Issue:
Reinstatement (Regular member)
Takuya Nishimura
The Hokkaido Shimbun
Takuya Nishimura is a writer for the Hokkaido Shimbun Press, whose work currently focuses on overseeing editorials and column articles.
As Chief Editorial Writer, from September 2020, Nishimura wrote front-page opinions on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He has also been in charge of writing front-page columns, called takujo shiki, or new-year editorials on January 1, 2021-2023. He wrote other editorials on development policies in Hokkaido, the Northern Territories, the Ainu, and the selection of a location for a nuclear waste facility in Suttsu and Kamoenai.
As bureau chief of the newspaper's Washington D.C. office from 2004 to 2007, he covered the presidential election of the United States in 2004, the U.S.-Japan relationship and the United Nations. In a year-long series coverage titled America's Long War, he reported the concern and pain of Americans fighting in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan under President G. W. Bush's "Long War" policy.
As a political correspondent, from 1997 to 2004, Nishimura reported on the administrations of Ryutaro Hashimoto, Keizo Obuchi, Yoshiro Mori and Junichiro Koizumi. During the Mori and Koizumi administrations, he worked as the newspaper's captain of the cabinet reporting team. He covered the power shift from the mainstream Hashimoto group to former outsiders - the Mori group - inside the Liberal Democratic Party.
Born in Sapporo, he worked as a reporter in Sapporo, Nemuro and Asahikawa, and is happy to offer advice on news coverage or vacationing in Hokkaido. Nishimura obtained a B.A. (Politics) from Waseda University, and lives in Ota-ku, Tokyo with wife.
Associate member
Masaoki Fujita
Coil Center Fujita Co., Ltd.
Masaoki Fujita is Managing Director of Coil Center Fujita Co., Ltd., which provides the world’s finest skills and facilities to process special steels and the other materials, such as stainless-steel and extremely high-strength metal used for structures in high stress environments.
He received a Bachelor's degree from Nihon University's College of Economics, majoring in government policy for small and medium-sized enterprise, in 1990. He then studied entrepreneurship for one year at Canadian International College in B.C. Canada.
His career began in 1991 at Nippon Metal Industry Co., Ltd. (now NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION) - a manufacturer of stainless steel, heat resistant steel, and corrosion resistant steel. Fujita was assigned to the company's export department, where he addressed worldwide demands.
He left Nippon Metal Industry Co., Ltd. for his current company, Coil Center Fujita Co., Ltd. in1997, and inherited the family business.
Fujita was elected and inaugurated as president of the Finnish Chamber of Commerce in Japan in 2017, 2018 and 2019. He was assigned as a member of the Board of Governors of the European Business Council in Japan, and was involved in the European Chamber of Commerce in Japan in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Associate member
Emi Harada
Nishimura & Asahi
Associate Member
Ichiro T. Jinnai
ImagoDei, Inc.
Ichiro T. Jinnai is the Founder & CEO of imagoDei, a consulting firm with particular strength in the advertising business, especially in the media business known as Out-Of-Home (OOH). Widely regarded as the founder of programmatic digital OOH (DOOH) in Japan, Ichiro is the former CEO of LIVE BOARD, Japan’s first fully programmatic DOOH operator, established as a joint venture between NTTDOCOMO and Dentsu. Ichiro is currently responsible for driving the regional strategy as president of Hivestack Japan, the global ad tech leader in programmatic DOOH headquartered in Canada, and as regional director of OOH Capital, a global full-service OOH consultancy.
Ichiro has been dedicated to transforming the traditional advertising business into fully automated and data-driven models in various areas, including mobile, online and programmatic platforms, as a successive corporate entrepreneur at Dentsu on a global basis.
Ichiro graduated from the International Christian University in Tokyo with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics and a Master of Arts degree in History of Science. Ichiro started his career at Dentsu in 1992 as a copywriter.
Associate Member
Yoshiki Tsurumaki
King & Wood Mallesons
Yoshiki Tsurumaki is a partner lawyer of King & Wood Mallesons, an Asia-based international law firm with over 3,000 attorneys. He has 20 years of experience as a lawyer.
