Prof. Takeuchi was born in 1951 in Wakayama, Japan. He graduated from the Department of Geography, the University of Tokyo in 1974. He obtained M.Agr. in 1976 and then a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Agriculture, the University of Tokyo. He served as a Lecturer at the Faculty of Science at the Tokyo Metropolitan University, and then as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Agriculture, a Professor at the Asian Natural Environmental Science Center, and a Professor at the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Science at the University of Tokyo. From 2012 to 2017 he served as a Director and a Professor at the Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IR3S) at the University of Tokyo. He also served as a Vice-Rector at the United Nations University (UNU) from 2008 to 2012, a Senior Vice-Rector at UNU and an Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations from 2013 to 2016. He was a Senior Visiting Professor at UNU Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) from 2016 to 2020, and was appointed Director and a Project Professor of IR3S at the University of Tokyo from April 2017 to 2019. He has held his position as President of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) since July 2017. He took up the position as a Project Professor of the Institute for Future Initiatives (IFI) at the University of Tokyo in April 2019 and has been a Visiting Professor at UNU-IAS since 2020. He served, inter alia, as Chair of the Central Environment Council; and Chair of the Nature Conservation Committee of the Central Environment Council, Government of Japan. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of the journal Sustainability Science (Springer Nature), and a Distinguished Chair at the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies, University of Nairobi.
He received the Uehara Keiji Award of the Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture in 2022, the Wakayama Prefecture Culture Award in 2022, the 2021 MIDORI Academic Prize in 2021, the Ichimura Prize in Science against Global Warming for Distinguished Achievement in 2019, the Otto Soemarwoto Award (Indonesia) in 2018, the Japan Prize of Agricultural Science in 2017, the Ishikawa Award of the City Planning Institute of Japan in 1994, the Award of the Association of Rural Planning, Japan in 1994, and the Award of the Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture in 1980. He specializes in landscape ecology, environmental studies, and sustainability science. He engages in research and outreach activities on creating eco-friendly environments for a harmonious coexistence of people and nature, especially focusing on Asia and Africa. Recently, he has been working toward establishing a global foundation for developing the field of sustainability science aiming to build a sustainable society. He is deeply involved in the SATOYAMA initiative, aiming at the restoration and revitalization of socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes around the world, and Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) initiated by FAO. The following is a list of his recently edited books ― Gasparatos, A., Merle, N., Ahmed, A., Karanja, A., Fukushi, K., Saito, O. and Takeuchi, K. eds.: Sustainability Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa II: Insights from Eastern and Southern Africa, Springer, 268pp, 2020, Gasparatos, A., Ahmed, A., Merle, N., Karanja, A., Fukushi, K., Saito, O. and Takeuchi, K. eds.: Sustainability Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa I: Continental Perspectives and Insights from Western and Central Africa. Springer, 360pp., 2020, Saito, O., Subramanian, SM., Hashimoto, S. and Takeuchi, K. eds.: Managing Socio-ecological Production Landscapes for Sustainable Communities in Asia. Springer, 179pp., 2020, Takeuchi, K., Shiroyama, H., Saito, O. and Matsuura, M. eds.: Biofuels and Sustainability: Holistic Perspective for Policy-making, Springer Japan, 265pp, 2018; Takeuchi, K., Saito, O., Matsuda, H., Mohan, G. eds.: Resilient Asia: Fusion of Traditional and Modern Systems for Sustainable Future, Springer Japan, 196pp., 2018; Saito, O., Kranjac-Berisavljevic, G., Takeuchi, K., Gyasi, E.A. eds.: Strategies for Building Resilience against Climate and Ecosystem Changes in Sub-Saharan Africa, Springer Japan, 343pp., 2017.
