JANM Welcomes New Board Members

LOS ANGELES, CA – In 2023, the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) added nineteen new trustees, governors, and honorary members to its board.

“Our board members bring a multitude of international experiences to JANM’s leadership. We are grateful for their devotion to strengthening the Museum for years to come. I look forward to expanding the Museum’s work and mission with them to create a just future for all,” said Bill Fujioka, chair of the JANM Board of Trustees.

Board of Trustees

Kathryn A. Bannai was lead counsel in Gordon Hirabayashi's coram nobis case from 1982 to early 1985. Among other critical work, she successfully defeated the government’s effort to dismiss Hirabayashi’s case and persuaded the court to grant an evidentiary hearing. That hearing led to overturning Hirabayashi’s convictions for resisting the curfew and exclusion orders promulgated under E.O. 9066. In addition to practicing law, she adjudicated cases for the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal and Seattle’s Public Safety Civil Service Commission. She has served as president of the Seattle Chapter JACL; president of the New York Chapter JACL; member of the Board of Trustees of Eastern Washington University; member of the Board of Directors of Little Tokyo Community Council; and Advisory Council member of Kizuna (Little Tokyo). She rejoined the JANM Board of Trustees after relocating to New York City. 

Ernest Y. Doizaki was president of Prospect Enterprises, his family business that grew into a dominant presence in the seafood industry and the ship chandlery business. At its peak, Prospect Enterprises, dba American Fish & Seafood Company, had distribution centers in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Phoenix, and subsidiaries in Palm Desert, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego, Florida and Fresno which serviced fine restaurants, resort hotels, supermarket chains, casinos, cruise ships, military bases, and specialty seafood retailers. He sits on several boards in the Japanese American community including Keiro Senior Healthcare, the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, and Southern California Japanese Chamber of Commerce. In 2018 he received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Silver Rays for promoting US-Japan relations in international trade and commerce.

Bryan Fujita is the chief investment officer at the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions (LAFPP), a $30 billion pension plan providing retirement benefits to the public safety members of the City of Los Angeles. He leads all aspects of LAFPP’s investment program including policy formulation, investment strategy development and implementation, and risk management. Prior to joining LAFPP, Fujita was the chief operating officer at the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System and held positions at The Walt Disney Company and Wedbush Securities. He has a BA and an MBAfrom UCLA. Additionally, he has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation from the CFA Institute.

Edward Morimoto is the managing partner of Yuki Farms/TMY Capital Management, a private farming and real estate investment company in Los Gatos, California. As the nephew of the late trustee, Tom Yuki, he steered the Yuki family farming business into a multi-faceted real estate enterprise spanning agricultural, residential, retail, and office properties. As a descendant of two California Japanese American agricultural families, Morimoto appreciates the role JANM plays in the preservation of family legacies like those of the Yukis and Morimotos, and their unique role in Japanese American culture and history. He received his BS and MS from Stanford University and his MBA from Columbia University. He and his wife, Phoebe, and their son, Simon, reside in Los Gatos, California.

Joe Takai is a partner at McKinsey and Company. He is a career startup operator launching and scaling many successful ventures in partnership with established Fortune 500 companies and leading a global team of entrepreneurs. As a business builder, he has developed new technologies and digital capabilities for product and service markets. In previous roles he has provided business building leadership for Boston Consulting Group as a partner at Digital Ventures, and creative and technology leadership for Lucasfilm Ltd, Industrial Light + Magic, Digital Domain, and Warner Bros. as a visual effects and technology supervisor designing groundbreaking visual products, platforms, and pipelines. His work on Titanic, The Matrix, and Star Wars films set the foundation for many of the visual effects seen on today’s big screen. As board chair, he also leads the nonprofit Imagine LA whose mission is to prevent first-time and repeat homelessness and equip families to maintain housing stability and thrive longterm. He and his wife, Käri, reside in Hermosa Beach, California.

Board of Governors

Vicki Ariyasu is senior vice president of Content, Education and Inclusion, Disney Branded Television for Disney+, Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior, with a primary focus on imaginative, aspirational stories geared towards kids, tweens, teens and families. With a vision to overcome barriers for more inclusive content and culture, Ariyasu leads the Disney Branded Television’s Creative Inclusion Council and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leadership Team. This commitment has led to initiatives that span The Walt Disney Company. Ariyasu’s prosocial work on behalf of Disney Branded Television includes facilitating and managing outreach and partnerships with organizations such as UNICEF, World Health Organization, Girls Scouts, Google, NASA, children's museums, science discovery centers, and children's hospitals. She has a BA from UCLA and an EdM from Harvard.

