Masashi Amano is an Assistant Professor at the International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University. He received his Ph.D. in Literature from Tohoku University, where he studied 18-19th century Japanese political history and paleography. His current research focuses on preserving family, local and historical records, in particular through developing collaborations between various archive-holding agencies. In 2010, he joined the Network for Preserving Historical Materials (Miyagi) and became a principal member to lead the ongoing rescue and preservation operation for the artifacts damaged by the 2011 Earthquake. Website http://irides.tohoku.ac.jp/eng/organization/faculty/humansociety/amano.html http://researchmap.jp/read0155052/?lang=english