Hi! Kirk here. I’m writing to tell you about an event that I hope many of you will be interested in.

Date: March 7 (Thursday) Time: 6 PM to 8 PM with reception following Place: Kumamoto City Hall, Large Hall (14th floor) Admission: Free (including free snacks etc at reception!!) Languages: Mostly English, some Japanese, all with simultaneous interpretation (headsets provided) Who: The three main guest are all prominent Japanese Americans who will talk about community building projects they are engaged in.

To learn more about the main speakers, please go to the following page:

https://www.jpf.go.jp/cgp/e/exchange/jald/news190307.html

By the way, there’s also a Japanese page, if you prefer: https://www.jpf.go.jp/cgp/exchange/jald/news190307.html

The explanation at the top of the page describes the basic idea of the event but I recommend that you go right to the bios at the bottom of the page. As you can see, Mariko Silver, Britt Yamamoto, and Kelly Yamasaki are very accomplished Japanese Americans. Since I’ll be involved as a moderator (I’ll be the weakest link in an otherwise strong chain), I’ve had the privelege of seeing the PowerPoint slides and I can tell you that each person will make a presentation that describes their roots as a Japanese American, the part of the U.S. that she/he is from, and the community building and/or educational issues she/he is working on. One great perk will be getting to interact with these folks after the event at the reception.

Finally, if you are planning to attend the event and the reception, please drop a line to [email protected]. This is the e-mail address of the part of the Japan Foundation in Tokyo that is planning the event. They would like to have an idea of how many people are likely to show up before hand, especially for the reception.

By the way, as you can tell from the fact that the contact e-mail address is the Japan Foundation, this event has the full backing of the Japan Foundation. Significant resources are going into the preparation of this event, including the employment of first-class simultaneous interpreters. It should be interesting in a number of ways. Even so, my contact at the Japan Foundation tells me that, so far, they haven’t gotten a big response. So, if you know people who you think might be interested in something like this (Japanese Americans, people interested in high-quality discussion in English, people interested in community building, etc.) please share this will them. Thanks!!