Wakao Hanaoka

After working in marine conservation, Wakao founded Seafood Legacy in Tokyo in 2015 to build Japan-centric solutions for seafood sustainability by addressing the importance of domestic business-led initiatives to create a driving force for regulatory reforms. He is a committee member of the Fishery Agency, Wide Sea-area Fisheries Adjustment Commission (2018~), a founding member of Anti IUU Forum Japan (2017~), a member of Friends of Ocean Action, World Economic Forum (2021~), and a steering committee member of Coalition for Fisheries Transparency (2022~).

He played an expert advisor of the Cabinet Office Council for Promotion of Regulatory Reform, Fisheries Working Group (2017-2021), a committee member of Fishery Agency Catch Documentation Working Group and Domestic Trade of Specific Marine Animals and Plants Act Working Group (2018-2021), and a steering board member of Global Sustainable Seafood Initiatives (2017- 2021). He was the recipient of 2019 SeaWeb Seafood Champion Award Leadership Category.