Masako Okuhira is an advocate for the independent living movement of persons with disabilities as well as an expert on “Disability and Development.” She currently works as a Special Advisor for the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. Her duties include raising awareness about disability among the staff, applying the viewpoint of disability to the foundation’s projects, and promoting diversity and inclusion throughout the organization. She is also a member of the Expert Committee on International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health Committees (ICF Expert Committee) of the Social Security Council organized by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. For many years, she has empowered a number of young leaders in developing countries by providing them with opportunities to participate in leadership training for people with disabilities. At her previous job, she worked on a project run by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in the Republic of Colombia called “Social Inclusion for the Conflict Victims with Disabilities.” Before that, she served as the director for the International Training Section in the Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities, where she ran the training programs for 15 years. The alumni of these programs have established independent living centers in their home countries including in Cambodia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, South Korea, and Taiwan, and have been actively working for the betterment of their communities.