Japan faces significant planning challenges in the coming years: How to manage urban development in an era of declining population and the decentralization of governance? How to plan and rebuild the Tohoku region following the catastrophic earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear crisis in 2011? Meanwhile, the country’s recent financial crisis has weakened the market for urban planning work, and academic enrollment in urban planning studies is declining. Join three of Japan’s leading urban planning professors as they share their firsthand observations on the future role of Japanese planners and the challenges of urban restoration. With Professor Tomokazu Arita, Division of Policy and Planning Sciences at the University of Tsukuba, Professor Masami Kobayashi, Department of Architecture at Meiji University, and Professor Hisako Koura, School of Engineering at Osaka University.