Glen S. Fukushima is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C. think tank. In October 2021, President Joseph R. Biden nominated him to serve as vice chair of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), and the Senate confirmed him for this position in April 2022. From 1990–2012, Fukushima was a senior business executive based in Asia representing one European and four American companies. During this time, he was elected twice as president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ). Prior to his business career, he served in Washington, D.C. as director for Japanese affairs and as deputy assistant US trade representative for Japan and China at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). He was educated at Stanford University, Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School. He studied in Japan at Keio University and as a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Tokyo. He currently lives in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Tokyo.

Kenneth S. Hamamura is a retired business executive with more than thirty years of experience in the Human Resources field, including with Security Pacific National Bank and Fannie Mae. He is a charter member of JANM and a member of the Museum’s Legacy Society. In 2001 Hamamura joined the Museum’s staff as the project director to establish the Daniel K. Inouye National Center for the Preservation of Democracy. After construction was completed in 2005 he retired and became a Museum volunteer. In 2016, he received the Miki Tanimura Outstanding Volunteer Award. Hamamura was elected to the JANM Board of Governors in 2013 and the JANM Board of Trustees in 2017. He is a founding board director and chief financial officer for Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc.; a founding board director for the Asian Business League of Southern California; and a member of the Asian Pacific Women’s Network. Hamamura holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from California State University, Long Beach, and he participated in the executive program for human resources professionals through the University of Michigan’s Graduate School of Business Administration.

Ken Inouye is assistant to the Vice Chancellor for Administration at the University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu (UHWO) and manages UHWO’s Governmental Internship Program. Prior to working at UHWO, he was a principal at the Fritts Group, a government relations firm in Washington, D.C., representing telecom and media clients including CBS Broadcasting, Motorola Solutions, DIRECTV, Verizon, and Sprint. Prior to the Fritts Group, he served as senior director of federal government affairs at the Entertainment Software Association, and director of congressional affairs at the Motion Picture Association of America. In addition to the JANM Board of Governors, he also serves on the board of councilors of the US-Japan Council and the board of directors of the 442nd Legacy Center.

Jeffrey Maloney is chief counsel for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, an agency of the State of California dedicated to the protection of natural open space and urban parks and manages over 80,000 acres of parkland in the Los Angeles area. In 2016 and 2020, Maloney was elected to the City Council in Alhambra, California, serving as Mayor from 2018–2019 and again in 2022. He serves on the board of the Asian Pacific Islanders Caucus of the League of California Cities and the Go For Broke National Education Center. He was also selected as a member of the US-Japan Council’s 2023 Japanese American Leadership Delegation which traveled to Japan to build relationships with Japanese counterparts in the business, educational, and governmental sectors. He received his law degree from the University of Southern California and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California, San Diego.

David Ono is the coanchor for ABC7 Eyewitness News. He joined ABC7 in 1996 and during that time has witnessed history worldwide, covering Hurricane Katrina, Haiti’s earthquake, and Japan’s tsunami. He has produced multiple award-winning documentaries and recently partnered with JANM on a national tour of Defining Courage, an immersive live performance about the legacy of the Nisei soldier. In 2022 Ono received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette from the Japanese government and in 2023 he was named Anchor of the Year by Broadcast and Cable. He has won ten Edward R. Murrow awards, thirty-one Emmys, and was honored with the Distinguished Journalist Award by the Society of Professional Journalists. 

Koji Sato is senior vice president and general counsel of Orient Corporation of America in New Jersey, a subsidiary of Orient Chemical Industries, Co., Ltd. in Osaka, Japan. He is currently responsible for its entire US operations. Prior to joining Orient Corporation of America, Sato was an attorney at the law firm of Kelly Drye and Warren in New York and a foreign legal consultant at Hashidate Law Office in Tokyo, Japan. A graduate of Colgate University, he holds a JD from New York Law School. He serves as the president of the Japanese American Association of New York, a council leader of the US-Japan Council, and cochair of the New York Westchester County Asian American Advisory Board.

Moira Shourie is the executive director of Zócalo Public Square, a Los Angeles-based unit of ASU Media Enterprise at Arizona State University. Zócalo hosts vibrant public conversations that extend from Los Angeles to the broader region and beyond. Shourie's career in media began as part of the startup team that launched Outlook, which has since become one of India’s most widely read news magazines. She also served as the first music programmer for MTV India. Her tenure with MTV Networks International included overseeing channel launches across Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa. Under Shourie's leadership, Zócalo has established partnerships with renowned institutions such as the Smithsonian, the National Civil Rights Museum, PEN America, and the Music Center. She has also secured substantial funding for Zócalo programming from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, California Wellness Foundation, and James Irvine Foundation, among others.

