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Fall/Winter 2025 The American School in Japan
Interview with our Head of School
Our seniors explore global issues
Digital world builder and children's author
Wardrobe technician with the Royal Danish Ballet
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miss out! Contact us: alumni@asij.ac.jp https://asij.ac.jp/alumni (+81) 0422-34-5300 ext 710
08 Leading with Kindness
An interview with Head of Schools Eric F Niles.
12
The Big Blue
First graders explore the ancient dyeing technique of aizome.
14 Deep Learning, Deeper Connections
The senior class heads to the Osaks Expo at the start of their Deep Learning Seminar II course.
20 World Building
Chad Roen ’96 talks about his career in VFX and his new children's book.
24 Well Dressed
Soren Johannessen ’01 on his wardrobe career with the Royal Danish Ballet.
28 Strength and Courage Award
We speak with winner Olivia Lee ’25.
28 A Place that Feels Like Home
Zelda Edmunds ’05 explores Third Culture Kid identity.
Head of School Message
Highlights
Chief Advancement Officer
Anne Cunningham
Director of Communications
Matt Wilce
Director of Giving
Nikki Torchon
Alumni Coordinator
Isabella Rogovin
Data Specialist
Catherine Iwata
Digital Communications Officer
Zelda Edmunds ’05
Graphic Designer
Johnson Lin
Student Intern
Keito Fukuma ’26
Editorial Inquiries communications@asij.ac.jp alumni@asij.ac.jp
The American School in Japan 1-1-1 Nomizu, Chofu-shi Tokyo 182-0031, Japan
The Ambassador is published by The American School in Japan
ASIJ alumni, families, faculty, and friends receive The Ambassador
It's not every day that one graces the cover of a magazine and although it's not necessarily something I aspired to, I am happy that being featured in The Ambassador provides you all with the opportunity to get to know me better. I hope that the interview here gives you a better sense of my values, a fuller picture of my background, and aspirations for the great school I joined this past August.
During these first few months of school, I’ve enjoyed the opportunities I have had to interact with students and faculty, start to learn from parents what they love about ASIJ but also where they think we need to focus more, and engage with alumni from across the decades. I’ve been able to see firsthand the great work our students and teachers are doing in and out of the classroom and the Portrait of a Learner competencies take root and spread throughout the school. I hope you’ll see the evidence of that in some of the stories told here, from the hands-on experience our first graders had with traditional aizome dyeing to the trip our senior class took to kick off their Deep Learning Seminar II course.
I’ve often observed that it is moments like these that students will remember years from now as they look back on their time at school. As the subjects of our alumni interviews both attest to, the impact of great teachers and meaningful experiences can be ongoing and profound. It is heartening to see that both Chad and Soren, who are featured here, continue to pursue the passions they discovered in school professionally as adults.
As we approach the holiday season, I am looking forward to attending my first Winterfest as well as meeting the young alumni who plan to visit us while they are back in Tokyo. Wherever you are in the world, know that ASIJ will always be your home.
Wishing you and your families happy holidays,
Eric Niles Head of School
Our Varsity Tennis Team were put through their paces by guest coach proplayer Tamaki Takagi (Australian and French Open singles). She led a master class with six other guests, guiding students through rotations designed to build a specific skill. Our guest coaches included Cecilia Tammling (USTA 4.5 ranked player), Yushi Katayama ‘99, Matt Cheng (former Taiwan junior No. 1 and junior Davis Cup player), Michel Tarna ’98 (former NCAA Division 1, ranked All-Japan player), Steve Ho (gold medalist at Taiwan National Games), and Wei-Ju Chen (winner Asian Junior Singles Championship, Davis Cup Team, Taiwanese National Team).
Spooky season arrived at ASIJ in the form of many K-pop Demon Hunters this year! From our littlest Mustangs at the ELC to our high school students, both campuses were filled with creative costumes, parades and activities, and plenty of Halloween spirit.
you seen Chuck?
From its improvised pre-show to its concept of 30 short plays performed in random order over an hour, this year’s fall play surprised and delighted audiences in the Blackbox. Our student performers mastered multiple roles to bring Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind to life. With quick-paced scenes, creativity, unexpected twists, and audience participation, this year’s production was a unique experience for cast, crew and the audience.
Spirit Day 2025 was one to remember! With the YUJO tournament wrapping up its final day, the energy across campus was electric. Our Varsity Football team brought home a big win on their field against the Waseda Bacchus, while our middle school soccer teams played their hearts out all morning. The Chofu campus was alive with Mustang pride, fun activities such as Sumo, and incredible Black and Gold spirit.
On Wednesday, Nov 5, Dr Gediminas Sarpis, introduced the fascinating science happening at CERN, where researchers study the substructure of matter — what everything in the universe is really made of. He answered questions from high school students and shared what it is like working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, home of the world’s largest particle accelerator.
Little orphan Annie made her ASIJ debut when the middle schoolers took to the stage in Annie Jr. The talented cast and crew of over 60 students were supported by the high school lighting, sound and stage crew, and stagecraft class. If you missed the show, catch the recording on ASIJTV on Youtube.
Amid campfires and mountain trails at Lake Sai, nestled below Mount Fuji, Grade 4 students embarked on a brand-new camping adventure— learning to pitch tents, cook and clean together, and navigate challenges like rafting and hiking. Along the way, they connected their Earth Systems learning to Japan’s unique landscapes and returned home with confidence, gratitude, and stronger connections to one another.
The high school cross-country team concluded its season strongly, showcasing remarkable depth and drive. The boys' team dominated the season, winning three championship titles, and the girls' team delivered an astounding performance, finishing second in the Asia Pacific Invitational race. Altogether, the team brought home four trophies, including the individual division trophies, as well as the overall and relay trophies.
Head of School Eric F Niles speaks to Matt Wilce about his journey from Capitol Hill to the classroom, connecting with young learners and the value of kindness and connection in shaping our future.
As our elementary school students come off the bus in the morning, it’s not uncommon to hear one of them say, “Good morning, Eric!” as they walk past the adults greeting them outside. Their salutation is directed at Head of School Eric Niles, who stands outside most mornings to welcome them to Chofu campus. One of the perks for Eric of working at his first school to encompass the lower grades has been getting to know students at the Early Learning Center and Elementary School. From the first week of school, when fourth graders made an appointment to ask about his workspace as they designed their own classroom layout, to joining the Kindergarten as they learned about the autumn moon viewing and dango making, he’s embraced the opportunities to engage our youngest learners.
“I've been loving being able to make a connection with really young kids, which I've worked really hard to do, and it is a joyful part of my day,” Eric says. He notes that he always lamented the fact that The Athenian School in Danville, California, where he was Head of School for 15 years, didn’t have those grades and that he had pushed the school to consider adding an elementary program. “When you're taking an approach like we are
at ASIJ with Portrait of a Learner and you think about those competencies, you have to start at the beginning — younger kids are really sponges. And so if the first time you get them is in sixth grade or ninth grade, it's not that you can't make headway on those things, it's just you're making up for lost time,” he says. “If you can have a kindergartener who is thinking about and acting in ways to collaborate, communicate, or have a particular mindset, they grow into different sixth graders and different ninth graders. So I'm loving and actually being able to watch that scope and sequence happen.”
Before we sat down to talk, I invited the fourth graders who had spoken to him about their classroom design to suggest some of the questions for our interview. They wanted to know whether Eric was a good student. “I was a good student in that I knew how to check the boxes,” he says. “I would say honestly, that compared to the schools I've had a privilege of working in, like ASIJ or Athenian, that my education was fairly uninspiring, fairly traditional, with lots of memorization, and I was good at that. So I would say I was good at school the way it was defined.”
At the trustee breakfast in September, Eric challenged trustees to imagine what newspaper headline we might see about ASIJ ten years from now.
MW: So what does make a good student?
