Yuko acquired her Ph.D. at the London School of Economics based on her fieldwork in a South Indian village. Her book “Gender, Kinship and Womanhood among the Nagarattars in South India” is published by Oxford University Press. Yuko is professor at Komazawa University, Tokyo, where she teaches cultural studies, which includes an interest in how NPOs interact and work with local governments. Her Japanese- language book “Grassroots NPOs and Community Building: A Challenge From Seattle” won the Japan NPO Academic Council Award in 2006. Collaborating with the Swaminathan Foundation in Tamil Nadu and with the Kerela government, her students have set up an NPO, the Japan Students Fund, to offer small loans to South Indian women of very low income. Yuko concentrates much of her non-teaching time on developing Regional Development Projects through Self-Help and Leadership training in Kovalam, Kanchipuram District, Tamil Nadu.