Brandner was born in Salzburg in 1963 and studied Japanology. Through her work as a TV and radio journalist and publicist she has concerned herself with Japan for almost four decades and has lived there for long periods. She currently works for the scientific department of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF.
She is a programme maker and long-standing presenter of the Radiokolleg feature on the Austrian national radio station Ö1 and also works for public broadcasters in Germany and Switzerland. She holds lectureships at universities in Nagoya and Vienna and is the author of many publications, including Zuhause in Fukushima (2014) and Japan - Inselreich in Bewegung (2019). www.judithbrandner.at