EN: “First of all, it's not defined by grades, by me,” Eric says. “I think a good student is someone who aims for mastery. Who thinks, how do I get really good at something?” he notes, adding that mastery in writing looks very different whether you’re in fifth grade, a senior, or middle-aged. He believes a good student is someone who thinks “How do I really push myself to be excellent? How do I find ways to speak up?” That can look different for different students, he acknowledges, saying that “some might feel really comfortable raising their hand in class, others may feel more reticent. But there are other ways to speak up. There are other ways to find your teacher. There are other ways to ask questions that are not so public, but let your voice be heard and take up space in a class and really push yourself to really understand, see connections, and do your best.”
When I reported back to the fourth grade class on his answers following the interview, they were surprised—their consensus when we took a vote was that Eric had not been a good student. When I asked why they thought that, the answer from one of the students was that “it would be a better origin story for him.”
Eric with elementary school principal Marc L'Heureux and first graders showing off their aizome T-shirts.
MW: So what is Eric’s origin story?
EN: “At a young age I knew I wanted to be a lawyer and so even though I don't practice law, I don't ever regret getting that education and I loved my time in law school,” he says referring to his time earning a law degree from UCLA which he attended after graduating with BS in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. “I think the big part of my journey was when I turned down a job in a big New York law firm and I just decided that it wasn't the life I wanted to live,” Eric says. “And so it was there that I pivoted to try to work in Washington, DC. I tell my kids all the time that I worked for $8 an hour at the National Capitol YMCA while I was trying to get a job.” Which he did, becoming a congressional staffer to Al Swift, a congressman from Washington State. Other than doing some campaigning there, it was not a state Eric had a particular connection to, but once he’d proved himself he moved from being a generalist to serving as legal counsel to the congressman’s subcommittee.
“I think law is not so much about specific laws as much as it is a way of thinking, of recognizing that very few issues are black and white, that there's a lot of gray in the world,” Eric says. “The hardest issues are when two things that are right bump into each other. Everyone talks about right versus wrong, but those are actually the easy ones. The hard ones are where two things that you really care about, such as freedom
of religion and free speech, bump into each other. Those are the issues that really you grapple with,” he notes. “I like to think that law school really framed the way I think about issues. When something's happening at school, I often will ask myself, ‘What principles are at work here? What are the big overriding issues?’ And then try to figure out, how do I apply those principles to the situation that is before me?”
Although Eric acknowledges that he loved his work in Congress and the impact of watching how politics worked, when Congressman Swift decided not to seek another term in 1994, Eric took the opportunity to consider what he wanted to do next. “I had always dreamed about traveling around the world,” Eric says, noting that his father had always encouraged him to do so. However, his father was ill with cancer at the time, so Eric delayed any travel to spend as much time with him as possible. “I never wanted to do it while he was alive and sick, and when he died, it sort of made me consider it again. I always knew that he wanted me to do that.” So on New Year's Day in 1994, Eric set off to travel around the world for a year, which he did for 11 months with his wife Margaret, who was at the time his girlfriend. The daughter of a New York Times correspondent, Margaret (who uses they/them pronouns) had spent their childhood in Poland and Israel and had taken a study year in Greece during their time at Marietta College in Ohio. “Margaret grew up all over the world. I didn't,” Eric says, noting that he hadn’t seen or understood the world, which led to his desire to “put a backpack on my
back and travel around the world.”
It was that adventure–which included a brief repatriation following a serious case of malaria that resulted in a marriage proposal during his recovery–that was ultimately Eric’s journey to a teaching career. After he had recovered from his illness, the newly engaged couple returned to Southeast Asia, travelling from Thailand up to India. “It was in the midst of that trip, actually, in northern India, that we went to visit a school called the Woodstock School, north of Delhi in the hill stations,” he says. “We thought we'd just spend a day there and continue to head north in India and we found the equivalent of an Airbnb I suppose, long before there was such a thing.” The planned day turned into a month as the couple took meditation classes, exercised, and read. “It was in the course of that trip where I said to Margaret, ‘I think I want to be a teacher’ and I think I want to do that in a boarding school,’ and I knew where the teaching part came from. My mom was a teacher, and so there were teachers in my family. And so I knew that piece about wanting to live a life of service,” he says. As for the desire to work in a boarding school, Eric’s not positive where that came from, but as they finished their travels and returned home he started applying to boarding schools to teach.
Eric began his career pivot at the Midland School in Los Olivos, California, where he taught for three years before taking the role of Dean of Students for another three. The
co-ed boarding high school occupies a stunning 2,860-acre site in Santa Barbara County complete with its own farm and provides an educational experience that seamlessly blends sustainability and outdoor education into its curriculum. From there he moved to Emma Willard School, a private collegepreparatory day and boarding high school for young women in Troy, New York, where he first served as Dean of Students before taking on the role of Assistant Head. Following that came a 15-year tenure as Head of the Athenian School located at the base of Mount Diablo, in Danville, California. The co-ed grade 6-12 school is a founding member of Round Square, an international organization of schools whose philosophy is influenced by the German educator Kurt Hahn, who helped found the Outward Bound organization and the United World College movement. This explains the 26-day adventure trip that is a graduation requirement at Athenian.
Along the way, Eric and Margaret started their own family and saw their daughter, Hannah, and son, Cade, thrive in the progressive educational communities in which they were fortunate to live and work. Both children ultimately followed in their grandmother’s and father’s footsteps and Hannah is currently a teacher in Oakland, California, while Cade is an educator in Minneapolis, Minnesota. When asked how he thinks his children would describe him, Eric responds with the words “quiet, but caring.” He adds, “I think they would say that I'm ethical and that morality and kindness really matter to me. That I really want them to do good in the world but I didn't ever need them to be anything in particular. I want them to work hard for themselves, to do good in the world, and to have a happy life.”
After raising their family, Margaret also shifted their career focus to become an interfaith chaplain. Through this work, Margaret has supported critically and terminally ill across various faith traditions and individuals in the San Francisco homeless community. In addition, they served on the board of the Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County. With their children grown and beginning their own careers, the opportunity to look for new challenges presented itself. “We didn't get to a point in our lives where we said we needed to move overseas,” Eric says. “It just so happened that there was this bold and visionary school with a storied history, with an amazing group of kids, with an incredible group of faculty that happened to be here in Tokyo. And I was lucky enough to get the job, and we were lucky enough to come here.” He goes on to recognize some of the other things that attracted him to ASIJ, saying that “the school was really thoughtful in creating its mission and its vision, which makes a case about the nature of education, the ways in which the world is changing incredibly quickly, and the ways that ASIJ—as great as its reputation is—would need to change to make sure that we're keeping up with the needs of our children.”
One of Eric’s invitations to trustees and employees before the summer was to read Imaginable by Jane McGonigal, a book that aims to develop and train the power of imagination in its reader. Her work on strategic foresight and future thinking offers a practical, hopeful approach to anticipating change—and imagining bold responses. After asking several groups to imagine different future scenarios for ASIJ as he began engaging with the community, we turned the tables and asked Eric his vision for ASIJ’s future. Noting that he already sees that Deep Learning is happening, that the Portrait of a Learner competencies are being centered, and teachers doing really interesting work with students, he says he expects “that will become way more transparent ten years from now.” Eric adds that he thinks we will “talk about the competencies less, but just know that they're happening. In some ways it's most powerful when we as adults, as coaches, know that we are developing them in students and we don't have to say that it's happening.” He goes on to posit that ASIJ “will have partnered with AI because I think that's what we'll have to do, but acknowledge that there's this whole host of human skills that AI will not do and cannot do and that’s what we need to be fostering.” He believes that “the Portrait of a Learner is designed to inculcate human skills and those outcomes will be very easy for people to see when they come here and meet our students. People will see that the school is alive with learning and that the relationship between student and student and teacher and student is as strong, if not stronger, than ever.”
