Our Team
Board
LAWRENCE K. FISH is the former Chairman and CEO of Citizens Financial Group, Inc., a multi-state commercial bank holding company headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. During his 17-year tenure, CFG grew 30-fold and became one of the 10 largest commercial bank holding companies in the United States in total assets and deposits.
In addition to USJF, Fish chairs Bridge Over Troubled Waters, a Boston-area nonprofit providing services to runaway, homeless, and high-risk youth; and the Fish Family Foundation, which administers the Japan Women’s Leadership Initiative founded by Fish’s wife Atsuko.
Fish has a long record of leadership positions in business and the community. He’s on the Board of Trustees of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. In July 2003, he was named to the MIT Corporation, which is the Board of Trustees of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 2005 joined the Executive Committee of the Corporation, and is currently a Trustee Emeritus.
He also is an Honorary Trustee of The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. where he served on the board for 15 years. In 2007 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
He is retired Chairman of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the largest educational publishing company in the United States. He also is a retired Director of Textron Inc., a leading global multi-industry company with brands including Cessna, Beechcraft, Bell Helicopter and E-Z-Go golf carts, and Tiffany & Co., a leading American luxury brand with stores throughout the United States and worldwide.
In service to the banking industry, in January 1999 Fish joined the Federal Advisory Council, a panel of 12 bankers who serve as a key source of information for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the banking community. In January 2001, he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Federal Advisory Council. Fish served as Director of The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston from 2002 through 2004.
Fish is the retired Chairman of the board of Management Sciences for Health, a large international public health organization. He has previously served as an Overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and on the Board of Directors of Boston’s Dimock Community Foundation, Inc.
A 1966 graduate of Drake, Fish earned an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1968. He was the recipient of Harvard’s Frank Knox Fellowship, which included graduate study at the London School of Economics and travel in India. Fish is the recipient of honorary doctorate degrees from Drake University, Providence College, Bryant College, Roger Williams University, Johnson & Wales University and the University of Massachusetts.
Fish and his wife reside in Boston and have three children.
Chief Executive Officer, Suntory Holdings Limited
Tak Niinami is the Chief Executive Officer of Suntory Holdings, one of the world’s leading consumer products companies with operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania.
Tak spent the first 20 years of his career at Mitsubishi Corporation, where he held a number of management positions and founded Sodex Corporation (now LEOC Co.), a hospital food service joint venture between Mitsubishi and Sodexo of France, ultimately taking the company public in 1999. Prior to joining Suntory in 2014, Tak was CEO of Lawson, Inc., which he grew into one of Asia’s major convenience store operators.
Outside of Suntory, Tak has served on the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy as senior economic advisor to the Prime Minister since 2014, the longest serving business leader in Japan. He has served for former Prime Ministers Abe and Suga, and the incumbent Prime Minister Kishida. He also represents Japan corporate executives as Chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives.
Tak is also Asia Pacific Chairman of the Trilateral Commission, Chair of the Asia Business Council, Vice Chair of the United States-Japan Foundation, and a member of the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council, the Global Board of Advisors of the Council on Foreign Relations, and The Business Council in the US.
Tak received his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Ms. Cutler’s other responsibilities with USTR included U.S.-China trade relations, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum, and the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum. She was the Chief U.S. Negotiator for the U.S.-Korea (KORUS) Free Trade Agreement and negotiated a wide range of bilateral agreements with Japan on such issues as telecommunications, autos, and semiconductors. She has extensive multilateral trade experience as the U.S. negotiator for the WTO Financial Services Agreement and several Uruguay Round Agreements. Prior to joining USTR, Ms. Cutler worked on trade issues at the Commerce Department.
Ms. Cutler received her master’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and her bachelor’s degree from the George Washington University. She is married and has one son.
Member of Parliament, National Diet of Japan
Arfiya Eri is a member of Japan’s House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament (the Diet), representing the 5th District of Chiba Prefecture (Urayasu City and Ichikawa City, just outside Tokyo).
