AKIRA NAKATA   

Among various ways of writing "Akira" in Chinese characters, a specific ideogram of Akira Nakata's “Akira”  means "sunshine" (Whereas a great film director, Akira Kurosawa's “Akira” means brightness.)

Akira was born in Yokohama, a world-known port city in Japan. In 1977, his dynamic "Kamikaze" tour in London, Paris, Rome, Casablanca, Marrakesh, Florence, Nice, St-Paul de Vance, Madrid, Toledo, Geneva, Munich, Athens and a couple of islands in the Aegean Sea inspired artistic sensitivity to this 22 year old young man. Having completed his studies at Waseda University, Akira joined a music publishing firm, dealing with musical copyrights of those classical tunes of “Chanson française” and “Italian Canzone”, as well as importing  European animated films.

After some years, his encounter with an ex-Red Cross / UN professional lead his path towards humanitarian activities. Ever since he joined the Japanese Red Cross in 1981, he has been working consistently in its International Department. This is quite a unique case of stability as paid staff  are used to being shifted regularly to other departments in this gigantic organisation of 55,000 employees . He is now the director of this department.

The various “careers” of Akira within the Red Cross, have included his work in the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva for three years and many other international involvements. Among the most memorable was the unique experience of the 1996 Lima hostage crisis at the residence of the japanese ambassador which he remembers as one of his most exciting and dramatic field assignment. He was sent to Peru as the leader of a Japanese Red Cross Team which was integrated into the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Eventually this crisis provided Akira and Francis (this site’s Webmaster and at that time Head of the Americas operations for the ICRC) with an opportunity to get to know each other and to become close friends.

Akira has not undergone any proper photographical training, and he used to take pictures by mere intuition. While he was accustomed to taking many shots in Japan and abroad with his 35 m/m NIKON and different lenses, he lost interest in taking photographs after his repatriation to Japan in 1995 as he became overwhelmed by work. Eventually, the 1^st version of SONY Cyber-Shot re-ignited his interest and opened the door of the digital world. Akira’s photo album has been materialized first by this small SONY camera, followed by a NIKON D-70 and subsequently the brand-new NIKON D-200.