Circling back to our friends in fourth grade, their final question for Eric was how does a head of school help students learn better? “I think in many ways my roles are both direct and indirect. And so one is that I hope I model something for students. And— this is a continuing journey for us — creating a place where they feel a sense of belonging at ASIJ, that every student feels like they belong here because that is a prerequisite for learning.” He goes on to talk about the impact of hiring great teachers, ensuring “that the people in their classrooms really know, value, and care for them and that I also model those attributes.” During his first few weeks at school Eric met with a group of fifth graders who wanted to talk about kindness. “I couldn't believe it,” Eric says. “We talked for 40 minutes about their commitment to kindness and my experience and Margaret's experience with kindness in our lives and service in our lives. I left there knowing that I had taken the right job, but also incredibly hopeful for the world.”
With the help of the Japan Center and our partners from Myojo Gakuen School Koenkai, our first graders explored the ancient dyeing technique of aizome
Our first graders spent this fall exploring the meaning of community, their role as members, and the factors that contribute to a positive and thriving community. Through their changemakers unit “How can we make our community a better place?” students looked at their own impact on others and thought about the environmental consequences of using paper towels. This led them to explore sustainable solutions such as cloth handkerchiefs which they connected to Japanese culture through their aizome dying project.
Aizome is the traditional art of indigo dyeing, which uses natural dye derived from the leaves of the Japanese indigo plant, which are harvested, dried, and then composted over several months to create a fermented material called sukumo This sukumo is mixed with natural ingredients like lye (from wood ash), lime, wheat bran, and sometimes sake, to create a living, alkaline dye vat through a controlled fermentation process. When fabric is dipped into the yellowish-green
solution and then exposed to the air, the dye oxidizes, turning the material a rich, distinct blue known as Japan Blue. This ancient, natural dyeing method is prized not just for its deep color and durability, but also for the beneficial properties of the dye, which include being antibacterial, insect-repellent, and UV protective.
Our partners at Myojo Gakuen School Koenkai in Kichijoji are involved in preserving this craft by having its students participate in the full process of aizome, from cultivating and harvesting the indigo plants on the school's grounds to preparing the sukumo and actually dyeing their own items, which serves to teach them about traditional Japanese culture, sustainability, and the local community's agricultural history. Two volunteers from the school, Ichinose-san and Shibuya-san, were invited by the Japan Center to guide our first graders in trying the dyeing process.
Students learned how to create patterns using folding, clipping and knotting techniques on the fabric before it was dyed. The next step was soaking the fabric in water and then wringing it out.
Once students had thoroughly rinsed their fabric, it was hung up to dry and they could see how successfully their designs had turned out.
Matt Wilce follows the senior class to the Osaka Expo as they explore global innovation and culture, ask challenging questions, and discover personal passions and new connections.
Hamburger vending machines, video-phones, holograms and moon rocks — some of the things that captured the imagination of visitors 55 years ago to the world’s fair in Osaka. Expo ’70 was more than just a world’s fair; it was a coming-of-age for a nation that had rebuilt itself at astonishing speed and a symbol of Japan’s aspirations for the future. Tens of millions streamed through corporate pavilions and experimental habitats, riding a wave of curiosity about computers, space travel, and the conveniences of tomorrow. Not only did many ASIJ families attend the event, several alumni worked at Expo ‘70 including John Powles ‘66 who staffed the Canadian Pavillion. For postwar Japan, the Expo crystallized an era of high growth and shared optimism, recasting memories of scarcity into aspirations for design, technology, and global belonging. Half a century later, Osaka is hosting the world again, with this year’s Expo showcasing cutting-edge technology and culture from around the globe. ASIJ’s senior class took the opportunity to explore the site and kick off their own discovery as they began their Deep Learning Seminar II course.
ASIJ’s our Deep Learning Signature Program is a two-year culminating experience for every grade 11 and 12 student. In the first year, students explore how they learn, both individually and collectively, through Harkness seminars, guided inquiries, and collaborative action projects. High school principal Amy Zuber Meehan explains the rationale for the course, saying, “ it was the recognition that content mastery alone no longer prepares graduates to sufficiently thrive. We wanted every student to leave knowing how they learn, understanding their strengths, and having the courage to dive into authentic contexts and know they will be OK.” The capstone year builds on this community foundation, with students designing and managing self-directed individual inquiries in areas of personal interest.
“The Expo is an opportunity for countries around the world to come together and to show where they are bringing inquiry, exploration, innovation into solving issues or concerns that they feel are relevant to their own countries and also to the wider world,” Brendan Sarsfield, one of the Deep Learning Seminar teachers on the trip, comments. “Our class is all about students engaging with something that's meaningful for them, but engaging in a way which is quite deep, that prompts as many questions as they give answers. So the opportunity to go to Expo to see how countries mirror that sort of approach is a really valuable one.”
ASIJ visited the Expo on a day in which attendance was over 220,000. “Being out amongst the masses gave our students a feeling like they were a part of something big. But throughout the trip, it was also the small moments that stood out such as kids tackling that hugely important culinary question: Japanese or western breakfast?” associate principal Andy Jones noted. He was impressed by the myriad ways that kids engaged in the learning process on the trip, even before they arrived at the Expo site. “Students were debating: how do they feel about visiting a site on a manmade island where the main event is within a beautiful wooden structure that cost ¥34 billion to construct? If the Expo focuses on building a better future, how sustainable was the approach to it in the first place?”
Through the work of our Japan Center, ASIJ was lucky to secure access to several pavilions, including those of Germany and the the United States, bypassing the usually long lines to enter. Last year, the Japan Center and Middle School hosted a visit by the Osaka Expo team that included a presentation by Dr. Hiroshi Nishimura, who is in charge of the Expo's Sustainability Initiatives, which paved the way for the opportunities for our seniors to explore at the Expo. “The German Pavilion's focus on the circular economy offered a perfect opportunity for students to engage with a complex, authentic challenge,” Mariko Yokosuka, Japan Center Director, explains. “The experience goes beyond a simple tour; it is a direct application of the Deep Learning program's emphasis on solving real-world problems. By
The Grand Ring, the largest wooden architectural structure in the world was the symbol of Osaka Expo 25.
exploring a pavilion designed as a model of sustainable construction, students can apply their critical thinking skills and see how a community-focused initiative can address a global issue like sustainability.”
Brendan explains the approach taken in Deep Learning Seminar II, saying “we want students to be digging deep in a way that actually opens out their thinking and expands their thinking and allows them to see something they might be passionate about, but from a new perspective or a different perspective. And the German Pavilion, I think, did that. It took one theme. It could have gone just down an ecological route, but it went through a whole range of different approaches.”
The US Pavilion prompted students to think about the way the United States chose to represent itself and how that related to their own identities and opinions, leading to some thought provoking questions and discussions. Just as in 1970, one of the key focuses was space exploration. Steve Sundberg ‘74 recalls that “the big draw for us was seeing the Apollo 11 capsule suspended from the ceiling of the moon crater-shaped US Pavilion,” while Andy Lund ‘81 remembered the moon rock as the big attraction. That same piece of the moon was back in Osaka this year, as part of the culminating part of the exhibition relating to space that also included an impressive rocket launch simulation, it proved to be a highlight for many visitors from school and beyond.
Kai ‘14 and Lee McGuire ’22 outside the US pavillion.
Our guide through the pavilion was Kiara Royer ‘20, who attended ASIJ’s early Learning Center, and we were joined by alumnus Kai McGuire ‘14 who was responsible for protocol and VIP visits to the pavilion. Kai, who previously worked in the Biden administration (see Fall 2023 Ambassador ), was happy to be back in Japan after studying and working in the United States for an extended period. “The presence of alumni at the pavilion was a great demonstration of how students could leverage their network and apply their skills to make meaningful contributions in the future,” Mariko comments.