Her historic candidacy in the April 2023 parliamentary election drew worldwide attention. A Japanese national of Uyghur and Uzbek descent, she is the first Uyghur woman to be elected to any legislature in any nation.
At 35 years old, she is currently the youngest woman in Japan’s parliament, where the average age is 55 and only 10% of the House of Representatives is female.
In 2023, Time magazine named Eri one of its 100 next-generation global leaders.
Eri is a fellow in the Foundation’s US-Japan Leadership Program, joining the network in 2018.
Born in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, Eri became a Japanese citizen at the age of 10, in 1999. Her family temporarily moved to China for her father’s work, and she graduated from the American school in Guangzhou.
After earning her B.Sc. in Foreign Service and MA in Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Eri joined the Bank of Japan, where she worked from 2012-2016 in the International Department, the Sendai Branch, and the Financial System and Bank Examination Department.
Eri joined the United Nations Secretariat in New York in 2016, where she worked on UN reform, diplomacy, human rights, and security, including in the Asia and the Pacific Division of the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, and as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary-General for Safety and Security. She left the UN in 2022 to return to Japan and run for political office.
Colleen Hanabusa is a prominent labor lawyer who served in the Hawaiian State Senate (1998-2010) and was the first woman to serve as president of that body (2007-2010). Hanabusa represented Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for four terms (2011-15) (2016-19). Education, health care, finance and civil service reforms have been areas of special concern during her legislative career.
Hanabusa was born in Honolulu to June and Isao Hanabusa and raised in Waianae Oahu’s West Side. Her great grandparents immigrated from Japan to work on Hawaii’s sugar plantations. Her grandparents were interned during WWII in the Honouliuli Camp on Oahu.
She matriculated at the University of Hawaii at Manoa earning, successively, a bachelor’s degree in economics in sociology and economics (1973), a master’s degree in sociology (1975) and a law degree (1977).
Hanabusa resides on Oahu with her husband John Souza.
Keio University President
Kohei Itoh graduated from Keio University and received his MS and PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined Keio as a faculty member in 1995 and became a full professor in 2007. He was the dean of the Faculty and Graduate School of Science and Technology between 2017 and 2019. He became Keio president in 2021.
His main research area is quantum computing, quantum sensing, and quantum physics, leading to over 360 journal publications. He is an executive member of the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, a council member of the Science Council of Japan and chairs the Japanese government’s Quantum Technology Innovation expert panel. He has served on numerous executive boards including the Physical Society of Japan and the Japan Society of Applied Physics. He leads various quantum information projects as the program director of Quantum Information Technology in the Quantum Leap Flagship Program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).
He received the Japan IBM Prize in 2006 and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Prize in 2009. He is also a fellow of American Physical Society and a fellow of the Japan Society of Applied Physics.
Co-Founder and Chair of the Board, UWC ISAK Japan
UWC ISAK Japan is one of the newest additions to the United World College movement and is a residential high school that opened in Karuizawa in 2014. UWC ISAK offers scholarships to 70% of students who come from over 80 countries around the world. ISAK aims to develop transformational leaders who are eager to make a positive change in their countries and communities.
Lin's passion for education began during her studies at a Pearson College UWC in Canada, and continued to develop over the years. Before returning to Tokyo in 2008 to launch the ISAK project, she spent two years working for the United Nations Children's Fund in the Philippines, where she worked to program non-formal education projects for street children. Prior to UNICEF, Lin worked at the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
Lin began her career at Morgan Stanley and holds an MA in International Education Policy Analysis from Stanford University and a BA in Development Economics from the University of Tokyo. Lin was a Greenberg World Fellow 2017 at Yale University, and she also serves on the boards of UWC International since 2020, International House of Japan since 2022, and U.S. Japan Foundation since 2024.
Chairman of the Board, International House of Japan
James Kondo is an executive in the social, technology and policy arena.
