Some of Yasushi’s professional accomplishments include influencing the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s development aid policy when he worked as a member of their Environmental and Social Safeguard Advisor team. He also engaged Toyota Motor Co in a US$ 3 million sustainable forest management project in the Philippines. He also engaged the Japanese Ministry of Finance in a conservation agenda to secure the government’s second phase of contribution to the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, totaling US$ 25 million.

Prior to joining Conservation International in 2003, Yasushi worked as a policy and strategy consultant at Nomura Research Institute in Tokyo and as an Environment Program Officer, Asia-Pacific region, for the United Nations Development Programme in the New York headquarters. He earned his undergraduate degree from Konan University in theoretical physics, and has his master’s degree in environmental management in resource economics from Duke University. Yasushi lives with his wife, Aiko, in Japan, and in his free time enjoys playing bass guitar, paddling and occasionally surfing.