It was actually Kai’s brother Lee McGuire ‘22 who joined the Expo team first as one of the youth ambassadors hired to work in the pavilion. Lee, who worked at the site through the spring until July, describes the six-month long event as a combination of “the Olympics, a theme park, and the United Nations.” Taking a semester off from his studies at George Washington University where he’s majoring in international affairs, he told us when we spoke to him in the spring that “being able to interact with the US-Japan alliance in a handson way feels super meaningful.” Lee, who comes from a bicultural American and Japanese background, was able to leverage his language skills and personal attachment to the relationship between the two countries to find extra meaning in the role. He told us that the aim of the US Pavilion was to imagine what the two countries could create together and to take visitors on a journey that celebrates exchanges and professional opportunities, innovation, travel and diversity,
and space exploration. Lee also noted that baseball star Shohei Ohtani is heavily featured — something our students were quick to notice.
The final exhibition that students toured as a group was the ammonite-shaped Pasona Natureverse Pavilion, with its focus on cutting-edge Japanese technology which provided students with an inspiring look at how creativity and research can be used to solve real-world problems and witness the host country's innovation firsthand, navigating the complexity and ambiguity of the future. The highlight for most students was seeing the state-of-the-art iPS cell-derived myocardial sheets and tiny iPS heart beating in their tubes of culture liquid.
Students also had the opportunity to explore the pavilions of other countries, sometimes those that connected to a part of their own identity or interest. Andy Jones observed that this prompted “deep conversations where students wondered aloud about visiting pavilions of countries whose values were not aligned with their own. Was visiting this country’s pavilion a show of support for things they didn’t agree with?” Senior Cocoro told us, “I think seeing how different cultures express themselves is really interesting. I think it's important for schools to teach the fact that there are so many different perspectives, and I think deep learning does that really well.”
Fellow student Christina Samson went to Expo with a concept for her Deep Learning project in mind, knowing that she was interested in architecture. “I want to design some
flood resilient type housing for families in the Philippines because that's my hometown. And so I wanted to combine the architecture side and the engineering side and try to do something within that,” she says. “Going into the Expo, I was just really excited to see all sorts of architecture because I think each pavilion was informed by the culture and the architecture of their country—and so I got to witness all of that.” She found the sustainability efforts, the materials that were used, and the structures and shapes inspiring. “The Philippines [Pavillion] was shaped like a basket to incorporate traditional basket weaving techniques. And so I think I'll definitely draw from a lot of those things I saw, like the different types of architecture and I’ll try to weave some cultural aspects into my project, hopefully.”
After a packed day at the Expo, the seniors decamped to the AWL Keihoku retreat center in rural Kyoto Prefecture to reflect on their experiences and bond as a class. Christina tells us it was a great way for the students to connect as a grade, saying, “it was a really rare opportunity for us to all be in the same place at the same time and especially outside of school.” She noted that one of the morning activities where students wrote reflections and then shared them with others during walks in the forest was particularly impactful. “I think that activity really reinforced it for me, because I was in a group with two people I barely knew, and they were just willing to hear my story, and I was willing to hear theirs,” she says. “And so it felt really genuine. And I think that carried a really positive energy into the year.”
On their return to Tokyo, students in the SUPA Creative Nonfiction classes composed short reflections on their experiences during the Expo trip. The following pieces are taken from that collection.
Kabir Mehta
Walking into the India Pavilion at the Osaka Expo felt like stepping into two worlds at once. The entrance, anchored by a quiet Bodhi tree and the glow of lotus patterns, pulled its visitors into something ancient and familiar. But just a few steps later, a scale model of Chandrayaan 3 (the first Indian rocket that made it to the moon), a reminder that India isn’t just carrying history, it’s planning the future.
What struck most wasn’t a single display, but the contrasts living side by side: hand-painted mehendi (henna) patterns near AI demonstrations, temple design courtyards opening into LED ceilings. It felt like a living metaphor for India as a country itself. Layered and misunderstood, sometimes messy, but very much alive.
Even with small flaws, the pavilion left visitors with a sense of pride. Pride that India could present itself not only as a country rooted in tradition but also as an upcomer in science, medicine, and sustainability. The India Pavilion didn’t just showcase the nation’s deep history – it revealed where the country is going and why its people can stand proud of it.
Enter Australia. The breeze hit me, cool and salty, like it was carrying the whole ocean in its arms. It reminded me of the beach, of those endless days spent buried in sand. Chameleon, kangaroo, koala, each one tucked away, hiding like we were playing a game of hide and seek. The more I looked, the harder they were to find. But there was always that little glimmer, the way the breeze would ruffle their fur or feathers, just enough to catch my eye. I snapped a photo to make sure I could remember the moment, to prove I had seen it for real. The kangaroo stood by the water, shaded by a tree, its movements slow like it knew I was watching. The chameleon was almost invisible, blending into the branches, hiding harder than the rest. And the koala, well, it was all curled up in the leaves, like it was part of the tree. It took a second before I realized it wasn’t just the leaves hiding it, but how still it was. If I stepped too far right, I’d end up in the water. Too far left, rocks. I could feel the wind shift again, like it was reminding me this wasn’t just another postcard, this was real. I could almost hear the photos in my phone buzzing to life, the stillness of the animals captured in frames. The sounds around me were calm enough to make me want to sleep right there on the grass. But then I moved through the door into the Australian pavilion. And just like that, I was hit with the opposite. Music blasting, tables stacked high with food, people everywhere, moving, shouting, laughing. The air felt heavy with heat and food smells. All around me, the pulse of the crowd was so different from the quiet breeze. But maybe that was the point, everything that had come before was setting me up for this, for a place where everything was turned up to the max.
flickering to the beat. It’s base was a vibrant red color that gradually changed to orange, followed by yellow as the flames traveled to the top and flew away in sparks. Some of it’s sparks would land on us, but it didn’t hurt. As harmful, vicious, and uncontrollable fire has the power to be, it’s sparks flew towards us as if it was simply trying to get to know you.
Many of us were standing around the fire either roasting the marshmallows on skewers that were just long enough to feel the heat, taking pictures, talking to friends, or everything all at once. The pictures don’t do a justice. The moment felt too sacred to post them, but they still didn’t capture it all. It wasn’t only the fire.
I’m surrounded by people I see nearly everyday, and yet have never talked to. It’s a strange ‘I know you, and you know me, but we don’t know each other.’ It’s even stranger to think that by next year, I probably won’t see most of these people ever again. Where am I going to go? Where will my friends be? Will they still be my friends?
No, focus on the fire.
As the night grew, we gave the fire more space to dance, and slowly moved further away from it. My friends and I sat on a set of rocky uneven stairs that were cold to the touch, and if it wasn’t for the fire we wouldn’t have been able to see it. We sat there for what was probably only an hour, but I like to stretch the moment out in my head. We sat there,
stretch out this time for as long as possible. I would tell you what exactly we talked about if it didn’t feel so sacred, but I also wouldn't know how.
This is what is feels like to be in the moment.
We just sat there, with the occasional interruptions of teachers coming to take photos, or someone actually needing to use the stairs. To our right, was the only thing still fully litthe main house. It looked like something out of a painting. You could see into the house through the windows and make out the furniture, tables, and see other people in there. Some were sleeping, while others eating. In front and to the left were all trees and hills: one to the girls cabin, and another to the boys. Thanks to the fire, we were still able to find our paths.
By the fire stood some of my other classmates and the creator of the fire. He stood there admiring his creation watching it sway with the wind and he seemed so proud. He took care of it by feeding it more wood or giving back the wood that it dropped around the side, patiently taking care and followings it’s rhythm. The fire could have stayed up dancing all night into the day, but as curfew creeped closer, we all had to retire, including the fire.
Matt Wilce talks to digital artist Chad Roen ‘96 about building worlds for film and game platforms and his debut as a children’s author.
For Chad Roen ‘96, a two-decade veteran of Hollywood’s visual effects (VFX) industry, the world is now less about the meticulously rendered "final frame" that makes it into a movie and more about the dynamic, real-time experience. Chad, whose résumé includes blockbusters like Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Oscar winner for Best Visual Effects The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), and a highly coveted Visual Effects Society Award nomination, made the career-defining jump from cinema to the cutting edge of interactive digital worlds.