He is currently Chairman of the Board at International House of Japan, an independent foundation that contributes to building a free, open, and sustainable future.
James is also a Trustee at US-Japan Foundation, Senior Advisor at OpenAI, a Global Trustee and Co-Chair of Japan Center at Asia Society, and a Trustee at Keio University.
He was previously Vice President of Growth Strategy at Twitter Inc. and Chairman of Twitter Japan, Special Advisor at the Cabinet Office of the Japanese Government, and a consultant at McKinsey.
James has been selected Fellow of the US-Japan Leadership Program, Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, Asia 21 Fellow of Asia Society, Inamori Fellow of Inamori Foundation, and Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow of the Robert Bosch Academy.
He was a visiting student at Brown University, a graduate of Keio University and Harvard Business School, a World Fellow at Yale University, and a Visiting Scientist at MIT Media Lab.
Santa J. Ono, Ph.D., is the 15th president of the University of Michigan. He began a five-year term on Oct. 14, 2022.
A recognized leader in higher education in the United States and Canada, President Ono is an experienced vision researcher whose pioneering work in experimental medicine focuses on the immune system and eye disease. At U-M he is professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, and microbiology and immunology in the Medical School, and molecular, cellular and developmental biology in the College of Literature, Sciences and the Arts.
President Ono currently serves as the chair of the U-M Health Board, the chair of Fulbright Canada, the chair of the University Climate Change Coalition (UC3), and is an honorary Chairperson of the Japan America Society of Michigan and Southwestern Ontario.
He also serves on a range of other boards including the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, the American Council on Education, the Council on Competitiveness, the Detroit Economic Club, and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation Board of Trustees.
He has been appointed by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to serve on the Executive Committee of Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the Growing Michigan Together Council.
Dr. Ono is a second-generation Japanese American who maintains strong ties to family in Japan. His grandfather, Akira Ono, was governor of Chiba Prefecture, and he has received an honorary doctorate from Chiba University.
He was born in Vancouver, where his father was teaching at the time. Dr. Ono joined U-M from the University of British Columbia, where he served as president and vice chancellor since 2016.
Prior to his appointment at UBC, he was president of the University of Cincinnati, where he also served as professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
Dr. Ono has served as senior vice provost and deputy to the provost at Emory University. He also has taught at Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University and University College London.
He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, USA and the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars. In 2022, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
He earned his B.A. in biological sciences from the University of Chicago in 1984, and a Ph.D. in experimental medicine from McGill University in 1991.
Jacob M. Schlesinger is president and CEO of the United States-Japan Foundation, an organization that gives grants and runs a fellowship program dedicated to bolstering relations between the two countries.
Schlesinger joined the USJF from The Wall Street Journal, where he worked for more than 30 years as a reporter and editor in Washington, D.C., Tokyo, and Detroit.
At the Journal, he covered economics and economic policy, chronicled elections and summits, trade wars and market crashes, labor strikes, the 9/11 terror attacks in the U.S., and Japan’s March 2011 triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear meltdown. Schlesinger was the Journal’s Tokyo bureau chief, deputy Washington bureau chief, and global financial regulation editor.
He is the author of “Shadow Shoguns: The Rise and Fall of Japan’s Postwar Political Machine,” published in 1997 by Simon & Schuster. While writing that book, he was a fellow at Stanford’s Asia-Pacific Research Center. He was later a Stigler Center Journalist in Residence at the University of Chicago. Schlesinger returned to Stanford in 2021 as a fellow at the Distinguished Careers Institute, where he studied the threats and challenges to democracy, in the U.S. and around the world.
Schlesinger was a member of the Journal team winning the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting on the dot-com bubble and crash. In 2014, he was given Stanford’s Shorenstein Journalism Award, presented annually to a reporter helping global audiences understand the complexities of the Asia-Pacific region.
