Over the course of 18 years, her experiences extend from creating socially engaged art projects, to providing engagement based strategic direction and leading educational programs for arts and cultural institutions; management of programs for arts, culture, youth development and community-building, and design thinking for social change. After having lived and worked in the US for 20 years, she returned to Japan in 2011 to work as a member of the start-up team for Social Creative Platform for Opportunity: Project Wawa where she designed the creative industries strategy to support grassroots reconstruction efforts following the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake in Japan. Since then, she has been involved in developing projects for arts and cultural institutions, and community-building, and creative place making for social change in Japan and the US. In 2015, she co-founded a non-profit arts and community development organization inVisible in Japan. Hiroko holds a M.F.A. degree in interdisciplinary studies from Tufts University, in affiliation with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, with a special focus on performance art, history, and theory, and social practice.