New FCCJ Board members
Name: Monzurul Huq
Title: President
Place of birth: Dhaka, Bangladesh
Nationality: Bangladesh
Age: 56
Current work position: Tokyo Correspondent, Daily Prothom Alo
Previous work positions: Producer, BBC World Service; Information Officer, United Nations
Specialities: Politics and international affairs
The FCCJ needs: Cooling down
Likes: Reading
Dislikes: Hypocrisy

Name: Haruko Watanabe
Title: 1st Vice President
Place of birth: Kyoto
Nationality: Japanese
Age: 71
Current work positions: Correspondent, Media Report to Women; columnist, Rosettastone; President HKW (NPO Media Research & Video Production Institute for Women & Media Development)
Previous work positions: Tokyo Bureau Chief, Press Foundation of Asia; UNESCO Consultant on Women & Media Development; lecturer, Sophia University
Specialties: Culture, women, environment
The FCCJ needs: Decent GM
Likes: Humans, animal, nature
Dislikes: Musk Melons

Name: Pio d’Emilia
Title: 2nd Vice President
Place of birth:
Rome
Nationality: Italian
Age: 55
Current work position:
Far East Correspondent/
SKY Tg24 (Italian TV News Network)
Previous work positions: Freelancer, political advisor, lawyer
Specialities: Skiing, paragliding, hard rock, troublemaking and fighting lost battles
The FCCJ needs: Common sense, professionalism & sense of humor
Likes: good food, good wines, watching football (especially when Italy beats France)
Dislikes: arrogance, incompetence, ignorance, authoritarianism; in other words, “fascism” in all its forms

Name: Fred Varcoe
Title: Secretary
Place of birth: London
Nationality: British
Age: 53 (sometimes)
Current work positions: freelance writer
Previous work positions: Sports editor of The Japan Times, teacher in Spain, travel agent in Saudi Arabia, feature writer Home and Away magazine (London)
Specialities: Sports, cars, music, travel, upsetting Koreans
The FCCJ needs: Members to think of the Club, not themselves; cheap Moet & Chandon in the bar
Likes: Heavy metal, lasagna, champagne, golf, Spain
Dislikes: Reggae, egotistical idiots, people who take themselves too seriously

Name: Yoshisuke Iinuma
Position: Treasurer
Birthplace: Tokyo
Nationality: Japanese
Age: 67, born in 1941, just a month before the war with the United States broke out
Current work position: Writer for The Oriental Economist
Previous work positions: Weekly Toyo Keizai chief editor and New York bureau chief
Specialities: Poor golfer, beginner of the way of tea; lecturing on "Contemporary Japanese Society" at a college and attending a seminar on “Das antike Judentum”at another college
The FCCJ needs: to make the best use of the associates’ managerial expertise and business common sense
Likes: Traditional Japanese cuisine
Dislikes: Ultra-nationalists

Name: Martin Koelling
Title: 1st Director-of-Large
Place of birth: Bremen
Nationality: German
Age: 43
Current work position:
Since 2000, Japan correspondent with the German financial daily Financial Times Deutschland
Previous work positions: none in Japan
Specialities: Car industry, electronics, technology & gadgets, finance, human resources
The FCCJ needs: “Curry-Wurst mit Pommes” (German sausage with spicy ketchup and curry powder and fries – THE German contribution to global fast food gourmet cuisine)
Likes: Football (of the soccer kind), “Curry-Wurst mit Pommes,” friends
Dislikes: Oishikunai food, hot summers, and of course restaurants without “Curry-Wurst mit Pommes”

Name: Joel Legendre-Koizumi
Title: 2nd Director at Large
Place of birth: Normandie, France
Current work positions: Correspondent of Groupe RTL (Bertelsmann) in Japan, and a columnist
Previous work positions: Foreign correspondent in Beijing, Seoul and Bangkok; anchorman in Paris. I entered journalism as a staff reporter and an anchor at Radio-France and France Television (national broadcasters).
Specialities: Anchoring news in French, security affairs and international relations
The FCCJ needs: … to smile! Good food and wines, harmony. To properly adjust to the 21st century’s needs. To improve quality in media events. To update club’s management to address our membership’s best wishes.
Likes: Art of life, the Earth, justice, to read Rousseau, Voltaire, Camus, Basho; I like sailing and fencing
Dislikes: Corruption, secrecy, non-compassionate people

Name: Tomoko A. Hosaka
Title: 3rd director-at-large
Place of birth: Chiba-ken
Nationality: U.S.
Age: 32
Current work position: Tokyo bureau reporter, The Associated Press
Previous work positions: Editor, Tokyo bureau, Dow Jones Newswires
Specialities: Business, economy
The FCCJ needs: More women and young journalists
Likes: travel, evening runs around the Imperial Palace, college football, anthropology, Twitter
Dislikes: Heights, goodbyes, a bad sense of humor, organs of any kind on my plate

Name: Justin McCurry
Title: 4th Director-at-large
Place of birth: Wordsley, England
Nationality: British
Age: 40
Current work positions: Tokyo correspondent, the Guardian and Observer; contributor to the Lancet, Global Post, When Saturday Comes and other publications in the U.K., U.S. and Japan
Previous work positions: Staff writer, the Daily Yomiuri
Specialities: Politics, social affairs, sport, food
The FCCJ needs: A sense of humor
Likes: Spicy food, football, cricket, reggae, swimming in the sea, tea and biscuits
Dislikes: Queue jumpers, TV tarento, psychics, conspiracy theorists, pickled "school dinner" beetroot

Name: Khaldon Azhari
Title: Kanji
Place of birth: Homs (Syria)
Nationality: Syrian-American
Age: 19 years in Japan
Current work position: Bureau chief of
PanOrient News, a U.S. corporation that
provides its own wires and TV clips, dispatches and production to a number of subscribers, mostly Middle Eastern media such as PETRA
and WAM Wires, Alam TV, Press TV, MBC TV,
Cairo and Kuwait Radio.
Previous work positions: Inheritor of PanArab Newspaper (lost it later); chemical engineer (Homs Refinery); information officer at an embassy in Tokyo.
Specialties: Stage actor with international ballet and opera companies performing in Japan; photographer; play keyboard and make the best hummus in town.
The FCCJ needs: One pilot, one kitchen (we have 2 now), urgent reforms, depoliticalization
Likes: Having good friends and colleagues at FCCJ and when our very friendly and good staff accommodate special requests with a smile.
Dislikes: Kisha-club restrictions; using shark fins on FCCJ menu