Rev. Rakafumi Kawakami is the deputy head priest of Shunkoin Temple in Kyoto and teaches Zen meditation classes in English to the 5,000 – 5,500 annual visitors to the temple. The participants include various business school groups, including HBS, IESE, Sloan, etc. He co-organizes and co-hosts long-term study abroad programs in Kyoto with Bryn Mawr College, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, University of Oregon and more. He also teaches Japanese hospitality classes to employees from the sales and marketing departments of Toyota’s global offices; and in conjunction with a disease-prevention specialist, holds corporate wellness seminars and workshops for several corpora- tions in Japan and developed a mindfulness smart phone application, Myalo. In addition, He is an LGBT rights supporter, and the temple is the first Buddhist temple in Japan that publicly started offering same-sex wedding ceremonies. He has been a member of the U.S.–Japan Leadership Program, hosted by the U.S.–Japan Foundation, since 2008.
