Issue:

JÜRGEN HANEFELD is the new East-Asia correspondent for ARD German Radio, a network consisting of non-commercial and non-governmental television and radio stations throughout Germany, which runs studios all over the world.

Jürgen was born in Hamburg and started his journalistic work while studying at the universities in Mainz and Göttingen. Initially specializing in travel and traffic, he changed his main interest to reporting on foreign politics. He lived in Singapore and Amman (Jordan) for several years and worked as travelling correspondent in India and Africa. From Tokyo, Hanefeld covers current affairs in Japan, the two Koreas and Taiwan as well as some of the Pacific Island States.

HAU BOON LAI is the Japan Correspondent for the Straits Times. After a stint in the Japan bureau from 1999 to 2003, Boon Lai left the paper to pursue other interests – including small ventures to feed his entrepreneurial spirit and a spell as an educator – but discovered that none of it compared with the satisfaction of being at the forefront of news coverage. Boon Lai rejoined the newspaper in 2011 and was posted for a second time to Tokyo, in September He is here as he believes that Japan – despite being in the midst of what is described as over two decades of stagnation – is still a force to be reckoned with.

KAZUTAKA SATO is a reporter and video/photo journalist who was born in 1956. He has covered war zones such as Bosnia, former Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Africa, Indonesia, Central Asia and more, and has received a number of awards, including the Vaughn/ Ueda Prize. He was shooting a documentary in Afghanistan on 9/11 and covered the resulting events leading to the fall of Kabul. He reported from Baghdad as special correspondent for NTV in 2003, at the time of the U.S. invasion. His documentaries include Winter of Sarajevo and A CivilWar without End: Afghanistan for NHK.

REGULAR MEMBERS
Juergen Hanefeld, ARD German Radio
Kazutaka Sato, the Japan Press

REINSTATEMENT (REGULAR)
Boon Lai Hau, the Straits Times

PROFESSIONAL/JOURNALIST ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Hiroyuki Tomimatsu, West Wing Asia Inc.
Yumiko Yokota, Sakura Financial News, Inc.

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Gregory Poole, Doshisha University
Matthew S. Sussman, Japan-U.S. Educational Commission
Jason Hurst, International Solution Group
Richard Berger, Canon Inc.
Miko Kitano, Austrian Mint Japan Office
Hiroshi Sekiguchi, Kousokuya Inc.
Kazunori Hori, Hong Kong Tourism Board
Tetsuo Motoi, Soka Gakkai
Nana Itagaki, Fujifilm Corporation

REINSTATEMENT (ASSOCIATE)
Hisaji Sonogi
Katsumi Yoshitake, NSK Ltd.