I am an Associate Professor of Japanese Studies at Osaka University, Graduate School of Human Sciences, and the Associate Director of the Human Sciences International Undergraduate Programme. My research interests are in the area of gender, religion and disaster studies in Japan. I am currently investigating disaster-related gender and religious dimensions of vulnerability and resilience through an analysis of women’s roles in faith-based volunteer groups contributing to post-disaster activities. I have lately included the COVID-19-related institutional and faith-based volunteer response activities in my investigation. I hold a BA in Japanese Language and Literature (University of Venice, Italy) and a double PhD degree in East Asian Studies from the University of Sheffield, School of East Asian Studies, and in Law from Tohoku University, Graduate School of Law. I have published a monograph Promising Practices: Women Volunteers in Contemporary Japanese Religious Civil Society (Brill, 2015), several works on a gendered approach to Japanese faith-based volunteering and I am currently editing the Handbook of Disaster Studies in Japan (forthcoming 2023).