Hiroko Tanahashi is a multimedia artist who creates immersive worlds for Post Theater, a Berlin- and Stuttgart-based media performance company that she co-directs with her partner, Max Schumacher.

After graduating from high school, Tanahashi left for New York, later moving to Berlin. She has been away from Japan for the past 25 years, more than half her life.

"I grew up in a very non-Japanese environment and was not really interested in Japanese culture until I had my first child," she says when asked why she left Japan. "Today, I'm rediscovering Japan through the interests of my two boys."