Setsuko Hata

Background

Background

The ethical and sustainable values I cherish grew naturally from my childhood. My mother strongly shaped my relationship with food: organic ingredients, homemade meals, and avoiding additives were part of everyday life. Growing up this way taught me not only about health, but also about living with nature and the significance of small daily choices. After moving to the United States in 2011, I spent thirteen years in New York, Colorado, and Los Angeles, meeting people with many cultures and values. Those experiences deepened my respect for human rights and diversity and showed me the importance of living together while honoring difference. They also strengthened my belief that people, society, and nature are inseparably connected. From that belief, I founded the Los Angeles nonprofit We Are From The Earth (WAFT). In partnership with the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood, we planned and operated community events and used an online community to educate and advocate for sustainable, ethical consumption, lifestyles, and business. I also served as a Los Angeles volunteer leader for Save Soil, the global environmental initiative of Sadhguru's Isha Foundation, raising awareness of the importance of soil conservation. Now based in Japan, I continue expanding lifestyles that value the connection among people, society, and nature through music, yoga, and communication about Conscious Living.

Why This Theme

Why This Theme

A major reason ethics and sustainability became my life's work was my encounter with numerous documentaries and books while living in the United States. I learned about the environmental impact of the meat and fast-fashion industries, human-rights issues, and the severe degradation of soil around the world. These realities taught me that our daily choices are deeply connected not only to ourselves but also to the future of society and the planet. Discovering facts I had never known and deepening my understanding transformed my awareness—and, with it, my everyday decisions and actions. This experience showed me powerfully that knowledge changes awareness, and changed awareness changes behavior. Many people still have few opportunities to encounter this information. That is why I want to keep sharing it: to create opportunities for more people to learn, think for themselves, and make their own choices. By practicing conscious living myself and becoming a role model, I hope to bring ethical and sustainable values to more people. That is why I work as an Ethical Model, and it is a mission I will continue to cherish.

History

Journey

Born in Osaka, Setsuko Hata is a jazz singer, composer, arranger, and Sadhguru-certified Hatha Yoga teacher. Music was at the center of her life from childhood. At twenty-one, however, she experienced depression and bipolar disorder, marking a profound turning point. She began asking: How can a person live with health in both body and mind? What is true happiness? Those questions led her to deeply explore the mind, body, food, and consciousness. After taking three years away from university, she graduated from Osaka City University's Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences and became a registered dietitian. Having studied health scientifically, she moved to the United States in 2011 to pursue her longstanding dream of music. Over thirteen years in New York, Colorado, and Los Angeles, she worked as a jazz singer, composer, and arranger. After studying jazz voice at The City College of New York, she entered the graduate program at the University of Northern Colorado. There she explored jazz voice, composition, arranging, big band, orchestra, and film music, earning a master's degree. She also became the university's first Japanese salaried teaching assistant. Her performance career took her across the United States and included a solo concert at Los Angeles's renowned Catalina Jazz Club. In 2024, Yomiuri TV's Good! Chikyubin featured her life and career as a jazz singer in America. Alongside music, she founded the nonprofit We Are From The Earth (WAFT). In collaboration with the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood, she promoted sustainable and ethical lifestyles that value not only environmental responsibility but also our connections with people and society. The encounter that transformed her life most deeply was with authentic yoga and meditation rooted in India's ancient traditions. Through continued practice, she experienced dramatic improvements in body and mind and felt her own possibilities begin to open. Determined to study more deeply, she moved to the Isha Foundation in southern India, led by internationally known yogi Sadhguru. For approximately eighteen months, she immersed herself in yoga and meditation and completed a rigorous teacher-training program of more than 1,750 hours, becoming a Sadhguru-certified Hatha Yoga teacher. She is currently one of only four teachers in Japan with this qualification. At the end of 2025, she returned to Japan after fifteen years abroad. Based in Tokyo and Osaka, she now performs music, teaches authentic Hatha Yoga, leads corporate wellness programs, and speaks publicly. Through social media, she shares Conscious Living—a way of life that values harmony among people, society, and nature as well as health in body and mind. Her mission is to help each person become healthy and open the full potential of life through music, yoga, and conscious living. She believes that transforming individual awareness and action nurtures harmony and creates a better future.

Turning Point

Turning Point

A defining turning point began when I experienced bipolar depression at twenty-one. During a time when both mind and body were deeply shaken, I began asking what true health and a genuinely rich life mean. I have continued searching for those answers ever since. Through that exploration, I realized that our health does not exist within us alone. What we eat, what we wear, and the people around us are all connected within a greater cycle of life. To protect our own health, we must also protect the nature and environment that sustain it. Mind, body, and planet exist in one relationship. While living in the United States with this perspective, I watched a documentary exposing the realities behind fast fashion and was deeply shocked. I learned about the labor and human-rights issues behind a single garment and the vast amounts of unsold clothing thrown away. Confronting the profound problems beneath the industry's glamour made me reconsider my own unquestioned consumption. Since then, I have chosen only what I truly need, favored natural materials and ethically made products, and cared for each item over time. The same is true of food. Learning about the meat industry also shocked me. I practiced a fully vegan diet for one year and was vegetarian during my eighteen months in India. Today I choose organic ingredients whenever possible, center plant-based meals, and maintain a balanced diet. What moved me most was learning through Sadhguru's Save Soil movement how rapidly the world's soil is disappearing. Approximately 95% of our food depends on soil. Yet around one-third of global soil is already degraded, and reports warn that more than 90% could be degraded by 2050. Soil erosion may also reduce agricultural yields by 40% by 2045. Plants grow because soil exists, and those plants support all life, including us. Without healthy soil, there can be no healthy food, healthy people, or sustainable future. I came to understand that pursuing health also means protecting the Earth itself. Save Soil advocates policies that maintain at least 3–6% organic matter in agricultural soil worldwide. Organic matter supports life within the soil, retains water, and creates the foundation for healthy plant growth. Protecting soil is therefore not only an environmental issue; it protects our food, our health, and future life. I began considering what I could do. In the United States, I worked as a Save Soil project leader to raise awareness, and in India I participated in a range of Save Soil initiatives. Now that I am back in Japan, I want to communicate the importance of soil here and give as many people as possible an opportunity to understand it. I believe transformed awareness and choices can become a powerful force for the future, and I will continue sharing that message. Each action I have taken began as a small choice, but together those choices changed my way of life. Through what we wear, eat, and consume each day, we can help move the world in a better direction. In a society overflowing with excessive production and consumption, I want to fulfill my role as an Ethical Model by introducing products and services that are kind to people and the planet.