Who we are
We are an international team of academics and practitioners interested in the modern day challenges of affordable and accessible housing across the life-course in the UK and Japan.
Oxford Brookes University
Dr Youngha Cho is a Senior Lecturer in the School of the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes University. Her research interests lie in the following fields: housing and land policy, macro and micro analysis of housing markets, housing finance and mortgage markets, housing need and affordability, and residential mobility. Her recent research focuses on the interaction between housing and labour markets and has developed a research network of the nexus of low income housing and labour markets in Southern African countries.
Professor Ramin Keivani is Professor of international land policy and urban development, and Head of the School of the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes University. He is an urban development specialist with a particular interest in the interface of economic globalisation, development of land markets and urban growth and their impact on urban equity, particularly in relation to low-income land and housing delivery in developing and transition economies. Professor Keivani’s most recent work focuses on urban social sustainability, housing delivery in the UK and healthy urban mobility.
Dr Mel Nowicki is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Geography at Oxford Brookes University. Her research interests focus on housing inequality and stigma. Her doctoral research explored the impact of the bedroom tax and the criminalisation of squatting in England and Wales. More recently, she has conducted research in London and Dublin with formerly homeless residents of new social housing built using modular construction methods.
Osaka University
Professor Takashi Yokota Is Professor of Architectural Engineering in the Department of Global Engineering at Osaka University. His interests lie in community development and sustainability in suburban developments, and ageing new towns.
Dr Emiko Itami is assistant professor in the Department of Architectural Engineering at Osaka University. Her research specializes in maintenance of detached houses and ageing suburban housing areas. She focuses on the role of housing specialists, such as builders and architects, and social capitals to sustain good living environment.
Dr Noriko Otsuka is an Associate Professor in the Cybercommunity Research Division at Osaka University. She is also a Senior Researcher at the ILS - Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development in Dortmund, Germany. Her research interests relate to urban design, trans-national transport planning, green and grey infrastructure, and brownfield regeneration. Dr Otsuka has worked on EU funded projects involving several European countries in the field of urban planning and transport accessibility from different residential districts to railway stations in European countries. She has also led a series of collaborative research projects on brownfield regeneration and the use of green infrastructure in post-industrial sites with UK and Japanese universities.
Ai Yuexi is a doctoral student in the Graduate School of Engineering at Osaka University. Her principal research interests lie in the following fields: community home-care centres; welfare facilities for the healthy elderly; communities, architectural planning of community home-care centers; utilization of welfare facilities and welfare service need.
Tokyo University
Dr Yasushi Sukenari is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Tokyo. He specialises in housing and urban sociology, with an interest in the social aspects of architecture, urban planning and housing policy. Dr Sukenari’s research focuses in particular on comprehending the origins of the modern Japanese housing system and material culture from a theoretical perspective.
Dr Kazuhiro Sato is a Project Researcher in the Institute of Social Science at the University of Tokyo. His research interests lie in landlord behaviour and related policy. In particular, Dr Sato’s work compares landlordism across different countries, including Japan, the UK and Germany.
Public Corporation for Housing Improvement and Development (HID)
Mari Matsumoto is Chief of the Housing and Community Research Institute at the Public Corporation for Housing Improvement and Development. She has an extensive work experience in providing financing for high-quality rental housing in Japan. In her current role, she strives to assist people of all ages in having the freedom to choose suitable living conditions.