Kashio is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Letters, Keio University. He specializes in comparative meditation theory and meditation practices, especially internal alchemy. Carl Becker is Professor at the Policy Science Unit, Kyoto University. He researches Japanese medical and environmental ethics, death and dying. He received honorary doctorates of Letters and Psychology from Bombay and Moscow, and awards from ADEC, SIETAR and the Crown Prince Akihito Foundation. Becker leads a national Japanese project investigating the effects of bereavement on productivity and medical costs, and serves on the editorial boards of numerous journals.