Chad now works with Epic Games, the studio behind the global phenomenon Fortnite and the powerful Unreal Engine. His role is to push the boundaries of real-time 3D environments, blending the visual fidelity of Hollywood with the interactivity of gaming. His current focus is particularly high-profile: helping build immersive digital worlds for Disney following their $1.5 billion investment into the gaming company, a project that promises to change how audiences interact with beloved intellectual property forever. At the announcement of the deal, Robert A. Iger, Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company, commented that, “this marks Disney’s biggest entry ever into the world of games and offers significant opportunities for growth and expansion. We can’t wait for fans to experience the Disney stories and worlds they love in groundbreaking new ways.” Chad’s involvement in the project marks the latest evolution in a creative career rooted in his unique experience at The American School in Japan.
Chad’s path to the digital frontier started, perhaps unexpectedly, in Tokyo. He arrived at ASIJ in the eighth grade, a significant life change driven by his parents—his father David Roen (FF ‘91-’00, P ‘96) who taught fifth grade and his mother Sheila Roen (FF ‘91-’03, P ‘96) who taught middle school language arts—who took their first and only overseas teaching contract.
The move was initially met with resistance from the middle schooler. “Initially, I was reluctant to move... nervous and scared, angry. I had all the feelings that you'd expect when the parents of a 13-year-old tell them ‘you're about to leave everything behind,’” Chad recalls. He was leaving behind the familiar comforts of the United States for a foreign culture and a brand-new school—something many in the ASIJ community can no doubt relate to. Those feelings quickly evaporated thanks to the welcoming environment where feeling "out of place" was the norm, not the exception. “The sense of community they had at ASIJ, the feeling that everybody's kind of from somewhere else or a little bit out of place, made it just a great place to land,” he explains.
This shared experience made adapting easy and allowed Chad to discover his passions. He embraced the full high school experience, finding a balance between academics and extracurricular life. He played football—something he notes he probably would never have tried back in Los Angeles—performed in several school plays, and enjoyed the freedom that came with navigating the Chofu area and
Chad with Ki Nimori (FF ‘60-02, P ‘83, ’84), the art teacher who inspired him.
the surrounding city. But it was within the walls of the art studio that Chad found a pivotal outlet and the inspiration that would shape his later career, particularly the influence of his art teachers, Ki Nimori (FF ‘60-02, P ‘83, ’84) and Greg Vikse (FF ‘90-15).
“Without question, Ki Nimori is very high on the list, if not top of the list,” Chad says when asked who had an impact on him in high school. Emphasizing the profound impact Ki had on his artistic worldview, Chad notes that his philosophy was to cultivate potential rather than police style. “He met every student artistically where they were... when I came in, it wasn't just acceptable that you were good. It was, okay, what do we do to make you better? How do we encourage that?”
A real turning point came when Ki, known for his "old school" training and expertise in traditional media like drawing and sculpting, began experimenting with the era's new digital tools. Chad walked into the art room one day to find his teacher hunched over a computer, exploring early graphic design and digital art programs.
“I was like, ‘What are you doing?’” Chad says. “That stuck with me for a long time... to see him just sort of be like, ‘Okay, but this is what’s happening now.’ It really sort of broadened my outlook as to what art could be and how we express ourselves.” This moment cemented the idea that an artist must always be willing to adapt and embrace emerging technology.
While art was always a core passion, Chad had initially dismissed it as a viable career path, heading off to the University of California Davis campus with his major undeclared, thinking that finding success and a regular paycheck in a
creative career might be a challenge. It wasn’t until he saw Luc Besson’s visually groundbreaking film The Fifth Element (1997) that Chad had the light bulb moment that working in the digital arts could be an option. “I saw that and I immediately had the realization: hundreds of people made this beautiful, creative, exciting, dynamic movie, and there's tons of visual effects, and that's their job. I want that job,” he says.
Vocalizing this ambition led to a pivotal internship at Digital Domain, the very effects house responsible for The Fifth Element ’s iconic visuals. His first visible work was far from a galaxy-spanning sci-fi epic; it was on a Missy Elliot music video, creating a bizarre but memorable shot where she seemingly swallows a Matchbox Lamborghini.
That seemingly small entry point launched a highly successful 20-year career in VFX, working on titles for nearly every major studio that included Night at The Museum (2006), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007), and Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). As a modeler, Chad was a digital architect, responsible for building the complex 3D assets that would eventually become characters, spaceships, or entire cities on screen. While his work led to career highs, including his time contributing to the massive Marvel cinematic universe with films like Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Ant-Man (2015) the nature of the work—executing a director’s vision on tight deadlines—meant personal creative freedom was often sidelined.
In 2020, Chad took his deep technical and artistic skills to the rapidly expanding gaming sector, moving to Epic Games. The move represented a fundamental change in philosophy. In cinema, the work is finalized and fixed; in real-time engines like Unreal, the environment is dynamic, constantly responsive,
Chad was nominated for a Visual Effects Society award for his work on the Nidavellir Forge in Avengers: Infinity War.
and persistent. Chad is now responsible for pushing the boundary of what these engines can achieve in terms of visual fidelity and interactive scale, especially as they relate to building enduring, explorable digital environments for major intellectual property holders, such as the Disney brands Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, and Avatar.
This innovative work also requires navigating the inevitable shift toward generative AI. Chad, however, is unfazed by the advent of these new tools, seeing them as simply the next step in the creative lineage that began in Ki Nimori’s classroom.
"The mentality of visual effects is always building tools to make the artist's life easier," he notes. "AI is one more thing that makes it that much easier to be creative." Instead of fearing job displacement, he views AI as a powerful accelerant, allowing artists to bypass tedious, repetitive tasks and jump straight to high-level concepting and execution. For a world builder, this means unprecedented speed in creating digital assets.
Despite the high-stakes, technologically advanced nature of his work at Epic, Chad realized he still craved a project purely driven by his own imagination—a chance to be the sole author of the final result. “My own creative expression was very seldom part of the final result,” he explains of his movie work, where his job was to perfectly realize a director’s specific vision. This desire for creative expression led him to a deeply personal project: a children’s book. Inspired by the simple, joyful act of reading to his daughter, Raya, he wrote and created the imagery for Mr. Crow's Babblezoo: Terrific Tongue Twisting Tall Tales (www.babblezoobook.com). Combining his artistic abilities with the linguistic precision inherited from his English teacher mother, he created something that
Chad and his daughter Raya show off his book Mr Crow's Babblezoo
is silly, engaging, and subtly educational, weaving in clever vocabulary words for young readers to seek out. Chad also credits two classmates, Erica Yamada ‘96 and Kevin Aschman ‘96, in helping bring his vision to reality. Erica, who is a speech pathologist, has used Babblezoo with her students and provided Chad with invaluable feedback, while Kevin helped Chad build a business plan to move Babblezoo and Mr. Crow Books forward.
For current ASIJ students considering careers in gaming, visual effects, or any future-facing digital field, Chad’s advice is simple and direct, echoing the lessons learned watching Ki Nimori embrace a new computer: “Don’t wait to create.”
He stresses that the gatekeepers of the past are gone. The accessibility of tools now—YouTube tutorials, free software versions, and AI generators—makes formal schooling less of an "absolute" prerequisite for entry than creative output. “If you're talented and you work hard and you create things, that is enough to impress people in my industry,” he affirms. The goal for young creators should be to develop a portfolio that speaks for itself, constantly generating content and showcasing a mastery of the modern creative toolkit.
Ultimately, Chad connects his dynamic career back to the community that fostered his ambition and encouraged his artistic independence. When asked what our school means to him, he took a beat to think before answering: "ASIJ is the place that made me who I am."
Isabella Rogovin speaks with Soren Johannessen ’01 about his career as a wardrobe technician with the Royal Danish Ballet, his time at ASIJ, and his thoughts on belonging within a transient community.
