Jonathan S. Watts graduated with a BA in religious studies from Princeton University in 1989 and an MA in human sciences from the Saybrook Institute in 2002. He has been a researcher at the Jodo Shu Research Institute in Tokyo since 1999 and the International Buddhist Exchange Center since 2005. He has also been an associate professor of Buddhist studies at Keio University, Tokyo, and has been on the executive board of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB) since 2003. He has coauthored and edited Never Die Alone: Birth as Death in Pure Land Buddhism, Rethinking Karma: The Dharma of Social Justice, This Precious Life: Buddhist Tsunami Relief, and Anti-Nuclear Activism in Post 3/11 Japan.

Rev. Yoshiharu Tomatsu became a fully ordained Buddhist priest in 1978. As a temple abbot, he has presided over thousands of funerals and memorial services while attending to spiritual needs of lay people. He received his masters of divinity at Taisho University, Tokyo, in 1979 and his master's of theological studies at Harvard University Divinity School in 1991. Rev. Tomatsu has been the coordinator of Jodo Shu Research Institute Study Group on Bio-Ethics since 2000, an associate professor at Keio University School of Medicine since 2005, and the founder and director of Jodo Shu Research Institute Ojo and Death Project since 2005. Tomatsu is the co-editor, with Jonathan Watts, of Never Die Alone: Birth as Death in Pure Land Buddhism and Traversing the Pure Land Path: A Lifetime of Encounters with Honen Shonin.