Fumie is a Senior Consultant and Managing Director at InterPraxis, specializing in democratic governance, gender equality, and international human rights and labour practices.

 

She has over 20 years of experience working on public policies in the field of gender equality and SRHR (sexual and reproductive health and rights) in both national and international settings. She has held a senior role at UN Women as a Partnership and Resource Mobilization Specialist, and served with UNFPA in Nepal as a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist.

 

As the first Asia Regional Coordinator for the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH), Fumie co-led the G7 Summit International Health Advocacy Group in Ise Shima, which elevated Universal Health Coverage and Sexual and Reproductive Health in the final communiqué. She also facilitated national consultations on the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health in Bangladesh, Thailand, Japan, and beyond.

 

A former Senior Policy Coordinator to Japan’s Minister of State for Social Affairs, Fumie brings deep experience in public policy, stakeholder engagement, and democratic governance. Earlier in her career, she was a legislative aide, political spokesperson, and television broadcast journalist.

 

Since joining InterPraxis in 2008, she has advised Canadian companies on labour and gender issues in emerging markets and conducted international human rights investigations on migration, child labour, and trafficking in the extractive sector. She has worked across Africa, Asia, North America, and the Middle East. Her clients include Transparency International-Canada, CIDA, the Parliament of Japan, Global Affairs Canada, and Human Rights Now (HRN).

 

Fumie holds a JD from Waseda University Law School, an MA in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex, and a Master’s in Public Policy from George Washington University. She is a board member of the Japanese Association of International Women’s Rights (JAIWR). Her publication in English includes “Women’s empowerment and gender equality in Japan” in Civil and Political Rights in Japan, Routledge (2019) and “Women and the 2011 East Japan Disaster” in the Journal Gender & Development (2012).

 

In addition to the role at InterPraxis, she serves as the Senior Advocacy Adviser for the Japan Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning (JOICFP). Fluent in English and Japanese, she contributes a monthly public affairs column to a national magazine in Japan.