Yuji Higashi is the Secretary-General at the Japanese Association of Occupational Therapists. He graduated from Kumamoto Rehabilitation Academy in 1985. He worked as an occupational therapist at Junwa and Fujimoto Hospitals and earned his Ph.D. from Kanazawa University in 2007. In 2014, he became a Special Adviser, Promotion Division Health and Welfare Bureau for the Elderly, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. He currently serves as Director of the Department of Rehabilitation Engineering at the National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities and, since 2020, has also been a Program Officer at the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development.