After graduating with an LL.B. from Waseda University, Tsurumaki began working at NTT Data Corporation. Several years later, he became a lawyer. He started his career as an attorney at Atsumi & Sakai, focusing on finance law. He was seconded to Mitsubishi Securities (currently Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stainley Securities). After obtaining a Master of Law at Vanderbilt University Law School in Nashville, he worked for Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP in New York.
Tsurumaki joined his current firm in 2016 and assists companies in Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, China, Singapore and other foreign firms on how to do the business in Japan. Tsurumaki is currently leading the Japanese law team at the firm's Tokyo office and is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of attorneys.
He publishes many articles about ESG issues, technology, M&A and finance from a legal perspective and gives a number of lectures about M&A, data protection, investment in start-ups.
He loves spending time at the FCCJ and meeting many other members.
Associate Member
Yoshimichi Ishikawa
Go Bit Corporation
- 1983 Graduated from Nihon University College of Art, Department of Broadcasting
Broadcast marketing, broadcasting law, journalism theory major
Joined Video Promotions Co., Ltd. in 1983 Production
Department → International Department
CM / marketing manager for major home appliances and beverages
Sales representative for broadcasting of large-scale sports events in the United States - 1992 Established, and appointed representative of Ozone Network Co., Ltd.
- 2000 Established Ozone Net Co., Ltd. (holding company) and assumed office as representative
- 2009 Appointed as an officer and special advisor of S-Pool Co., Ltd. (TSE1: 2471)
- 2009 Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting Promotion Council,
Digital Broadcasting Promotion Business Management - 2011 Mamezou Holdings Group, Inc. (TSE1: 3756)
Appointed as an officer / special advisor of Nextscape Co., Ltd. - 2014 Research on modern Japanese history and art history at Nihon University College of Art Graduate School Laboratory
- 2018 Toshin Co., Ltd. Appointed as Special Advisor and Audit & Supervisory Board Member
- 2019-JM Toshin Corporation Co., Ltd Established CEO
- 2021-Appointed Chairman of GoBit Co., Ltd.
- 2022-Executive director of Toshin Co., Ltd.
Associate Member
Satoru Kamibayashi
Meltwater Japan
After spending time in Thailand, Indonesia and Canada as a child, he entered the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University.
While there, he studied abroad at the University of California, Berkeley and organized self-defense classes there.
After graduation, he joined Meltwater Japan K.K., a media monitoring service provider, where he worked as a data analyst supporting corporate communications strategies.
He currently works for PwC Consulting LLC as a consultant in the entertainment and media industry.
He enjoys playing musical instruments, watching films, weightlifting and karaoke.
Associate Member
Mitsuhiro Watanabe
Light Corporation, Inc.
He is a practicing philosopher who has been studying global finance and the New World Order for over 30 years.
His most recent book is Original Capital.
He has been interested in the field of astronomy since childhood, and has made it his life's work to explore the essence of the universe through philosophical thinking.
In his 20s and 30s, Watanabe was involved in the antique business and human resource development, and is currently preparing a capital cultivate project that is scheduled to start in 2024.
Reinstatement (Associate member)
Masashi Saito
Masashi Saito (79), a native of Kobe, graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in Physics in 1966. He eventually wound up with the Japanese manufacturer Mitsui Chemicals Inc. (MCI), ultimately engaging in corporate communications work. This was following stints as a junior reporter/staff member of news media such as the Mainichi Daily News, Newsweek and AFP.
Employment with MCI came with the Iranian petrochemical project promoted by Mitsui Group for which he was to be an on-site project administration staff. After the ill-fated project collapsed due to the revolution in Iran, he was assigned duties such as licensing out proprietary process technologies, chemical plant sales mainly to Eastern European clients, and international technology cross-licensing, for which his science background was helpful.
Given his English proficiency, he was later given liaison duties for top management in dealing with European and American partners: chemical majors with whom MCI had ongoing technology agreements or JV operations. Concurrently he engaged in overseas-targeted corporate communications work.
After retirement in 2005, he accepted a position as a senior corporate communications advisor with Nitto Denko and served for five years until full retirement. One of the most memorable events in his life was a 16-day trip across the Pacific as a guest on a 13,000-ton oil tanker bound for Long Beach from Kobe when he was about to enter UCSB in 1961.
Masashi and Cecilia, his wife of 50-plus years, live in Kyoto, near Ginkakuji Temple. He enjoys playing seniors tennis a couple of times a week.