As a former ballet student myself and lover of the craft, it is always a joy to talk to someone with whom you have a shared language. This experience is often mirrored when I observe ASIJ alumni speak to each other. Whether it's the love/hate relationship dance-world people have for The Nutcracker or the taste of ASIJ’s ginger chicken and the smell of the high school gym, the shared experience of having gone through something so specific creates a type of bond that is lasting and impactful no matter where one lands after ASIJ.
While Soren’s creative journey did not start or end in Japan, the four years that he spent at ASIJ had a significant impact on who he became and how he views the concept of community: “I felt at home at ASIJ; and starting this job, especially with the ballet, you really get this feeling of this community—that sort of community within a community because you have this closed world.” Soren treasures his time in Japan, and now living in Denmark, knows how special his community is because, “the feeling[s, at ASIJ and in ballet, are] kind of the same: that you enjoy it while it lasts because... you never know how long it's going to be there.”
Soren left ASIJ after his sophomore year of high school and finished high school in Denmark. He did two years of design school, completed a brief stint as a library worker, and then found The Royal Danish Theatre, where he says he “found my job calling because working at a theater, especially with ballet, where there are a lot of dancers from all over the world, it seemed very much like a continuation of going to ASIJ. So it sort of feels quite natural.” The Royal Danish Theatre has drama, opera, and ballet, as well as one of the oldest opera chorus orchestras in the world, dating back to 1448. Soren works in the costume department, one of the oldest departments in the theater. He started with drama, spent eight years with the opera, and has now been with the ballet for the last ten years, emphasizing, “that is where I belong.”
At ASIJ, Soren worked on the high school plays and musicals producing costumes. He credits faculty member Chris Kaltenbach (FF’97-’02) for getting him involved. At that time, the theater would often rent costumes. He remembers for the show The Wiz, “some of them really didn’t work,” so he and the team invented costumes with whatever they could find in the basement of the theater, “and that was sort of the start
of it,” explaining how his passion started. The theater wing’s set-up isn’t quite the same today; the costume closet Soren remembers now houses props and some set pieces. Fellow theater kids might remember that the basement costume and dressing rooms used to be accessed via a spiral staircase in the back of the workshop next to the stage.
Soren’s love of ballet and supporting the production through the organization and care of the costumes is apparent and magical to witness as he lights up describing his daily processes. The costumes are often the final touch of what makes the story come to life and it is an honor to speak with someone who takes such ministrations of his work.
Day to day, Soren doesn’t regularly sew or wash costumes, but every day is a puzzle and a race against the clock to get it all ready for the show every night. Each day he receives the “green list” which tells the team who is on for the show and then they have about an hour to locate the specific pieces sized to different dancers, and do any last touches to ensure everything is ready to go for morning rehearsal. And every night he gets to watch his work create magic on stage. "That's the great thing, you have this product. At the end of the day, there are 1,200 people sitting, watching, and you give them that. So it's a really giving job...it brings a lot of people a lot of joy,” he describes.
One of the incredible things about working with The Royal Danish Ballet is the sheer number of shows they put on every year. Last year, the company did over 100 shows of 10 major productions. Each production has different costume needs and each show, depending on casting, may have different
leads. “The old ones are more fun…sometimes people think that modern costumes are easier, but often they’re more difficult. They look like nothing. But having something look like nothing is actually really difficult,” Soren explains. For every show of colorful tights and leotards, there is one with gloves, boots, and swords. At the start of this season, the company did an old fashioned show by August Bournonville, a 19th century choreographer who founded the Danish ballet style, which is all about fast footwork and a calm upper body, famously seen in La Sylphide, one of the world’s oldest ballets. The costumes for the show were inspired by 17th century Baroque paintings. Soren quips that they were, “very heavy. I mean, not good for dancing, but really beautiful costumes.”
For those who love ballet like Soren and I, you know that, “it's a living art form,” as Soren says, and every show brings something new to be dazzled by. The company is currently performing Swan Lake and Soren fondly remarks, “it's never the same show, even though you’ve seen it 50 times.”
Soren loves going to both the ballet and the opera, and travels around the world to see as many as he can, “collect[ing] opera houses.” He believes that living abroad led him to this career, saying, “I think it's very important that when you live abroad and travel, finding your home where you are—finding a place you fit—is important.” When one’s community is spread across that world, that experience creates a different kind of closeness that is unique to the international school experience.
“Some friends of ours all live in this one little village in Denmark [they have for] generations, and they think, ‘how
The Royal Danish Ballet produces about 100 shows annually.
can you be a family when you live in different countries?’ But we're together in a different way.” The ability to feel together even while distanced, Soren continues, is “why it feels so natural to be at the theater because it's sort of the same. Being together, there is like an expiration date. You don't know when it is, but you know it's going to expire. So you're together more intensely and that makes you more open [to connecting].”
He felt this same impermanence at ASIJ. As an international, transient community, you never know how long your friends, classmates, and teachers will be there, forcing you to enjoy the moment as it is. Soren describes his time at ASIJ as a melting pot, where "everybody comes with different countries, different backgrounds. You have a common thread and it’s kind of the same in a ballet company. You have dancers from all over the world, different backgrounds, different ages.”
He thoughtfully continued, “I think about all the school buses in the morning on the expressway, going to this place. It’s like that when you go through the stage door: you go into this different world where everybody’s together…it just feels really natural.”
Isabella Rogovin spoke with Olivia Lee ’25, recipient of the tenth annual Strength and Courage Award for overcoming personal challenges and her work with Enough is Enough and Students Advocating for Gender Equality.
This past May saw Olivia Lee ’25 receive the tenth annual Strength and Courage Award during the High School’s award presentation. The award comes with a million yen contribution to the recipient's higher education costs and is presented annually to an ASIJ senior who can demonstrate specific and significant applications of the ASIJ core values of Character, Courage, and Compassion. Olivia demonstrated extraordinary courage in facing personal challenges with strength and grace. “Olivia reminds us all that doing the right thing can oftentimes be the most difficult choice to make,” commented
ASIJ’s Safeguarding Coordinator Emily Hopwood. As part of Olivia’s healing, she turned to advocacy and took on key leadership roles in the high school clubs Enough is Enough and SAGE (Students Advocating for Gender Equality). While reflecting on what it means to her to win the Strength and Courage Award, Olivia said, “it acknowledges my journey, but also, all the people who made Enough is Enough possible. It was me and so many other peers along the way. And also everyone who was strong enough to share their story. It wasn’t just my story. It validates everyone’s stories.”
Students are nominated for the Strength and Courage Award by faculty, counselors, administrators, and their peers. These candidates are then invited to submit a personal statement and letter of recommendation describing the ways in which strength and courage played a role in their lives, and in a project or initiative they led. Submissions are reviewed by the Safeguarding Advisory Committee composed of students, counselors, administrators, parents, and members of the Board of Directors, and the committee also interviews the nominees. Emily praised Olivia’s work on campus saying, “She has been instrumental in continuing [Enough is Enough’s] mission to raise awareness about sexual harassment in our community. Her work has created space for difficult but necessary conversations and has helped make ASIJ a more compassionate, informed, and inclusive place.”
Olivia joined the student-led Enough is Enough initiative during its inaugural year in 2023. The purpose of the club is to spark change in how the community approaches sexual assault. The group brings awareness to “the small stuff” in addition to larger incidents. “It is not something you really talk about on a daily basis, but it’s also something we notice is constantly happening around us,” she explained. Enough is Enough is trying to change the culture that as a society, Olivia reflected, “we kind of let pass by because it is so normalized…but this shouldn’t be normalized.”
In 2023, Enough is Enough collected anonymous stories from high school students and compiled them into a video. Olivia remembered, “[the video] shifted something in everyone's minds…the video was very heavy but it did spark a lot of conversation. And for me, I noticed a bunch of people just stopped making jokes in the hallways. The impact was right away.”
