Haruka is a Research Assistant on the Bridging Divides project, where she contributes to a scoping review, supports international collaboration, and will potentially work on research relating to social media use. She is also a PhD candidate at UCL, where her thesis uses quasi-experimental methods to evaluate how Japanese economic and labour policies shape population health outcomes. Her broader research interests sit at the intersection of social policy, causal inference, and mental health, with a particular focus on how institutional structures influence wellbeing. Before starting her PhD, she worked at Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in the suicide prevention division.

Outside of work, Haruka's idea of a perfect evening is wrapping herself in a blanket on the sofa and watching cat and panda videos.