Born in Japan, Ikuru Kuwajima spent a few years in America but grew up in Japan. He studied photojournalism in the University of Missouri, Columbia and  interned at a few newspapers in the U.S. Then, he moved to Romania to work on documentary projects. In the last years, he has been based in Ukrainian, freelancing and working on projects mainly in the post Soviet countries while learning Russian. His projects varied from a minority in Tajikistan, Cossacks in Crimea to drug addicts in Ukraine. He's currently working on projects in the post Soviet countries and his home country Japan. His work has been recognized in Picture of the Year international, LUMIX festival for young photojournalism, Fujifilm Distinction Award and China International Press Photo Contest among many photojournalism contests/awards. He is fluent in Japanese, English and Russian and speaks basic Romanian.