Kent Tsukamoto is the retired founding partner of Accuity LLP, Certified Public Accountants (Accuity), a Hawai‘i-based firm that is the successor to the Honolulu Office of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). Prior to founding Accuity in 2006, he led PwC’s Hawai‘i practice as its managing partner and was with PwC and its predecessor Coopers & Lybrand for over twenty-eight years, four of which were in its Los Angeles Office. Tsukamoto received his bachelor’s from the Shidler School of Business at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and his master’s from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. He is a member of the Iolani School Board of Governors and the Kahala Nui Board of Directors.

Honorary Board

Representative Judy Chu represents the 28th Congressional District of California, which includes Pasadena and the west San Gabriel Valley of southern California. She serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over legislation pertaining to taxes, revenues, Social Security, and Medicare. She also serves on the House Small Business Committee, which has oversight of the Small Business Administration, as well as the House Budget Committee. Chu was first elected to the Board of Education for Garvey School District in 1985. From there, she was elected to the Monterey Park City Council, where she served as Mayor three times. She then was elected to the State Assembly and then California’s elected tax board, known as the State Board of Equalization. In 2009, she became the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress in history.

Honorable Tammy Duckworth is an Iraq War veteran, Purple Heart recipient and former assistant secretary of the US Department of Veterans Affairs who was among the first handful of Army women to fly combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Duckworth served in the reserve forces for twenty-three years before retiring at the rank of lieutenant colonel in 2014. She was elected to the US Senate in 2016 after representing Illinois’s Eighth Congressional District in the US House of Representatives for two terms. She earned her MA from George Washington University.

Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi represents the 66th Assembly District in the Los Angeles South Bay and Harbor Area. A champion for public education, Muratsuchi serves as chair of the Assembly Education Committee, and has written laws to fight for education, jobs and the economy, clean energy and environmental justice, public safety, veterans, and small businesses. Prior to serving in the California legislature, he served on the Torrance Unified School District Board of Education, Southern California Regional Occupational Center Board of Trustees, and Torrance Planning Commission. Muratsuchi has dedicated his career to public service, working as a UCLA lecturer, civil rights lawyer, and deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, and received a JD from UCLA. 

Consul General Kenko Sone graduated from Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, Japan, in 1989. He entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) that same year. In 2008 he joined MOFA’s Economic Affairs Bureau as the director of the OECD Division and the director of the International Economy Division in 2010. In 2011 he was named economic counselor at the Embassy of Japan in the US and in 2013 he was the director of the First North America Division at MOFA’s North American Affairs Bureau. In 2014 he was the deputy cabinet secretary for Public Affairs in the Cabinet Secretariat and director of Global Communications at the Prime Minister’s Office. In 2016 he was the minister of Economics and Development at the Embassy of Japan in India. In 2019 he was the deputy director-general of the Economic Affairs Bureau and in 2020 he was the deputy director-general of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau. In 2021 he was the assistant minister and director-general for Cultural Affairs and the ambassador in charge of Sport and Budo. In 2022 he was named Consul General of Japan in Los Angeles.

Representative Mark Takano represents the 39th Congressional District of California. He serves as Ranking Member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, and as a member of the Education and the Workforce Committee. Born and raised in Riverside, Mark’s family roots to the city go back to his grandparents and parents who were removed from their homes and sent to camp during World War II. After the war, they settled in Riverside County and rebuilt their lives. After earning his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, Takano returned home to become a teacher with the Rialto Unified School District. In 1990, he was elected to the Riverside Community College District's Board of Trustees where he worked with Republicans and Democrats to improve higher education for young people and job training opportunities for adults. In 2012, he became the first openly gay person of color to be elected to Congress and continues to serve the people of Riverside, Moreno Valley, Jurupa Valley, and Perris.

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About the Japanese American National Museum (JANM)

Established in 1985, JANM promotes understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Located in the historic Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, JANM is a hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories and strives to provide a voice for Japanese Americans as well as a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public in 1992, JANM has presented over 70 exhibitions onsite while traveling 17 exhibits to venues such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and to several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America. JANM is open on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday–Sunday from 11 a.m.–5 p.m. and on Thursday from 12 p.m.–8 p.m. JANM is free every third Thursday of the month. On all other Thursdays, JANM is free from 5 p.m.–8 p.m. For more information, visit janm.org or follow us on social media @jamuseum.