153 Sachigaoka, Asahiku
Yokohama, Japan
Tel: 81 3 5273 8362 [o]
Fax: 81 3 5273 8362 [o]
Tel: 81 45 361 4725 [h]
Fax: 81 45 361 4729[h]
Mob: 81 90 5816 5104
E-mail: mutoi@mrj.biglobe.ne.jp
An active founding member of the APA (Asian Peace Alliance), he is a veteran campaigner for peace and against militarisation of the Asia-Pacific region. He is also an initiator of PP21 (People’s Plan for the 21st Century), and served in the advisory board of both ACFOD and FOCUS. Credited for his coining of the term ‘transborder participatory democracy’ at the first PP21 gathering in Minamata in 1998, he is also one of the moving spirits behind the search for rural-urban alternatives and cross-border alliances as reflected in the Japanese-Philippine alliance.
He began teaching at the Sociology Department in the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1982 and was an adjunct professor until 1997 lecturing on social movements and alternative development. An active participant of the anti-Vietnam war movement in Beheiren in 1965, he actively engages in anti- war and other new left activities while writing on political, social and cultural topics.
Formerly the Executive Director of Pacific Asia Resource Center and founder of the People’s Plan Study Group (PPSG21), Muto has lectured on a wide range of issues and concerns relating to people’s sovereignty. Associated with various national and regional organizations, he is on the advisory board of the Asian Cultural Forum on Development (ACFOD) and Focus on the Global South (FOCUS)
He has published several books in Japanese in the 1980s and has contributed selected English writings to various publications, conferences and dailies. The more recent papers he presented in English was in 1997 entitled: Ecological Perspective on Alternative Development: with a Focus on the Rainbow Plan.