Category: Newsletter 11

As we reported in Newsletter No. 10, the Board of Directors and Advisory Committee has been discussing a possible name change of Friends of Todai, Inc. (FOTI) for some time since the University of Tokyo’s decision last year to change its English abbreviation from “Todai” to “UTokyo.” While “UTokyo” may be more readily recognizable as a university name than “Todai” by non-Japanese, the new acronym will sound foreign to most Japanese who have been used to the traditional name “東大(pronounced as ‘ Todai’).” After a long elaboration on this matter, the Board finally came up with an excellent idea by adding the Japanese translation 「東大友の会」(pronounced as “Todai-Tomo-no-Kai”) to the official English name “Friends of UTokyo, Inc.” (FUTI for short), and voted for it on May 10, 2014. This name amendment was subsequently approved on May 24, 2014 by the State Department of New York State, where our organization has been registered since its inception in 2007. Our account names with Citibank in New York and PayPal (for online donation) have also been changed accordingly. The new website https://www.friendsofutokyo.org is currently under construction. For the time being, please continue using the current http://www.friendsoftodai.org. The mailing address of FUTI is 115 East 34th Street, #416, New York, NY 10156, USA, as we announced earlier. The new email addresses, such as infofriendsofutokyo.org and donatefriendsofutokyo.org, are already usable for sending your inquiries or messages, although you could continue using the old addresses infofriendsoftodai.org and donatefriendsoftodai.org at least for a while. Articles in this newsletter:

The Board of Directors of Friends of UTokyo, Inc. (FUTI) voted to elect Mr. Yasuyuki Sugiura (photo left), President of Mitsubishi International Co., and Mr. Motomu Takahashi (right), President of Mitsui & Co. (USA) Inc., both in New York, to its Advisory Committee on May 27th, 2014. Messrs. Sugiura and Takahashi are both alumni of the Faculty of Economics, the University of Tokyo, and developed their careers around the international trade of iron and steel products in the two dominant general trading companies. Regarding the appointment of the two advisory members, President Hisashi Kobayashi remarks, “We are much pleased and honored to have these two most distinguished alumni as new members to our Advisory Committee. Both gentlemen are excellent role models to the UTokyo students and young alumni for their global leaderships demonstrated in their careers. Mr. Takahashi was one of the original members of FUTI’s Advisory Committee when it was created in June 2009, and we are delighted to have him again on the Committee. We are also hopeful that Mr. Sugiura will help us with FUTI as did Mr. Seiei Ono, his predecessor, who served on the Advisory Committee until last year. We are most grateful for their willingness to serve on FUTI’s advisory committee despite their extremely busy schedules in their jobs as CEOs.” Please see below the brief profiles of the two Advisory Members: Mr. Yasuyuki Sugiura has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas) since April 2013. He also serves as Executive Vice President of Mitsubishi Corporation, Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Sugiura graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1978 with a B.A. degree in Economics, and began his career at Mitsubishi Corporation, in the Steel Export Department. He received his MBA degree from the International University, Niigata, Japan in 1988. He has held many international positions at Mitsubishi Corporation and its related companies, including Mitsubishi International Corporation (MIC), New York (1991-92), Coikplus-Ohio, Inc. in Springfield, Ohio (1995-97), the MIC office in Washington DC (1997-2002), and again MIC in New York (2006-08) , where he was Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of MIC, New York. After having served as General Manager and then Senior Vice President at Corporate Communication Department, Corporate Planning Division in the Tokyo headquarter (2008-2011), he returned to MIC, New York in 2011 and served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (2011-12) and then President and Chief Executive Officer (2012-13) , and in April 2013 he was promoted to his current position. Mr. Sugiura serves on the Board of the New York Botanical Garden and serves as Chairman of the Board and President of Mitsubishi Corporation Foundation for the Americas, and he also is on the Board of Directors of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) and of The Nippon Club, both in New York. Mr. Motomu Takahashi has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Mitsui & Co. (USA), Inc. a.k.a. Mitsui USA, since April 2014. He concurrently serves as Executive Managing Officer and Chief Operating Officer of the Americas Business Unit of Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Mitsui USA’s parent company in Tokyo. Mr. Takahashi is a graduate of the University of Tokyo (B.A. Economics). He joined Mitsui & Co., Ltd. in 1977 and has built his career mainly in the company’s iron, steel, & metals businesses which involve global trade and investment activities. Prior to his current appointment, Mr. Takahashi was Mitsui & Co.’s Managing Officer and Chief Operating Officer of its Iron & Steel Products Business Unit. Mr. Takahashi previously served in many posts overseas: Mitsui Saudi Arabia as Manager, Metals Dept. (1982-1985); Mitsui USA Chicago Office as Deputy General Manager and then as General Manager, Steel & Metals Dept. (1990-1997); Mitsui Steel Development, New York, a subsidiary of Mitsui USA, as President (2002-2004), and Mitsui USA as Senior Vice President, Steel Products Business Group, also in New York (2004-2005); Steel Technologies Inc., Louisville, KY, as Chairman of the Board (2007-2009); and Mitsui USA, New York, as Executive Vice President, concurrently serving as Managing Officer and Deputy Chief Operating Officer of the Americas Business Unit (2009-2010). In addition, in 2001 Mr. Takahashi attended the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at Harvard Business School. Currently, Mr. Takahashi serves as President at The Nippon Club of New York, Advisory Council at Baruch College Weissman Center for International Business and is on the Board of Directors of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New York. When the Advisory Committee of Friends of UTokyo, Inc. (FUTI) was established in June 2009, Mr. Takahashi was appointed to the Committee and served as Advisory member until April 2010, when he returned to Japan. Articles in this newsletter:

