KIYOSHI HASEGAWA has been corporate advisor of Nikkei Inc. since March 2009. Hasegawa served as managing executive officer of Nikkei Inc. and president of Nikkei America, Inc., based in New York from June 2006 to March 2009. He took full responsibility for publishing the Nikkei as well as undertaking other business activities for Nikkei in the Americas. He was executive officer and director for international affairs of Nikkei Inc. before going to New York. In 2004 he returned from Singapore, where he had served as president of Nikkei Asia Pte. Ltd. from 2002. Hasegawa served as general manager for international affairs of Nikkei Inc. from 1999 to 2002. He was in charge of corporate planning of international strategy and organizing international symposia at “The Future of Asia” international conference and the Nikkei Global Management Forum, both of which are held every year in Tokyo. He joined Nikkei in 1971 when he started his career as a staff writer of business news. From 1987 to 1990, he was assigned as Bangkok bureau chief to cover Thailand, Indochina and Burma. He also served as Asian news editor of Nikkei from 1996 to 1999 and was appointed senior editor in 1998. Hasegawa graduated in 1971 from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, where he majored in Southeast Asia studies and economics. He was born in Tsu, Mie prefecture, in January 1948. He and his wife, Taeko, have a daughter and a son.

ERIC JOHNSTON is a two-decade resident of Japan, all of it in the Kansai region. Johnston is currently deputy editor for The Japan Times, Osaka bureau. Prior to a stint at the Mainichi Daily News, he spent a “glorious” three years traveling the world as editor for a trade magazine that covered video arcade games and karaoke machines. Now, he is mostly a features writer, covering Kansai and west Japan (to Okinawa), as well as national social and political issues ranging from the U.S.-Japan relationship, to local politics to nuclear power and the environment. Johnston has been a member of the FCCJ since 2001, (as a Professional Associate) and has served as editor of the Number 1 Shimbun and as co-chair of the Professional Activities Committee. He currently serves on PAC and is co-chair of the Scholarship Committee. In his free time, he likes exploring Nara Prefecture, where he lives, the back streets of Kyoto and the wilds of Hokkaido, which he has visited 15 times in 10 years in search of clean air, good food and Japanese microbeers.

MARK K. AUSTIN was born in Edinburgh in 1966 and grew up in southern Scotland and southern England. He gained a BA (Hons.) degree in contemporary cultural studies from Middlesex Polytechnic in 1987. After working as a motorcycle courier in London, he moved in 1989 to Brunei, where he lived for a year, working as assistant manager of a firm cultivating and exporting Nepenthes pitcher plants and orchids – a job that entailed regular journeys into the jungle on collection trips – and as manager of a mobile disco. In 1990, he moved to Hiroshima where he taught English, trained teachers and managed a school for six and a half years, during which period he also trained teachers in Busan, South Korea. After freelancing for publications including the predecessor of the IHT/Asahi, he joined The Daily Yomiuri as a staff writer in 1997. His articles have been carried in The Daily Yomiuri, Yomiuri Shimbun, Newsweek Japan, Scotland on Sunday, The Independent, The Irish Times and other publications. He is currently working on book projects.

REINSTATEMENT (REGULAR MEMBERS)
Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc.

STATUS CHANGE (PROFESSIONAL/JOURNALIST ASSOCIATE TO REGULAR)
Mark K. Austin, The Daily Yomiuri
Eric Johnston, The Japan Times

PROFESSIONAL/JOURNALIST ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Lauren Shannon, Freelance
Blair McBride, Freelance
Chimame Patrick Nwadike, NAS International
Debito Arudou, Hokkaido Information University/The Japan Times

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Matthias Mann, Sonderhoff & Einsel
Alan J. Buddendeck, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
Viswa R. Ghosh, Toptech Informatics, K.K.
Koichi Otsuka, Discovery Japan, Inc.
Takuma Morimoto, Eterna Co., Ltd.
Ryuichiro Yamazaki, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University
Akira Yamamoto, Kowa Company, Ltd.
Gen Takamatsu, Wilhelmsen Aall Ships Service
Kenji Oishi, TPG Co., Ltd.

REINSTATEMENT (ASSOCIATE MEMBERS)
Keizo Nagai, Nippon Yusen Co., Ltd.