JOHN BOYD covers technology and business news and events in Japan and Asia and strings for several magazines, including IEEE Spectrum, FPD Today and New York Stock Exchange Magazine. He welcomes new assignment queries: boyd@gol.com.

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.

GREGORY CLARK is a longtime Tokyo resident, formerly correspondent for The Australian and most recently vice-president of Akita International University. His articles for The Japan Times and other publications can be found at gregoryclark.net.

Tokyo-based journalist CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON (www.globalite.posterous.com) is author of Siamese Dreams and an upcoming novel set in Japan.

ROGER PULVERS is a playwright, theater director and translator living in Japan. Last year, he received Best Script Prize at the Teheran International Film Festival for his screenplay of Ashita e no Yuigon.He is currently appearing on the weekly NHK television show Gift E-meigen no Sekai.

JULIAN RYALL is the Japan correspondent of The Daily Telegraph.

MARK SCHREIBER is a Tokyo-based freelance translator with an interest in the vernacular print media

HIRO UGAYA is a Tokyo-based freelance journalist, critic and educator who covers the entertainment (music, film, anime, manga, etc.) and media industries, as well as free-speech, security and human-rights issues. He has written five books since 2005 and has been critically acclaimed for his strictly fact-based analysis. Ugaya regularly contributes news columns to prominent publications such as Numero Tokyo.

AIMEE VITRAK currently works as an editor for the Overseas Press Club of America, teaches English Composition at Rutgers University and writes fiction. She has worked as an editor for nytimes.com and The Wall Street Journal Europe. She graduated with an MFA in fiction writing from Rutgers University in 2009 and a BAJ from Indiana University in 1994.