Yasumi Iwakami
- Producer
Yasumi Iwakami was born in Japan in 1959. And He is a renowned
net-journalist and a chairman of Independent Web Journal in Japan.
Graduated Waseda Jitsugyo High School and Waseda University, Bachelor
of Social Science. After graduation, Iwakami started his career at Joho
Center Publishing Co., Ltd., a publishing company, as an editor. After
resigning, he became a freelance journalist in 1987. From 1989 to 1994,
Iwakami frequently traveled former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and
consequently published his book in 1996 describing the collapse of
Soviet Union and following rises of democracy movement in Russia. He
won Kodansha Non-Fiction prize for the book in the same year. Iwakami
appeared as a regular commentator on several TV and radio programs.
Iwakami covers a great variety of fields, such as politics,
international affairs and relationships, economy, crimes, medical and
social welfare issues, ideologies and religions, family issues, culture
and sports. Since the late 90s, Iwakami has been covering issues such
as demographic change in Japan and its impact on Japanese economy and
society and writing many articles and giving speeches. Lately he
extensively interviews central political figures amidst frequent
political shift in Japan. In August 2009 Iwakami redesigned his website
"Web Iwakami" and started video broadcasting on November 30, 2009 as a
new way of journalism through Internet media. Since December 2009 he
has been using Twitter to comment on
various subjects, gaining more than 110,000 followers. He also
commenced live streaming of his interviews through Ustream in March
2010. In December 2010, Iwakami founded Independent Web Journal (IWJ).
IWJ began 24/7 broadcasting just after March 11, 2011 the Great East
Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant incidents.
IWJ continues to follow the subsequent movements of civilian protests
against nuclear power. The number of IWJ channels has increased to 93
in June 2011 to completely cover growing no nuke protests throughout
nationwide. He began Facebook in June 2011. Iwakami supports many
people who act as a part-time journalist and strives to build streaming
network of civilian reporters.