 “Go Global 2014,” a fair to encourage UTokyo students to study abroad, was held at the Komaba Campus on May 29th (Thu) and 30th (Fri), 2014. The objectives of the Fair are to convey to UTokyo students the significance and importance of studying abroad and experiencing different cultures, and to motivate and help them to consider overseas study opportunities in the early years of their undergraduate studies. This is the fourth year since this annual fair was introduced in 2011. The plenary session for general information held on the first day was attended by approximately 560 students. On the second day, individual counseling sessions were provided by representatives from the College of Arts and Sciences, the Division of International Affairs, foreign governments’ affiliated organizations, and NGO/NPOs (both domestic and abroad), and were attended by about 320 students. These numbers represent a sizable increase compared with last year, when 450 participated in the plenary session and approximately 300 in the individual counseling sessions. In the plenary session, Dr. Masako Egawa, Executive Vice President of UTokyo, gave a welcome speech, followed by talks by two alumni, Mr. Yoshihisa Yamada (Executive Vice President, Rakuten, Inc.) and Ms. Terumi Ishii (a comedian who belongs to Watanabe Entertainment Co.). Their talks were centered around such key phrases as “career and overseas study” and “global human resources.” For the individual counseling sessions, 32 organizations, including FUTI, set up their booths, answered individual inquiries and gave advice to the visitors. FUTI’s booth was visited by 30 students during the three and a half hour period. Ms. Azumi Tezuka and Mr. Yasuyuki Izumi of the Development Division at the Hongo Campus represented FUTI. They report, “A sizable number of freshmen and sophomores showed their interest in studying abroad, even for a short period of time.” Their interest appears to indicate that the University’s policy, which encourages many students to gain some international experience, including short-term studies and summer programs, has begun to permeate among the UTokyo students. “Some students already knew about FUTI, indicating FUTI’s name recognition has begun to improve. They also appear to recognize a feature of FUTI in that ‘Alumni are supporting UTokyo from America’ as a unique advantage, not shared by other scholarship organizations,” say Ms. Tezuka and Mr. Izumi. They received a variety of comments and questions such as “The amount of FUTI Scholarship seems generous, so I will seriously consider it.” “What is the selection criterion? Is the application competitive?” and “Would FUTI consider supporting a one-year study abroad?” The following is a list of the 32 organizations/units that set up the counseling booths on the second day. British Council Embassy of Canada to Japan Embassy of Australia in Japan Education USA/Fulbright Japan The Finish Institute in Japan French Government Study Abroad Office DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst; German Academic Exchange Service) Education Dept ., Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Japan HSK Japan (HSK stands for Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, or Chinese Proficiency Test) Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) Friends of UTokyo, Inc. VIA (Volunteer in Asia) SAF (The Study Abroad Foundation) Japan Infosys Ltd. IAESTE Japan (The International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience) INTRAX AIESEC in Japan Council on International Educational Exchange-Japan (CIEE) Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Never-ending International work Campus Exchange (NICE) The International Affairs Division of UTokyo The Go Global Office of UTokyo Hands-on Activities Program Promotion Team of UTokyo UTokyo Global Leadership Education Program The Career Support Office of UTokyo The School of Liberal Arts AIKOM (Abroad in Komaba) Committee of UTokyo College of Arts and Sciences, UTokyo School of Sciences, UTokyo School of Engineering, Globalization Promotion Section, UTokyo Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, UTokyo UTokyo India Office International Student Exchange Corner Articles in this newsletter:

The Award Committee of Friends of UTokyo, Inc. (FUTI) has decided to grant a FUTI Summer Scholarship (a.k.a. FUTI Global Leadership Award) to Ms. Jenny Byun, a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, who has been selected to participate in the University of Tokyo Summer Innovation Program in Kashiwa (or UTSIP Kashiwa for short), which is a two-year old program sponsored by the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences at the Kashiwa Campus, UTokyo. Ms. Byun is the UTSIP participant that FUTI supports. She is a double major in political science and integrative biology at Berkeley and hopes to acquire in-depth knowledge in the application of innovation in business ventures by attending the workshops and case-studies offered at UTSIP. The UTSIP program is interdisciplinary in its nature and aims at providing “an opportunity for students to expose themselves to cutting-edge research in the natural sciences and social sciences.” This summer 30 international students, selected from leading universities around the world, will participate in the program and share their experiences with a group of 30 UTokyo students. With the addition of Ms. Byun, the number of the 2014 FUTI scholarship recipients is twenty, thirteen of whom are UTokyo students who will study at U.S. universities and seven are U.S. students who will participate in various summer courses or internship programs at UTokyo. For details, please see a related article in FUTI Newsletter No. 10. Articles in this newsletter: