Hisaishi began composing contemporary music while studying at Kunitachi College of Music. He has composed music for over 50 films including "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind," "My Neighbor Totoro," "HANA-BI," and "Kikujiro." He has received numerous awards including several Japanese Academy Awards for Best Music. Today, he is considered one of the most important composers in the Japanese film industry.Most recently, he made headlines by receiving the JASRAC Golden Award for the music in "Howl's Moving Castle" in May.
Joe Hisaishi's official website:http://www.joehisaishi.com/

Born in 1962 in Tokyo. Left Nihon University, College of Art, Department of Photography before graduation. In 1999, he received the 24th Kimura Ihei Award for "Tokyo Suburbia," a photo book published by Korinsha. His major photo books include "BABY LAND" (Little More), "HYPER BALLAD-ICELANDIC SUBURBAN LANDSCAPES" (Switch Publishing) and "Tokyo-no-Kodomo (Children of Tokyo)" (Little More).
Recently, "Tokyo and my daughter" was published by Nieves Books in Switzerland.
Directed and shot a film, "Kiwamete Yoi Fuukei (Very strange landscape)."

Ogata was born in Fukuoka prefecture. In 1971, he met his future producer Yuzo Morita, and together, they debuted their collaboratively created play, "Boxing Elegy." In 1982, he began the "Toshi Seikatsu Catalog (Urban Living Catalog)" series of one-person performances. In 1982, he performed "Issey Ogata's Toshi Seikatsu Catalog" at Kinokuniya Hall. In 1985, he received the Agency for Cultural Affairs' Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts for New Artists in the Popular Arts. He was the recipient of the Golden Arrow Prize for the Dramatic Arts in 1990 for "Toshi Seikatsu Catalog". In January 2007, he performed at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. Via the Kyodo News Service, his essays and illustrations are currently serialized in newspapers all over Japan.

Born 1929, in Nagano. Avant-garde artist, Novelist. Started producing illusory paintings consisting of dots and nets since childhood. Moved to the U.S.A by herself in 1957, where her creative work gave shock waves through art circles and established her status as an avant-gardearlist. Keep holding exhibitions all over the world after coming back to Japan in 1973. Also released a lot of novels and poetical works. Awarded numerous prizes both in Japan and overseas, for example the 18th Praemium Imperial.

Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell were born in 1955 and 1959 respectively. They studied Fine Arts at Middlesex Polytechnic from 1977-80. They have collaborated since their graduation and began exhibiting internationally in the early 1980's.
Their wide range of techniques includes sculpture, digital animations, and full scale architecture such as their Paddington Basin Bridge 2004. In 2002 they were commissioned as official British War Artists for ‘The aftermath of September 11th and the war in Afghanistan’. In 2004 the resulting installation ‘The House of Osama bin Laden’ won the BAFTA award for Interactive Art Installation and in the same year they were short - listed for the Turner Prize.

Having completed the Postgraduate Course of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music in 1985 majoring in Art, Tanaka currently works as a visual artist. Since the late 80's, he has been working internationally holding exhibitions both inside and outside Japan and engaging in direction of music videos, TV commercials and performances and in art direction and creative direction of advertisements, CI and product development.
He has been awarded with numerous prizes including Grand Prix of the Japan Art & Culture Association (JACA) Japan Visual Art Exhibition, Tokyo Art Directors Club (ADC) Award, Tokyo Copywriters Club (TCC) Award, All Japan Radio & Television Commercial Confederation (ACC) Silver Prize, MITI Minister's Award of Japan Display Design Association (DDA), Tokyo Type Directors Club (TDC) Member's Silver Prize, Asia Pacific Advertising Festival Gold Prize, etc.