Ran Matsumoto

Violinist. After graduating from Toho Gakuen College Music Department, Matsumoto has been collaborating with well-known musicians such as the shamisen performers Yoshida brothers and the kabuki actor Ichikawa Somegoro VII. Since 2014, Matsumoto started her own edition of the “Mezamashi Classics” tour around the nation with Shinichi Karube, Fuji television broadcaster.

Tetsuya Shibutani

Tetsuya Shibutani Tetsuya Shibutani was born in Hyogo Prefecture in 1965. He is a professor at Tokyo International University where he does research on German films. He wrote "Germany, Year Zero" and co-wrote"Minority and Immigrant in European Cinema", "Fassbinder", and more. He also translates for the subtitling of German films and plans independent screenings of unreleased German films.

Yoshiaki Kawai, Mayor of Kawagoe

Born in 1950. Graduated from the Department of Political Economy at Waseda University, and the Department of Literature at the Tokyo University of Education (now the University of Tsukuba). Qualified lawyer. In office since 2009 (currently serving third term).

His political creed is to ‘stand for justice and impartiality’. Hobbies are 'reading and walking'.

Tetsuya Bessho

Tetsuya Bessho made his Hollywood debut in 1990 with the Japanese-American made movie “Solar Crisis”, and became member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). He works across a broad range, from movies and TV to stage and radio, and won both the first Tokiko Iwatani Award Encouragement Prize and the 63rd Yokohama Cultural Award. From 1999 he has presided over the Japanese international short film festival “Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia”, and was recognized for this contribution with the Commissioner's Award for the Promotion of Japanese Culture from the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Tetsuya is a “VISIT JAPAN Ambassador” for the Japan Tourism Agency, a member of the council of experts for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “Japan House” project, and was selected by the Japanese Cabinet Office as a “Global Messenger of Japan”.