Speakers: Ambassador Kenjiro Monji, Keita Kakehashi, iho Kurosaki, Jonathan Berkshire Miller, and Saki Matsunaka
Date: Monday, October 28
Time: 3:00-4:30pm (doors open at 2:30pm)
Location: C.K. Choi building, room 120
Light refreshments will be served, please RSVP below.
Join us for a rare opportunity to engage with emerging young leaders from Japan led by Ambassador Kenjiro Monji. This public lecture and Q&A will cover a wide variety of topics focusing on Japan’s foreign policy, economic policy, culture, and more. Each member of the delegation will give a short presentation on their field of specialty with a Q&A portion to conclude.
Delegation Profile:
Kenjiro Monji
Mr. Kenjiro Monji was born in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka in 1952. After graduating from the Faculty of Law at Tokyo University, he entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1975. In his career at home, he has served mainly in the areas of treaties, national security and cultural exchange in such posts as Deputy Director-General of the Treaties Bureau（2003）, Director-General for International Affairs at the Ministry of Defense （2004） and Director-General for Public Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2008). He has worked overseas at nine postings in seven countries. He served at embassies in France, Australia, Belgium and the United Kingdom as well as at the mission to the European Union. Then, he had assumed four Ambassadorial posts in Iraq (2007), in Qatar (2010), at UNESCO (2013) and in Canada (2015) before finishing his diplomatic carrier in late 2017.
Ambassador Monji continues to promote soft power diplomacy in such areas as pop culture and Japanese sake. He is one of 78 Sake Samurais in the world so far nominated by the Japan Sake Brewers Association’s Junior Council. He now serves FUJITSU Limited as a Senior Advisor.
Keita Kakehashi
Mr. Kakehashi is Corporate Officer, HR Director for Asia excluding Japan, and HR Director for key global HR projects at NSG, one of the world’s largest glass manufacturers. After joining NSG in 1985, he worked in various management positions including an eight-year secondment to the firm’s US office, initially based in Lexington, KY and next in NYC, NY. He was also closely involved in the management integration process, particularly in the area of HR, after NSG acquired the UK-listed glass company Pilkington in 2006. He is currently chair of NSG’s Group Inclusion & Diversity Steering Committee.
Miho Kurosaki
Ms. Kurosaki is Head of Japan and Korea Research for Bloomberg NEF (BNEF), the energy and transport research division of Bloomberg. She leads analysis and research on topics including the impacts of energy market liberalization. She has also served as a committee member on the Climate Change Advisory Panel for Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Prior to BNEF, she developed Bloomberg’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) analytics platform as senior ESG analyst. Ms. Kurosaki holds an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London and a BA in Economics from Keio University.
Jonathan Berkshire Miller
Mr. Miller is currently a Senior Fellow with the Japan Institute of International Affairs and also Deputy Director and Senior Fellow at the Ottawa-based MacDonald Laurier Institute. He also holds the concurrent roles of Distinguished Fellow with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, Senior Fellow with the Asian Forum Japan and Senior Fellow with the East-West Institute. Mr. Miller previously served in the Canadian government—both with the Foreign Ministry and in the area of security—for nearly a decade. He is also a regular contributor of articles, interviews and presentations on East Asian security matters.
Saki Matsunaka
Ms. Matsunaka is currently in her second year at the Fukui University School of Medical Sciences, where she is studying with the aim of becoming a practitioner in the field of Obstetrics. Interested in medicine since her high school days, as a participant in Fukui Medical High School—an extracurricular initiative at Fukui University that aims to develop gifted students into global scientists, the doctors and researchers of tomorrow—she had the opportunity to study at the University of Kansas. Furthermore, after picking up silverware in a Fukui Prefecture-wide English debating competition for high-schoolers, she also attended a study program in Wisconsin.