Issue:
Associate Members
Yoshimitsu Akanoma
Dental Doctor of Surgery, Kugenuma Dental Office
It is a great honor to be a member of this Club. I run Kugenuma Dental Office in Kugenuma Fujisawa, Kanagawa prefecture, which focuses on precision root canal treatment. I look forward to meeting you all after we get through the coronavirus pandemic together.
Kazuo Kubo
I am currently chairman of Minato City Federation of Senior Citizens Clubs, a Minato City tourism ambassador and essayist. I published my autobiography on August 24.
Masayoshi Kosugi
President, Cedar Crest Japan, Inc.
Katsuyuki Shiroma
Chairman, W&D LLC (Current FB vendor)
Eiji Suga
Senior VP & GM, Business Operations Division, Mitsubishi Corporation Power Systems, Inc.
Bob “Hiroyuki” Takai
President & CEO, Intereach & Co., Ltd.
I have spent 40 years with Sumitomo Corporation, a major Japanese trading house, in multiple leadership positions across the global commodities, financial and intelligence industries based in Tokyo, London and Washington, D.C. Upon returning from my most recent assignment in the U.S., I left Sumitomo to join EEX Group to start its Tokyo office in July 2020 as Executive Advisor/Japanese Representative. EEX Group, the world largest power derivatives exchange headquartered in Leipzig Germany, started its clearing service of Japanese power futures contracts in May of last year.
I sat on the Executive Committee of LBMA, the London Bullion Market Association, in the 1990s, and also served as the first Non-Executive Director of TOCOM, Tokyo Commodity Exchange, in the 2000s after its privatization. I currently serve as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Japan America Society of Washington, D.C., as well as an advisor to FIAJ, Futures Industry Association Japan. I hold a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Kobe University. My wife, Aoi, works as an advisor at the Foreign Residents' Advisory Center, run by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. They have three grown-up children.
Regular Member
Zijiang Wang
Wang Zijiang, Xinhua news agency
I have been working as a sports writer with Xinhua since I graduated from university in 1996. During my 25-year career, I have covered six summer Olympic Games, three football World Cups, three Winter Olympic Games, four Asian Games, two Commonwealth Games and numerous other world sports events.
In 2000, I was sent to Xinhua’s London bureau to become the first Chinese journalist to regularly write about English football, in both the Chinese and English languages. In March 2012, I returned to England, and over the following seven and half years I expanded Xinhua's reporting on British sports to snooker, equestrian, badminton, tennis and golf, etc. I was the first Chinese journalist to hold a centre court card at Wimbledon.
In late 2019, I left London for Tokyo to cover preparations for the Tokyo Olympics, just three months before it was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. This pandemic has made everything difficult in the past year, but without it I would have never have found my job so meaningful and important. After watching the opening and closing ceremonies at the National Stadium and witnessing the success of the pandemic Olympics, I feel even more certain that this is the best job in the world.
Susumu Sakamoto
Freelance author - Reinstatement (Professional Associate Member)
Apart from my recent writing work, I have worked for Mitsui Bank and Sumitomo Bank, and have been stationed overseas in Chicago, Paris and Brussels, where I held various branch manager positions. I have also been seconded to Konami and other companies. I hold a doctorate in political science from Waseda University.
