Norihiro Hagita was born in 1954. He attended Keio University where he received a B.E., M.E., and Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1976, 1978, and 1986, respectively. In 1978 he joined the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (now NTT) where he worked until 2001. From 1996 to 2001 he served as the executive manager of the NTT Communication Science Labs. . In 2001 he moved to the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), where he launched the Media Information Science Lab in October 2001 and the Intelligent Robotics and Communication (IRC) lab in October 2002. He currently serves as director for both groups, as well as Board Director of ATR, an ATR fellow, and chair of ATR Creative.