Meet the editors

Takuji Ohyama is the chairman of the Fertilization Research Foundation. He obtained a Ph.D. in Agriculture from the University of Tokyo in 1980. His previous positions include professor in the Faculty of Agriculture, Dean of the Graduate School of Science and Technology, and dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, all at Niigata University, Japan. He was also a Professor in the Faculty of Applied Biosciences, Department of Agricultural

Chemistry, Tokyo University of Agriculture (2017 -2022). He was president of the Japanese Society of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition from 2007–2009. His research interests are nitrogen fixation and metabolism in soybean plants, new technology of deep placement of slow-release nitrogen fertilizers for soybean cultivation, and nitrogen and carbon metabolism in rice, tulip, curcuma, and cucumber. He is also interested in the use of stable isotopes and positron-emitting radioisotopes.

Yoshihiko Takahashi obtained a Ph.D. degree in agriculture from the Tokyo University of Agriculture in 1995. He was a professor in the Faculty of Agriculture, Niigata University, Japan from 2006 to 2020. He was also a researcher at the Niigata Prefectural Agricultural Research Institute from 1998 to 2003. He studies the high-quality cultivation of paddy rice and soybean by improving fertilizer management on a field scale.

He developed a new fertilization technology, a deep placement of slow-release nitrogen fertilizers for soybean cultivation, which did not repress nitrogen fixation activity by root nodules.

Norikuni Ohtake is a professor in the Faculty of Agriculture, Niigata University, Japan. He obtained a Ph.D. degree in agriculture from the Niigata University of graduate school the same university in 1998. He was a senior researcher at the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan in 2007–2008. He studies metabolism and accumulation regulation analysis in developing soybean seeds, with a focus on seed storage protein accumulation.

Takashi Sato is a professor in the Faculty of Bioresource Sciences, Department of Environmental Science, Akita Prefectural University, Japan. He obtained a Ph.D. degree in agriculture from Niigata University, Japan in 1999. His research interests are soybean yield increase technology in a paddy-upland rotation system and soil amendment by legume green manure.

Sayuri Tanabata is an associate professor at the Center for International Field Agriculture Research and Education, College of Agriculture, Ibaraki University, Japan. She obtained a Ph.D. degree in agriculture from Niigata University, Japan in 2008. Her research interests are autoregulation of nodulation in legume plants, nitrogen and carbon metabolism in soybean, and the development of the use of organic fertilizers. She is also interested in the use of

stable isotopes and radioisotopes.
