Born in 1979 in Yamanashi, Japan. Kawakami is a faculty member at Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts. He holds an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, and a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. His areas of expertise include contemporary art, popular music, and curatorial studies. He is the author of Genealogy of Punk and a co-author of Anarchism as Thought (Ibunsha) and Lectures on Expressive Culture (Nakanishiya Publishing). His curatorial projects include Punk! The Revolution of Everyday Life and Bedtime for Democracy.

Mahon Murphy is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Law at Kyoto University. He is a historian who specialises in the international history of the First World War. He also teaches a course on Japanese Popular Culture. This year he co-authored a book with Ran Zwigenberg on the pioneering grind core band, S.O.B. from Kansai. Mahon is interested in the evolution of punk music in Kansai and in particular, Kyoto. He has researched the 1980s Kyoto punk scene with a focus on its evolution from early political punk to a more violent mixture of noise and hardcore.

Lecturer at Kyoto University of the Arts. Born in 1991. She is a curator/activist collaborating with artists and practitioners involved in solving political and social issues in Okinawa and other parts of Asia. She is also a board member of Docu Athan. Major projects include “To Think on your Feet: Strategies of Resistance in Art” (Kyoto Art Center, 2024) as curator, “Masking/Unmasking Death” (Chinretsu-kan, The University Museum of the Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts, 2022) as curator, and “The more beautiful it becomes” (Maruki Gallery For The Hiroshima Panels,2018) as curator.

Hideki Takasaki is running the punk-focused independent record label BRONZE FIST RECORDS since 1995, producing over 60 records and CDs. Since the mid-2000s, he has traveled extensively throughout Southeast and West Asia, visiting punk scenes and producing works featuring local bands. Since 2012, he had resided in Thailand for eight years. He continues organizing punk shows in Thailand and other countries, collaborating with local punk artists.

Hera Mary has lived in Bandung since she was 9 years old and started attending punk gigs at 18. She was part of several bands including D’Ponis, Kroia and sludge crust band Oath. Passionate about documenting women’s presence in the hardcore punk scene, she started Hungry Heart Project, which maintained a blog and produced a documentary film. She began organizing gigs with WOO!!! Kolektif since 2014 and Kolektif Betina. Now Hera balances life as a working mom while running her small businesses, Covin and Cat Drama, which help raise funds to care for cats around her neighborhood. Her journey reflects a blend of DIY ethics, community care, and creative expression.

Born in 1996, Toru began filmmaking while studying at Keio University, documenting the Rohingya detention camps. His co-directed film Tokyo Ritornello (2020) received the Anti-Poverty Journalism Award and Galaxy Award. In 2022, he was detained in Myanmar and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but was released after 111 days. He later founded “Docu Athan,” a project supporting Myanmar filmmakers. His latest work, Resisters in Borderland (2024), won the Best New Director Award from the Association of All Japan Television Program Production (ATP).

Jess Kohl is a filmmaker whose work often focuses on the fringes of society, where she seeks to amplify voices globally that have historically not been heard. After graduating from Central Saint Martins with 1st class honours, followed by an MA in Cinematography at Goldsmiths, Jess has directed several award winning short films, including Nirvana (2018), Grierson nominated Disciples (2021), and A Mouthful of Petrol (2022) which premiered at IDFA, and won Golden Frog for Best Documentary Short at CamerImage. She was named one of Screen Daily’s ‘Screen Stars of Tomorrow’ in 2024. Jess’ photography has been published in British Journal of Photography, Dazed, Another Magazine, Nowness, The Face, Vogue, i-D and many more.