai Office) of Osaka University. She has worked for the World Bank and the World Health Organization. She was awarded the Royal Society of New Zealand fellowship to conduct research in Christchurch at the University of Canterbury in 2013 and the Australian Academy of Science fellowship for School of Population and Global Health, Centre for Disaster Management and Public Safety of the University of Melbourne in 2015. Her publications include Older People in Natural Disasters (2010), and Reconstructing Resilient Communities after the Wenchuan Earthquake: Disaster Recovery in China (2023).