Dan Sloan is returning to the Board after a three-year hiatus with previous roles including FCCJ Secretary, First Vice President, and President. He joined the Club in 1994 and is currently a Life Member. He works as an Adjunct Professor of Journalism & Media Studies at Temple University Japan and Lakeland University Japan, as well as a Freelance Writer. He previously worked for Nissan Motor in its Communications Department, and for nearly two decades at Reuters and Knight-Ridder on their financial news teams. He is a graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and the University of Virginia, and author of “Playing to Wiin: Nintendo and the Video Game Industry’s Greatest Comeback.” He played for over 15 years for the FCCJ Alleycats softball team, loves sports, music and film, and is the proud father of Theo and Sera.
Raised in California, Randy Schmidt graduated from UCLA Film School in 1984 and worked at 20th Century Fox motion picture studio before moving to Tokyo in 1996. While in Japan, Randy was employed as a staff cameraman-editor at the CNN Tokyo Bureau, then for Reuters and BBC, and freelanced for all the major foreign TV news bureaus in Tokyo. In 2006, Randy joined CBS News as a cameraman-editor, based in Tokyo though covering all of Asia with over six months of international travel each year to China, South Korea, North Korea, India, Bhutan, Indonesia, Nepal, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, etc. With subject matter ranging from hard news stories to cultural features and natural disasters, Randy shoot, edits, and produces TV news pieces for “CBS Evening News,” “CBS This Morning,” “60 Minutes,” and “CBS Sunday Morning.” Randy has covered such major assignments as Japan’s 2011 earthquake-tsunami-meltdown, US Presidential trips to Asia, nine assignments inside North Korea, the COVID pandemic, and the Nagano 1998, Beijing 2008, Tokyo 2020, and Beijing 2022 Olympics. On the lighter side, Randy has shot and edited feature stories in Japan on such subjects as snow monkeys, soba noodles, vending machines, bonsai, robots, etc., etc. He has also produced award-winning stop- motion animated movies with his young son Dylan.
Avi Gokool
Avi Gokool is an editor and a freelance journalist who primarily focuses on issues affecting local and historic communities, human rights, and gentrification. He takes inspiration from Anthony Bourdain and hopes to give audiences a peek at some of Japan's more esoteric enclaves and communities through unconventional means of storytelling like interviews over shared meals. He has written for American and Japanese websites such as AsAmNews, Tokyo Cheapo, Asahi Weekly, and Japan Times. He loves exploring smaller, niche communities that show Japan's authentic side and hopes to give his audience a glimpse into these small pockets of Japan. He is also a proud father of his (2) hand me down house plants, fashion pieces, and Jojo collections. If not on browsing on Google Scholar, catch him swaying with the locals at a snack bar.
Masayuki Watanabe
Professional Experience / Appointments
Legal Career
- Miyake Law (Aug. 2009 – Present)
Attorney at Law / Partner / Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) / Labor and Social Security Attorney
Outside Directorships / Audit Roles
- Outside Director, Ohsho Food Service Corp. (Jun. 2014 – Jun 2021)
- Outside Director, Nittoku Construction Co., Ltd. (Jun. 2016 – Present)
- Outside Director, Kosaido Holdings Co., Ltd. (Jun. 2020 – Present)
- Outside Director, Yoyogi Animation Academy (Jun. 2021 – Present)
- Outside Director (Audit and Supervisory Committee Member), Mitsuboshi Co., Ltd. (Oct. 2022 – Present)
- Director, Mitsubishi Philippines Corporation (Apr. 2023 – Present)
- Outside Director (Audit and Supervisory Committee Member), Nihon Seima Co., Ltd. (May. 2023 – Jun. 2025)
- Outside Director (Audit and Supervisory Committee Member), nms Holdings Corporation (Jun. 2025 – Present)
- Statutory Auditor, OSL Japan Co., Ltd. (Oct. 2025 – Present)
Education / Admission
- 2007: Columbia Law School (LL.M.)
- 2001: Admitted in Japan (Attorney at Law)
- 1995: The University of Tokyo (LL.B.)
Areas of Practice
- Compliance
- Financial Regulatory
- Privacy Law
- M&A
Anthony Rowley has been a journalist for some sixty years for The Times of London, the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong, the Singapore Business Times and now the South China Morning Post. He has been a member of the FCCJ since 199O and has served as President as well as in other Board positions.
