{"id":58532,"date":"2025-08-07T22:05:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T22:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.usjapancouncil.org\/?post_type=news&#038;p=58532"},"modified":"2025-08-28T13:28:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T13:28:05","slug":"welcome-to-our-new-members-august-2025","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.usjapancouncil.org\/ja\/news\/welcome-to-our-new-members-august-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to Our New Members! (August 2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We are pleased to welcome the following new members to the Council (joined in August 2025):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hawaii<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Scott Kikkawa<\/strong>&nbsp;(Honolulu, HI)<br>Supervisory Customs and Border Protection Officer, U.S. Customs and Border Protection<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Eric Fujimoto<\/strong> (Aiea, HI)<br>Private Wealth Advisor, Ho`ea \u2013 Wealth Advisory Group<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Liya Safina (Honolulu, HI)<\/strong> <br>Creative Technologist &amp; Digital Designer, Google<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mark Levin (Honolulu, HI)<\/strong><br>Director, Pacific-Asian Legal Studies Program, University of Hawai\u02bbi at M\u0101noa<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Joan Pan (Honolulu, HI)<\/strong><br>Associate Director, Center for Japanese Studies, School of Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Hawai\u02bbi at M\u0101noa<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Japan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Taku Furusato&nbsp;<\/strong>(Tokyo, Japan)<br>CEO, Fleet<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Kaito Hasegawa&nbsp;<\/strong>(Tokyo, Japan)<br>Caregiver<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Yoshi Okamoto&nbsp;<\/strong>(Tokyo, Japan)<br>Representative Director, Renaissance Philanthropy Japan<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Aaron Snipe <\/strong>(Tokyo, Japan)<br>Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy Tokyo<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Satoshi Usami (Tokyo, Japan)<\/strong> <br>Data Scientist, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>New York &amp; Vicinity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Jared Poelman&nbsp;<\/strong>(New York, NY)<br>Director of Engineering, Braze<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Midwest<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Miyako Shinyong Yamamoto&nbsp;<\/strong>(Bloomfield Hills, MI)<br>Consultant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pacific Northwest<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Megumi Kato<\/strong> (Portland, OR)<br>Senior Director of Brand and Innovation, Portland Japanese Garden<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Southeast<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Lexington Whalen&nbsp;<\/strong>(Atlanta, GA)<br>Graduate Researcher, Georgia Institute of Technology<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Sean Kim&nbsp;<\/strong>(Panama City, FL)<br>VP of Strategic Partnerships, Bay County Chamber of Commerce<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Southern CA &amp; Southwest<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Luanne Kanzawa<\/strong> (San Diego, CA)<br>Executive Director &amp; CEO, Japanese Friendship Garden &amp; Museum of San Diego<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Rei Kitagawa<\/strong> (San Diego, CA)<br>Associate, Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Maya Hojnacki <\/strong>(Pleasanton, CA)<br>Founder, AltSource Global, Inc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Akemi Look (Los Angeles, CA)<\/strong> <br>JX Co-Chair, LA Next Generation JA Leaders Initiative<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Texas &amp; Vicinity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Tetsuo Ashizawa (Seabrook, TX)<\/strong> <br>Professor Emeritus, Houston Methodist Research Institute<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are pleased to welcome the following new members to the Council (joined in August 2025): Hawaii Japan New York &amp; Vicinity Midwest Pacific Northwest Southeast Southern CA &amp; Southwest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58532","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Welcome to Our New Members! (August 2025) - U.S.-Japan Council<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usjapancouncil.org\/ja\/news\/welcome-to-our-new-members-august-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ja_JP\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Welcome to Our New Members! 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