Frederick H. Katayama

Executive Vice President
U.S.-Japan Council

Frederick Hiroshi Katayama is a community leader, communicator and former multimedia journalist. He leads development as the Executive Vice President of the U.S.-Japan Council. In his earlier career as a journalist, he won numerous awards for his coverage of business and general news in print, television and digital media. As an anchor and producer at Reuters, he hosted various TV and video shows ranging from world news to technology, business, and personal investing. Earlier, at CNN, he reported for “The Moneyline Newshour” and anchored several shows, including “Business Asia.” As a reporter at Seattle’s CBS affiliate, KIRO-TV, he covered the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995. He began his career in television news in Tokyo reporting for the NHK show, “Japan Business Today.” Prior to that, he wrote a new products column at Fortune magazine in New York and covered Japan’s economic rise as its Tokyo correspondent. He started his career at the Associated Press. Outside of the newsroom, Katayama serves on the boards of Japan Society and the Manjiro-Whitfield Center for International Exchange. He was a founding Board Member of the U.S.-Japan Council. A book written by his teacher, Columbia Professor Donald Keene, kindled his lifelong interest in Japan. He graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia College and earned his M.S. as an East Asia Fellow at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. He and several others co-wrote the book, Japan: A Living Portrait (Kodansha International).