Schlesinger grew up in East Lansing, Michigan, and has a BA in economics from Harvard. He lives in Washington with his wife, Louisa Rubinfien, a professor of Japanese history. They have two daughters, one currently working at the White House Office of Presidential Correspondence, the other doing graduate studies in chemical physics at the University of Minnesota.
Palo Alto, CA and Honolulu, HI
Board of Trustees, U.S.-Japan Foundation
Former Fellow, Distinguished Careers Institute, Stanford University
Donna Tanoue is the former Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in Washington, D.C. Donna is the only person of color to have led the FDIC, the independent agency that works to maintain stability and public confidence in the nation’s financial system by insuring deposits, examining and supervising financial institutions, working to make large and complex financial institutions resolvable, and managing receiverships. During the Obama administration, she was appointed to serve on the inaugural Consumer Advisory Board of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Subsequent to the FDIC, she served as Vice Chairman of Bank of Hawaii and Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE: BOH) and a member of Bank of Hawaii’s Managing Committee, the executive team responsible for the bank’s strategic direction. She was also a member of Bank of Hawaii’s Board of Directors, and President of Bank of Hawaii Foundation. Previously, she was a partner with the Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel law firm in Hawaii, and Commissioner of Financial Institutions for the State of Hawaii.
She served on the boards of Longs Drug Stores Corporation, Walnut Creek, CA (NYSE: LDG, prior to the sale to CVS Corp.) and Kaneohe Ranch Management, Ltd., which manages real estate owned by the family of Harold K.L. Castle and Alice H. Castle, and their nonprofit charitable foundation, the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation. She also served on the boards of The Queen’s Health Systems, Honolulu, HI, Hawaii Community Foundation, University of Hawaii, and PBS, Arlington, VA.
Donna earned her B.A. from University of Hawaii and J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. For the past two years, Donna has been a Fellow with the Distinguished Careers Institute at Stanford University, where she studied emerging issues relating to technology and international relations, with a focus on the Indo-Pacific region.
Member of the Board
Deputy President
Daiwa Securities Group Inc.
Ms. Tashiro began her career with the Daiwa Securities Group in 1986, following her graduation from Waseda University with a BA in Political Science. She received an MBA from Stanford University in 1991 and attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2011.
She has held various positions at Daiwa, including overseas assignments in Singapore, London and New York. In Japan, in addition to her role as Head of Investor Relations between 1999 and 2005, she spent six years in the retail division of the Group, expanding the non-branch channel (online and call center) and defining a business model for the Group’s retail operations. She held the position of Senior Managing Director, Head of FICC for two years before serving as Executive Managing Director and Chairperson of Daiwa Capital Markets America from 2013-16. She was appointed Senior Executive Managing Director of Daiwa Securities Group, Head of Overseas Operations in 2016 and Deputy President in 2019. She took office as Deputy President, Head of Overseas Operations and Head of SDGs in 2020, and she has served as Deputy President, Executive Head of Overseas Operations, Head of Sustainability and Head of Think Tank from April 2022.
She serves various roles in the development of our economy systems:
-Vice Chairman at the Japan Association of Corporate Executive
-Trustee of the IFRS foundation
-Member of the Harvard Business School Japan Advisory Board
-Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Responsive Financial Systems
Mr. Takeshi Ueshima is a Principal of Heritage Fund Management, LLC in New York, which specializes in alternative Investments for institutional Investors and high net worth individuals. In addition, Mr. Ueshima has served as a member of the International Committee of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a Fellow of UK World Fellowship, a Scott M. Johnson Fellow of the U.S.-Japan Leadership Program, a trustee of Japan ICU Foundation, the treasurer of Tanaka Memorial Foundation, and as a director for various other entities.
Mr. Ueshima holds a B.A. in Economics from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1988. He started his financial career at the Sumitomo Trust & Banking Company Ltd in Tokyo. Mr. Ueshima also worked for UBS (formally Paine Webber, Inc.) in New York.
