Kuniko INOGUCHI, Ph.D. is Member, House of Councillors of Japan, Chairman, Special Committee on Okinawa and Northern Problems, and Member, of the Science Council of Japan. She was appointed Minister of State for Gender Equality and Social Affairs (2005 to 2006), and elected as Member of the House of Representatives (2005 to 2009). She also served as Acting Director-General of the International Bureau of the Liberal Democratic Party. Prior to her political appointments, she served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Head of the Delegation of Japan to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland (2002 to 2004). She also served the challenging post of President of the Conference on Disarmament (2003), and Chairperson of the First UN Biennial Meeting of States for Small Arms and Light Weapons (2003). Prior to her appointment as Ambassador, she taught first as Associate Professor, then Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Law at Sophia University, Tokyo (1981 to 2002). During this period, she also spent time as a Fulbright Visiting Fellow at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University (1982), M.A. from Yale University (1977), and B.A. from Sophia University (1975). She is married to Takashi Inoguchi, President of the University of Niigata Prefecture, and former Professor of the University of Tokyo. They reside in Tokyo and have two daughters.