Over the next two years the club evolved to work with advisories, the regularly scheduled meetings between gradelevel groups and a teacher advisor to provide academic, social emotional, and future-planning mentorship, to create lesson plans to continue to educate the community. Enough is Enough advisory lessons have included scenario practice and sharing tools to handle difficult social situations.
In the 2024-25 school year, Olivia led a video with a different approach. While the club’s first video focused on stories, this year’s highlighted statistics. The group gathered data from the student body population with questions like “have you ever been catcalled?” The survey brought to light the alarming frequency of these incidents. This restarted the conversation of sexual assault and harassment and Olivia noted that, while “people could be uncomfortable talking about it, they also were engaged.” Sharing data from the community demonstrated how these situations are present in students’ lives and not just something seen online. Enough is Enough is about starting these uncomfortable conversations and making a safer community.
Enough is Enough continues to recruit members who genuinely care and want to discuss what they notice on campus. The club gives students the space to speak honestly. During the group meetings, engaged members are excited to garner change. They discuss what is going well on campus, what could be improved, and how to best approach the students and community.
Olivia is also a member of SAGE, a long-time ASIJ club that she joined because “it felt safe and inviting.” The club partners with the Asian University for Women to raise scholarship money for women who might otherwise not be able to afford college tuition. The students get to see the impact of their work when they meet the scholarship winners.
Olivia reminds students to, “always turn to your friends and teachers.” She credited her friends for making her the person she is today. She laughed at herself while remembering that if someone had told the grade-nine version of her to go and talk to a teacher, she would have said no! But through her journey, Olivia realized that everyone on campus is “genuinely there for you.” She now knows that “there is always someone to talk to here at ASIJ…it is a really inclusive community.”
Olivia is now attending the University of California, Berkeley, and looks forward to joining similar initiatives and also making an impact on that campus.
I give because I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend ASIJ, and I think my teachers were excellent. Mr. Bryant was a dynamic person; enthusiastic, friendly and positive. Even before I took a class with Mr. Bryant, he made an impact on me. One day, Mr. Bryant noticed that I was walking down the hall with my head down. When he saw this, he simply encouraged me. I think about that moment with Mr. Bryant to this day.
I took US History and Japan Seminar with Mr. Gallagher. His classes were tough but also fun and interesting. Mr. Gallagher was humorous and approachable. He encouraged his students to take an interest in current events and to read all of the sections in the newspaper. For me, that meant reading something other than the articles in the sports section."
—Jerry Livingston '81
This is our son's sixth year at ASIJ, and over these years, we have witnessed his remarkable growth — from a little kindergartener into a confident fifth grader who is thriving academically, athletically, and socially. None of this would have been possible without the dedication and support of the teachers and staff, for which we are truly thankful. It is precisely because of this positive experience that our family has chosen to contribute to ASIJ each year for the past six years. Looking ahead, we are excited for our son to continue receiving such an excellent education and to keep growing in the years to come."
— Jiangfeng and Ting Wang P’33
In Grade 2, students explore the concept of sustainability, focusing on recycling and responsible consumption in their two interdisciplinary units, "Waste Warriors: Our Mission to Recycle," and "Responsible Consumers: Discovering Our Role and Impact." To enrich this learning experience, last year’s second-graders participated in the Japanese tradition of washi paper-making led by local artisan Moena Kubo. After learning about this centuries-old practice, students engaged fully in the process, from preparing materials to forming sheets of paper.
Hands-on experiences like this support learning and creativity, and exploring Japanese culture helps students to learn more about ASIJ’s home country’s heritage. By engaging with local traditions like washimaking, students not only gain an appreciation for the cultural roots of the country they live in but also strengthen their own sense of belonging within the wider Japanese community. They can then use that cultural window to understand more about their own culture and identity, recognizing the unique mosaic of their own backgrounds while feeling grounded in their current home in Japan.
The American School in Japan is formed as a gakko hojin (incorporated educational institution) under Japan’s Private School Law, and is a non-profit, tax-exempt entity. The School’s primary governance documents are its Act of Endowment and Bylaws, which establish a multi-tiered governance structure involving a Board of Directors, a Board of Trustees, and two independent Statutory Auditors.
Every year, ASIJ community members directly impact ASIJ’s ability to provide an exceptional education through donations. Gifts made to ASIJ in US dollar and Japanese yen are tax deductible.
You can choose how to direct your 2025-26 ASIJ Annual Fund gift:
• Greatest Needs: Meet the moment and support immediate priorities to make a difference where it is needed most.
• Beyond the Classroom: Support enriching co-curricular opportunities in the arts, Japanese culture, and athletics.
• A Legacy of Academic Excellence: Empower exceptional teaching and inspire students to be prepared to thrive and lead in a dynamic world.
• Student Success: ASIJ is where every student is known, valued, and cared for; your gift helps to nurture programs that build belonging.
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Matthew Hassan & Mari Ojima
Toru & Miwako Hayasaka
Andrew & Mika Hershon
Ernie ‘70 & Aya Higa
Mats & Hiroe Holjo
Kimberly Hsia
Jason Hyland & Andrijana Cvetkovikj
Yasutaka & Kanako Inoue
Riei & Kaoru Ishizeki
