Taro Yamauchi, PhD

Human Ecologist, Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, and Center for Environmental Health Sciences, Hokkaido University

  1. Japan

Biography

Taro Yamauchi is a professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Hokkaido University. In 1998, he graduated with a Ph.D. in Health Sciences from The University of Tokyo, where he also obtained his MSc and BS in the same discipline. He does intensive fieldwork in hunter-gatherer societies, rural villages, and urban slums in developing countries such as Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Cameroon with an aim to understand the lifestyle and health of local populations and their adaptation to their living environments.

Through his position as the Project Leader for the Sanitation Value Chain Study under the Research Institute of Humanity and Nature, Japan, his research interests further expanded to include global water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), participatory action research and waste management. Professor Yamauchi began his professional career as an Assistant Professor in the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Medicine. From there, he moved on to Hokkaido University, where he served as an Associate Professor in their School of Medicine’s Department of Health Sciences and Faculty of Health Sciences. He is now a Professor in Hokkaido University’s Faculty of Health Sciences, Director of the Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, and Concurrent Teacher in the Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies, Hokkaido University. 

His academic publications explore the public health practices of indigenous societies, including the Pygmies and the Baka, of which he has published a chapter in the “Dynamics of Learning in Neanderthals and Modern Humans, Vol. 2”. He has also written a chapter on the body growth and life history of humans from an evolutionary perspective in the book “Social Learning and Innovation in Contemporary Hunter-Gatherers: Evolutionary and Ethnographic Perspectives”. Most recently, he has edited the book, “The Sanitation Triangle: Socio-Culture, Health and Materials” which explores the relationship between socio- culture, health and materials as it relates to WASH.

He maintains strong connections through membership in Academic Societies. These include the International Society for the Study of Human Growth and Clinical Auxology (ISGA), Society for the Study of Human Biology (SSHB), the International Association of Physiological Anthropology (IAPA), and the International Society for Sanitation Studies (ISSS) of which he is both Founder and Chief Representative.

Recent Publications

  1. Yamauchi T, Nakao S, Harada H, (Eds) (2022) The Sanitation Triangle: Socio-Culture, Health and Materials, Springer.

  2. Mitsunaga A, Yamauchi T (2022) Assessing Diet and Nutritional Intake of Rural Children in Zambia Using a Food Frequency Questionnaire. Ecology of Food and Nutrition. DOI: 10.1080/03670244.2022.2028626

  3. Agestika L, Sintawardani N, Hamidah U, Nyambe S, Yamauchi T (2021) Pattern of child faeces management and disposable diaper usage among under-fives in an Urban Slum of Bandung, Indonesia. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development. DOI: 10.2166/washdev.2021.099

  4. Nyambe S, Yamauchi T (2021) Peri-Urban Water, Sanitation & Hygiene in Lusaka, Zambia: Photovoice empowering local assessment via ecological theory. Global Health Promotion. DOI: 10.1177/1757975921995713

  5. Mitsunaga A, Yamauchi T (2020) Evaluation of the nutritional status of rural children living in Zambia. Journal of Physiological Anthropology, 39(34). DOI: 10.1186/s40101-020-00244-8

  6. Nyambe S, Agestika L, Yamauchi T (2020) The improved and the unimproved: Factors associated with peri- urban sanitation in Lusaka, Zambia. PLoS ONE, 15(5): e0232763. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0232763

  7. Annan RA, Sowah SA, Apprey C, Frimpomaa NA, Okonogi S, Yamauchi T, Sakurai T (2020) Relationship between breakfast consumption, BMI status and physical fitness of Ghanaian school-aged children. BMC Nutrition, 6:19. DOI: 10.1186/s40795-020-00344-9

  8. Hasegawa J, Suzuki H, Yamauchi T (2019) Effect of a lower limb strength training programme on physical activity during the snowy season among community-dwelling elderly individuals. Annals of Human Biology, 46(4): 323-329.

  9. Otsuka Y, Agestika L, Harada H, Sriwuryandari L, Sintawardani N, Yamauchi T (2019) Comprehensive assessment of handwashing and faecal contamination among elementary school children in an urban slum of Indonesia. Tropical Medicine & International Health, 24(8): 954-961. DOI: 10.1111/tmi.13279

  10. Otsuka Y, Agestika L, Widyarani, Sintawardani N, Yamauchi T (2019) Risk factors for undernutrition and diarrhea prevalence in an urban slum in Indonesia: Focus on water, sanitation, and hygiene. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 100(3): 727-732. DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.18-0063

Research Expertise

  • Human Ecology

  • Global Health

  • WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene)

  • Nutritional Anthropology

  • Child Growth and Development