Saburo Horikawa is Professor of Sociology at Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from Keio University in Tokyo. Why Place Matters, his magnum opus, was published by Springer in 2021. He served as President of the Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology in 2023-2025. Yoichi Yuasa is Professor of Sociology at Kanto Gakuin University in Yokohama, Japan. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Hosei University in Tokyo. He was a visiting scholar at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University (2013-2014). He has served as the Secretary General, the Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology. Atsushi Hamamoto is Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Waseda University, Tokyo. He received his M.A. in Sociology of Development from the University of Essex and his Ph.D. in Sociology from Tokyo Metropolitan University. He has conducted research on approximately 50 dam projects, primarily in Japan and China. Masatoshi Sasaoka (1971-2025) was Professor at the Department of Human Sciences, Hokkaido University in Japan. Before joining Hokkaido University, he was working at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). He had rich experiences in intensive fieldwork in Kalimantan, Maluku and Sumatra, Indonesia. Deceased in April 2025.