THIRTEEN JAPANESE AMERICAN LEADERS SELECTED TO TRAVEL TO JAPAN
Thirteen outstanding Japanese American leaders have been selected for the 2008 Japanese American Leadership Delegation Program from ten cities throughout the United States. From the jurisdiction of the Consulate General of Japan in NY, Mr. Stann Nakazono, a filmmaker of third-generation Japanese American will participate in this program. This year’s Delegation will travel to three cities in Japan, Tokyo, Kyoto, and Fukuoka, from February 29 to March 9, 2008
This will be the eighth Delegation that will travel to Japan. The program is funded by The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP) and organized in cooperation with the Japanese American National Museum.
The goals of the Delegation Program are to improve understanding and strengthen long-term relations between Japanese Americans and Japan, and develop on-going strategies to enhance the role of Japanese Americans in advancing U.S.-Japan relations. The delegation consists of leaders from various professional fields including business, law, government, education, non-profit, and arts and culture. They are leaders who have demonstrated an interest in strengthening U.S. - Japan relations and are committed to future efforts to build linkages between the Japanese American community and Japan.
This year’s program will include a Symposium in Fukuoka City, featuring three of the Delegation members as Panelists. The trip’s itinerary also includes meetings in Tokyo with high ranking governmental, political, and business leaders, such as H.E. Yohei Kono, Speaker of the House and former Foreign Minister. They will also visit a cultural master and cultural and historic sites in Kyoto. The Delegation will be accompanied by Irene Hirano, President of the Japanese American National Museum, who has traveled with the prior seven Delegations and Consul Hiroshi Furusawa, Consul at the Consulate General of Japan at Los Angeles.
Mr. Nakazono applied for this program to better understand, improve, and strengthen relations between the Japanese and Japanese Americans here in New York City, especially among the younger generation. Stann, originally from L.A., was surprised when he first came to NY to find neither Japantown, a Little Tokyo nor a real sense of a “community” among younger generation of Japanese Americans. So he started with his friends three years ago JAJA (Japanese-Americans, Japanese in America), an informal group of third and forth generation of Japanese Americans, Japanese youngsters who were grown up in the States, and Japanese people wanting to start life anew with Americans here in New York City. Stann hopes his participation in the Delegation will help him to further his goal to reunite a community in New York City that has been disconnected for far too long.
The attached are Mr.Nakazono’s CV, a list of the other members of the Delegation, and a list of the participants in the past programs from New York.
For further information/interview request for Mr. Stann Nakazono and former participants from New York, contact Ms. Keiko Miura, Consul at the Japanese Consulate General in NY, 212-418-4487 .
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STANN NAKAZONO
Filmmaker, Traax Production
New York, New York
Stann Nakazono is a writer, editor, director and producer. A proponent of independent filmmaking, his works have been shown in film festivals all over the world. His first feature film, Hang Your Dog in the Wind, won the Special Jury Prize at the 1997 Florida Film Festival. His 1999 Much Adobo About Nothing was nominated for Best Independent Feature by A. Magazine. His next feature film, In-Between, premiered at the 2005 Cannes Film du Marche in France and screened at Germany’s Oldenburg Film Festival and the Global Peace Film Festival in Japan in 2006. He has produced and directed several award-winning shorts, including the acclaimed live action/animated short An I Within, winning the Best Cinematography Award at the 1999 Florida Film Festival, Special Achievement Award at the USA Film Festival and Best American Short at the L.A. Short Film Festival. He directed first love, a music video about the World War II Japanese-American internment camps, was featured at the 2000 New York Asian American International Film Festival and the Directors’ Guild of America in Los Angeles in May 2001. Along with his film credits, Stann has worked with The Actors’ Gang, an ensemble theater group in Los Angeles headed by actor Tim Robbins. He received the 2004 Ruby Yoshino-Schaar Playwriting Award, sponsored by the Japanese American Citizens League for his play, buddhaheadz.com. Stann gained worldwide notoriety when he co-founded the Slumdance Experience, the upstart alternative to the Sundance Film Festival in 1997 at Park City, Utah, and helped kick-start the Asian American 72-Hour Film Shootout in New York City, now in its fourth year. In 2004, he founded JAJA (Japanese-Americans, Japanese in America) in New York. This diverse, non-traditional organization brings together the younger generation of Japanese-Americans, shin-Nikkei and multi-racial Japanese in a city where the JA community has been almost non-existent. JAJA has grown to over 120 members and has been recognized by the Consulate-General of Japan.
Prefecture in Japan of ancestral origins: maternal side from Tokyo-shi, paternal side from Kagoshima-ken.
The other members of 2008 Delegation are:
- TOM IKEDA (Seattle, Washington) Executive Director, DENSHO: The Japanese American Legacy Project
- KRISTEN DOZONO (Portland, Oregon) Account Executive, Sprint-Nextel, Portland, Oregon
- JOHN TAKEO NOGUCHI (San Francisco, California) Director, Convention Facilities Department, City & County of San Francisco
- TED YAMASAKI (San Francisco, California) Managing Deputy Human Resources Director, City and County of San Francisco
- DAVID IWATA (Los Angeles, California) Principal Partner, LD Two Group, Inc.
- STAN H. KOYANAGI (Los Angeles, California) Vice President, Senior Regional Counsel, KB HOME
- LORI S. C. YOKOYAMA (Chicago, Illinois) Founder and Managing Partner, Lori S. C. Yokoyama & Associates, P.C.
- SACHI KOTO (Atlanta, Georgia) Founder, Sachi Koto Communications, Inc.
- WAYNE H. MURAOKA (Honolulu, Hawaii) Vice President, Armstrong Development, Ltd.
- MARK YAMAKAWA (Honolulu, Hawaii) Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer, Queen’s Health Systems
- PAUL NIWA (Boston, Massachusetts) Assistant Professor, Journalism, Emerson College
- JOAN OCHI (Washington, DC) Director, Marketing Communications, GlobalGiving
Former Participants in the past Programs from New York include:
- Donna TSUFURA (2007 program) Filmmaker, Media consultant
- Ann HARAKAWA (2006 program) Principal, Two Twelve Associates, INC.
- Patrice TANAKA (2006 program) Co-Chairperson, CRT/Tanaka
- Mariko GORDON (2005 program) President & Chief Investment Officer, Daruma Asset Management, Inc.
