Dr. Mari Maeda-Yamamoto

After completing her master’s degrees at Chiba University in 1986, Mari Maeda-Yamamoto worked for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Chugoku Agricultural Research Center, and the Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science. Then, she obtained her Ph.D. from Kyushu University in 1992. In 2012, she was appointed head of the Division of Food Function Research at the Institute of Food Research, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO). From 2019, she supervised all health care innovation research at the Institute of Food Research, NARO. In April 2021, she was appointed the Chief Researcher in that department. In November 2021, she was appointed to her current position (Executive Researcher at the Institute of Food Research). She is also a Professor at Tsukuba University, School of Integrative and Global Majors, and a Japanese tea instructor. She has been studying the functional benefits of Japanese green tea, particularly the mechanisms and absorptivity of anti-allergic components (methylated catechins) and anti-stress components (anthocyanin), tea varieties containing high concentrations of such components, tea leaf properties of respective varieties, developing food products labeled with functional benefits, and verifying the health benefits of functionally beneficial bento box lunches prepared with functionally beneficial agricultural products.