GAVIN BLAIR came to Japan 11 years ago to study and began his writing career working part-time for a Japanese magazine in 2000. Blair now contributes news stories and predominately business-related features to newspapers, Web sites and magazines in the U.K., U.S., Hong Kong, Ireland and Japan.

SEAN CARROLL is an English freelance writer currently researching a book on Japanese soccer and its supporters. He is part of The Guardian’s fan network for the 2010 World Cup and has written for Metropolis, Tokyo Weekender, Football Punk and When Saturday Comes.

MICHAEL H. FOX, associate professor at Hyogo University, came to Japan as a student of Zen in 1979. Long interested in the field of human rights, he actively works with many legal teams defending against wrongful arrests and convictions. He served as international publicist for the Kabutoyama case in the 1990s, and assisted with the Kobe beheading case (1997), the Hokkaido Eniwa case (2000), and the Higashi-Sumiyoshi Arson and Murder Case (1996). He is director of the Japan Innocence and Death Penalty Research Center (www.jiadep.org).

Tokyo-based freelance journalist, novelist and musician CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON (www.globalite.posterous.com) broke the Tibetan Uprising for major media worldwide, and has often reported from inside Burma over the past 20 years.

COLIN P.A. JONES is a U.S.-qualified lawyer and law professor with over 20 years’ experience in Japan. He works at Doshisha University Law School in Kyoto.

TONY McNICOL is a Tokyo-based journalist and photographer. His work has appeared on the National Geographic News Web site, in Wired, Discover magazine, The Japan Times and Newsweek Japan. He wites a blog at www.tonymcnicol.com

JULIAN RYALL is the Japan correspondent of The Daily Telegraph.

RICHARD SMITH, a 10-year member of the FCCJ, was for two years editor-in-chief of Number 1 Shimbun in its previous newspaper format, bringing it to full in-house publication except for printing. He now covers Japanese and South Korean trade and agriculture for media in Australia, Canada, Britain, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States.