Khaldon Azhari
Michael King started his professional career in 1985 at Nihon Kokudo Kaihatsu K.K., providing legal and business advice for construction and real estate development projects. In the early 90's he went into private law practice, providing advice for clients with cross-border transactions and issues, then expanded his consulting services to real estate and finance with KPMG in New York, advising Japanese financial institutions and investors. From the late 90's, at GE Real Estate and Morgan Stanley in Tokyo, he was responsible for operational, legal and financial matters for their real estate investments in Asia. In 2001 he joined Index Consulting, Inc. With his rich knowledge and experience in real estate, law and finance, he was responsible for comprehensive third party consulting in real estate and construction related areas as well as all legal and risk management matters for Index. Since 2008 he has been independently consulting in the areas of real estate investments and management as well as renewable energy as Principal of King Enterprise LLC. Michael is licensed to practice law in the State of New York and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitration.
Taeko Nagayama joined FCCJ in May 2002, Chair person of AMLC in 2021 & 2022, currently serving as director or executive advisor at several institutions including an AI company listed in Tokyo Stock Exchange and academic institutions. Worked in Tokyo offices of a U.S. bank (JP Morgan Chase) for 28years and a French bank (Credi Lyonnais group) for 8 years, delivering to Japanese financial institutions various international financial services for their funding, investing and M&A. Assignments included stationing in the US. Since 2002, a member of Keizai Doyukai, Japan Asso. of Corporate Executive（JACE), serving in various committees therein. Education: Sophia University, Nomura Management School (Harvard Business School tie-up course, Toyo- Eiwa Junior College.
Michiyo Nakamoto is a freelance journalist based in Tokyo. She was a journalist for the Financial Times for nearly 25 years, based both in Tokyo and London. As a Tokyo correspondent in the late 1990s she covered the Tokyo financial markets and also wrote about Japanese business and social trends. In her two years in London she first covered UK businesses and then became electronics correspondent for the FT. She was the FT's deputy Tokyo bureau chief from 2006 until 2013.
After leaving the FT she wrote a book in Japanese about the communication pitfalls facing Japanese workers trying to compete in the global business community.
As a freelance journalist she has written for the FT, Nikkei Asia, BBC Online and the New York Times' T Magazine. Her writing these days is mostly focused on Japanese culture.
She also produces a blog - japonica.info - which provides information in English on the people, places, products and trends that make Japan one of the most popular travel destinations in the world.
Michiyo's current interests include architecture, art, design, film and literature. She is a volunteer with the College Women’s Association of Japan, which raises funds to provide a number of scholarships, mostly to women graduates. She is married and has two grown children and a grandson.
Martin Fackler
A member of the Club since 1997, Martin Fackler joined while still a cub reporter in the Tokyo bureau of The Associated Press, pursuing his dream of becoming a foreign correspondent. In his more than two decades as a journalist in daily news, he also wrote for Bloomberg News, The Far Eastern Economic Review, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He worked the longest at the Times, where he covered both Japan and the Korean peninsula as Tokyo business correspondent and then bureau chief. He was also Assistant Asia Editor, in charge of the paper's coverage of China.
A native of Georgia, Martin spent his undergraduate years at Dartmouth College learning Mandarin Chinese and then Japanese, coming to Japan for the first time as an exchange student at Keio University. He returned as a graduate student on a Monbusho scholarship at the University of Tokyo, where he studied economic history, before earning Masters degrees in journalism at the University of Illinois and in history at UC Berkeley.
Martin is currently writing a book about the Fukushima nuclear disaster that will be published hopefully (optimistically?) (maybe?) in 2026. The book builds on his coverage of the disaster on the ground when it happened, which earned him recognition as runner-up for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in international reporting.
Martin would like to give back to the Club and work with the Board and other members to figure out how to make the FCCJ more welcoming, relevant and useful for younger journalists in an era when legacy media and big newsrooms are a diminished presence.
Simon Farrell
Simon Farrell first joined the FCCJ in 2006, serving as a board director or statutory auditor since 2020 and currently as chair of both the Entertainment and Associate Members Liaison committees.
He is also co-founding publisher of Custom Media, chair of the South African Chamber of Commerce in Japan, and Executive Committee member of The William Adams Club, Tokyo American Club Nihonbashi, Animal Refuge Kansai, and Japan Market Expansion Competition.
He has spent about 28 years in Japan over three terms since 1987, including at the Daily Yomiuri as a page editor and designer of news, opinion and front pages (2001-2004). Simon was based in South Africa, Cuba and Dubai for the UK, US and local press (1993-2001) and also authored two travel books: South Africa Chic (Didier Millet, 2nd edition, 2008) and Getaway’s Top 10: 1,500 Southern Africa destinations (Reader’s Digest, 2001).
He graduated with honours from the London School of Journalism in 1993 and gained certificates from the Board Director Training Institute of Japan (2020); the Financial Times Non-Executive Director Programme (2019); the Oxford Executive Leadership Programme at Saïd Business School (2020), and the London School of Economics and Political Science (MBA Essentials, 2021).