Maher Nasser has over 36 years of work experience in the United Nations System during which he has worked in Amman, Cairo, Dubai, Gaza, New York and Vienna. He is currently the Director of Outreach in the United Nations Department of Global Communications.

Maher leads the Department’s engagement with civil society, academia, sports / football and the creative community, including the advertising industry and was recently appointed as the Commissioner-General of the United Nations at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Kansai, Japan.

Maher Nasser is a reluctant runner and is married with three grown children.

Ms. Izumi Nakamitsu has served as UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs since 1 May 2017. Before this, she was Assistant Administrator of the Crisis Response Unit at UNDP. She has extensive experience in and outside the UN system, including as Special Adviser on the follow-up to the 2016 Refugee and Migrant Summit, Director of the Asia and Middle East Division in UN Peacekeeping, and Director of Policy, Evaluation and Training.

From 2005 to 2008, she was a Professor of International Relations at Hitotsubashi University and served as a senior adviser on peacebuilding for JICA and as a Foreign Ministry council member. She also held senior roles at International IDEA in Sweden and worked with the UN Reform Team under Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Earlier, she served with UNHCR in various capacities, including in the former Yugoslavia, Turkey, and northern Iraq.

Yoshioka Tatsuya is the founder of Peace Boat, an NGO established in 1983, and has dedicated over 40 years to international work in education, peace, and sustainability. An NGO in Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council and a global campaigner for the SDGs, Peace Boat has organized over 100 worldwide voyages for peace, engaging more than 80,000 people in study, peacebuilding, volunteering, and cultural exchange. Peace Boat's programs have included peace education for youth from conflict zones, ocean and climate capacity-development youth programs, and disaster relief initiatives. Peace Boat is an International Steering Group member of ICAN, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate organization. Yoshioka is Board Chair of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), and has addressed the United Nations on topics including a Culture of Peace, ocean protection and the climate crisis. Yoshioka leads Peace Boat's Ecoship Project to develop the world's most sustainable cruise ship.

Born in 1932 in northeastern China, Tanaka graduated from the Tokyo University of Science Department of Physics with a Doctor of Engineering. He moved to Nagasaki in 1938 following the death of his father, where on August 9, 1945, in his first year at Nagasaki Prefectural Junior High School, he was exposed to the atomic bomb 3.2 kilometers from the hypocenter. The lives of five family members were taken instantly. Since 1972 he has been involved in the Hibakusha movement, serving as an officer of the Miyagi Prefecture A-bomb Victims Association and Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations). He became Secretary-General of Nihon Hidankyo in 2000 and Co-Chair in 2017.
In December 2024, Tanaka delivered the Nobel Lecture at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony on behalf of Nihon Hidankyo. Co-chair of the Japan NGO Network for Nuclear Weapons Abolition and President of the Japan Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Melissa is a former Australian Minister for International Development and former Member of Parliament for the Australian Labor Party from 2007 to 2016. As an MP, she regularly voiced support for nuclear disarmament, including as a member of a cross-party parliamentary group dedicated to the cause. Prior to entering the Australian Parliament, Ms Parke served as an international lawyer with the United Nations in Kosovo, Gaza, New York and Lebanon. More recently, she served as a member of the UN Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen.

Oussouby SACKO was born in the Republic of Mali. Upon graduating from high school, he received a government scholarship to study in China, then later came to Japan in 1991. In 1999, he completed his doctoral studies in architecture at the Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University. He specializes in spatial anthropology and has conducted research on the relationship between society and architecture from various perspectives. He is multilingual, speaking Bambara, English, French, Chinese, and Kansai dialect. After serving as a faculty member and dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Kyoto Seika University, he served as President of Kyoto Seika University from 2018 to 2022. Currently, he serves as Vice President (Director) and Director of Overseas Communications for the Japan Association for the 2025 International Exposition.

Ms Hobara has been engaged with the Japanese Red Cross Society in relief activities for events such as the Philippine typhoon and the Turkey earthquake, as well as being seconded to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), engaging in conflict-related humanitarian aid in Myanmar, Nigeria, and other locations. Since May 2024, she has been stationed in Kyiv, Ukraine, responsible for the overall coordination of the Japanese Red Cross's local support.

Started to visit the United States for private tuition every year since 1980. Graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts, after attending the Senior High School of Music attached to the Faculty of Music. Awarded first prize at the International Music Competition of Japan, as well winning a number of other music competitions from childhood. He launched his career in 1996, performing mostly outside of Japan to acclaim. In recognition of his numerous social activities, he was appointed “UNESCO Artist for Peace” by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1998, the first Japanese to be chosen.

A global boy group of 11 members selected by viewers on Japan’s largest audition program “PRODUCE 101 JAPAN.” In 2025, they are embarking on a world tour with 8 performances in 6 cities including New York City and Los Angeles, where they will perform at the LA Dodger Stadium. Their latest song "BE CLASSIC" has ranked on the US radio chart "Mediabase Top100 Radio Airplay" for the first time as a Japanese boy group, expanding their global activities. The group name "JO1" has the meaning that the trainees who pursued their dreams together in "PRODUCE 101 JAPAN" will become one and aim for the top of the world.