Hiroyuki & Harumi Kamano
Stephen & Kaori Kampa
Yasuyuki & Aya Kanda
Johannes & Lisa Kaps
Minsu Kim & Yoonha Lee
Terumi & Takashi Kobayashi
Partha & Lia Kumar
Elad & Saori Lachovitzki
Benjamin & Aki Lang
Kevin & Stephanie Lee
Hailin Li & Yan Dai
Nan Li & Ye (Emily) Bai
Sam Ma & Veronica Quan
Aki Matz Matsudaira
Chad Miller & Cathy Kitahara
Kristen & Richard Miller ‘97
Jim Muir & Miwa Kanai
Noriko Murai & Bill Yeskel
Kensuke & Maiko Murashima
Norihiko & Keiko Namba
Tetsuya ‘94 & Kiyoko Nishimi
Stephen & Karen O’Neill
Noriyuki & Naho Ogawa
Jisa Oh
Hikaru & Yoshiko Okada
Marcus & Kazuko Okuno
Robert Oshima ‘68
Catherine Piez ‘82 & Mark Whatford
Kathy Pike
Albert & Kara Piscopo
John & Shoko Possman
Alan Roth & Blair Perilman
David Sancho Shimizu & Risako Shima
Joseph Schmelzeis ‘80 & Yuko Mizutori Schmelzeis
Susan & Theo Seltzer
Shunsuke & Saeka Suzuki
Andrey Svininnikov & Yasuko Svininnikova
Max Taffel ‘04 & Allen Yang
Yoshiro & Rie Takahashi
Yuriko Takahashi Anton ‘84 & Philip Anton
Jay & Yuki Talbot
Kiyotaka Tanaka & Shiho Watabe
Nakao Tawara
Robin ‘67 & Ludd Trozpek
Hironobu & Maki Tsujiguchi
Ko & Misato Umeno
Daniel Wichert & Tomi Osawa
Bill & Akane Wiswell
Wengang Wu & Mingzhu Jiang
Simon Xiao & Lesley Wang
Satoshi & Erina Yamagata
Paul & Afifah Yamasaki
Jack Yan & Natsuko Moriyama
Ayako Yashiro
Mustangs League
¥100,000–¥199,999
Anonymous (6)
Rei & Rumi Aiba
Maki Ando ‘90 & Chadly Boujellabia
Yasu & Izumi Ashikawa
Lisa Bastick ‘82
Jamie Becchetti & Kyoko Okada
Selim Benba & Deniz Aygun Benba
Brian & Ayako Bender
Miyuki Benning
Jason & Nagisa Block
David Boatwright ‘73
Kristian & Miki Bradshaw
James & Ali Buford
Ian Burkheimer & Yoko Inaba
Alan Cannon & Fuyumi Kitakado
Marc Chapman ‘95 & Yoshiko Matsuhisa
Changyu Chen & Ai Nakao
Stephen & Candice Chen
Katie & Doug Chuchro
Julie ‘73 & John Clough
Magnus Damm
Roxana Daver & Peter Massion
Jeff & Deanne Dornoff
Hiroaki & Nao Ehira
Andra ‘83 & John Ehrenkranz
Daniel ‘92 & Erin Fillion
Dave ‘89 & Anne Fruehling
Kenta & Noriko Fujii
Yuka & Daisuke Fujiwara
Taro & Keiko Fukuzaki
Yoshiko Furukawa-Lee &
Michael Lee
Nilay Gami & Monika Sharma-Gami
Eric & Ayako Golden
Kozo & Jitsuko Hanada
John ‘94 & Ellie Hanawa
Eiji Hayakawa & Paula Tashima
Michie Hisada
Hiroaki Hishida & Kyungmi Kim
Ken & Yuriko Imai
Yoh & Anna Imoto
Katsuo & Asami Inoue
Victor Ishikawa Katagiri & Kaori Ishikawa
Makoto Iyobe & Claire Chen
Osamu & Mami Kagawa
Jun & Akane Kaneko
Rika & David Jun Kasamatsu
Tadashi & Mena Kato
So & Haruko Kikuya
Jon & Sachiko Kindred
Mike King & Makiko Nishimura
Michael Kinstle & Teruko Iida-Kinstle
Hideki Kinuhata & Vicki Chen
Eita & Miyuki Kitani
Manami & Masatoshi Kobayashi
Shuhei & Sayako Koga
Junji & Aya Koike
Preeti & Vivek Kothari
Fred ‘67 & Naomi Kurata
Hiroshi Li & Sherry Sun
Dick ‘65 & Gemma Lury
Nasir & Chie Majid
Katsuhiko & Sachiko Mano
Buddy ‘85 & Hitomi Marini
Nina Marini ‘88
Yuhka Mera ‘81
Michael & Jennifer Min
Hiroshi & Junko Miyashita
Frederick ‘83 & Kendra Morgenstern
Nykkol Mozee Okabe ‘02
Ikutaro & Mika Nakajima
Amane & Chizuru Nakashima
Kozo & Minako Nakatani
Tetsu ‘84 & Ayumi Nakayama
Brian ‘85 & Aileen Nelson
David & Tina Nishida ‘85
Bill Novy & Thi Huong Giang Le
Ryuzo ‘99 & Tomoko Ogawa
Aisa Ogoshi & Sam Baillie
David Okamoto ‘86 &
Ferne Martin
Arthur & Kaya Ozeki
John & Mimi Plum
Shuangliu Qi & Shasha Shi
Farida Rahman ‘68
Kay Richardson ‘76 & JS Wynant
Yutaka & Kyoko Sano
Junichi & Rachel Zhang Sato
Matthew ‘87 & Jennifer Sclafani
Ichiran Seki & Iris Wu
Robert Sharp ‘87 & Ann Trinca
Kotoe ‘03 & Tomohiro Shirakawa
Gary Smith & Amy Jeng
Billy So
Yoshitaka & Mizuki Sugihara
Shoko Suto
Linda Suzukawa-Tseng ‘72
Yuko Takada
Hal & Tomoko Takahashi
Hiro & Yuka Takeda
Sayo & Eiji Takizawa
Rick ‘67 & Catherine Tanaka
Michel ‘98 & Chie Tarna
Ted & Lia Tawara
Sayumi Terao ‘07 &
Hiroshi Horikoshi
Lara Tilley-Bouez ‘01
Kei Toki & Jie Cao
Carol Tsuchida
Ikushin Tsuchida & Elaine Yang
Sally Turner ‘66
Tom & Sachiko Ueki
Jianfeng & Ting Wang
Andrew ‘63 & Katherine Wardlaw
Richard Watanabe & Deni Cheng
Neil & Andi Weingarten
Anne ‘63 & T. Wayne Weld-Martin
Dave Wilson ‘71
Bob & Mary Gene Woods
Di Wu & Lu Jin
Melanie Xu ‘15
Yasuyo Yamada
An Yan & Grace Hu
Masato ‘98 & Mariko Yokosuka
Charles Zhang & Shirley Shen
Tomodachi
¥50,000–¥99,999
Anonymous (3)
Rusty ‘76 & Lori Anderson
Jeffrey & Miwa Annis
Matthew & Nagako Aoyagi
Yumi Araki ‘06
Matt ‘90 & Amie Barry
Jim ‘68 & Patty Bartlett ‘69
Dan & Ruth Bender
Michael & Noriko Benner
Kenichiro Bernier ‘19
Yeongnam Chae & Yunji Jeong
Luyi Chen & Ruby Xu
Richard Chuang & Stephanie Hong
Peter & Pam Cooper
Ozgur & Ozge Demirkol
Taiichi Doi & Fanglin Ho
Robert & Hitomi Early
Jonathan & Liu Epstein
Gonzalo Esparza Pedroza & Martha Esparza Gaucin
Tamara Fou ‘14
Julius & Momo Goldsmith
Samuel Gordon & Tomoko Katayama Gordon
Fumiko Goto
Michael ‘89 & Yuki Green
Frank ‘65 & Ann Guillot
Wayne Guo & Rachel Zhong
David & Michiko Hamaty
Gary Hansjergen ‘65
Jim & Marti Hardin
Ian Ho & Sandra Wong
Keiko & Masayuki Ishido
Yu & Yoshino Ishihara
Narumi & Yuki Ito
Taeko & Katsuhiro Ito
Tetsuya & Sofia Kaneko
Ryotaro & Junko Kato
Jun & Noriko Kawahara
Keiji & Yuiko Kawamoto
Jungin & Yunjoo Kim
Toshiki & Masayo Kitao
Takashi & Toshiyo Kobayashi
Kei Kuwahara ‘09
Marc & Heidi L’Heureux
Nick & Holly Lane
David ‘86 & Kaori Lee
Karen & Robert List
Hideyuki & Marina Liu
Sonia Livdahl ‘04 & Daniel Song
Jerry ‘81 & Bonnie Livingston
Aaron & Chiho Lloyd
Hiroko Lockheimer
Akira & Yuko Makita
Mary Margaret Mallat & David Deck
Paul ‘72 & Amy Manierre
Lee Marsden ‘68
Bill ‘63 & Betsy Martino
Toyokazu & Naomi Matsumoto
Kevin & Nobuko McNeeley
NingNing Minamisawa
Toshizumi & Junko Mizuno
Eelco Modderman & Emily Hengeveld
Chris & Kumiko Moores
Ryosuke & Rie Morii
Paul ‘74 & Susan Nagata
Greg Nakamatsu ‘86
Naoya & Hitomi Nakamura
Eiko Narita ‘94
Reiko Niimi ‘75
Emi Nishikawa
Hideo & Kazuko Niwa
Mori Nixon & EunYoung Choi
Yusuke & Junko Oba
Tak ‘96 & Satomi Okamoto
Cami Okubo & Roger Gula
Mark ‘78 & Rebecca Oline
Roy Prieb & Miho Walsh
Kelley Rahn ‘09
Stephen ‘64 & Kimiyo Rice
Alberto Rinon & Kyoko Matsushita
Eric Ristow
Davide & Haruna Rossi
Tokuya ‘89 & Maiko Sano
Lynn ‘73 & John Savarese
Richard & Cynthia Schlichting
David & Masako Semaya
Fumiko Shiobara & Hideyuki Hiramoto
Nick & Yumiko Silver
Kris Sisneros & Tomoko Sisneros (Yasutake)
Alan & Emi Sorba
Darren & Sally Spencer
Nathan Sult ‘75 & Beth Tarter
David & Aude Sun
Erimitsu & Tamami Suzuki
Mark & Grace Swaine
Yoshiyuki & Mayu Takanashi
Kyoko & Roy Takano
Wakana Tanaka
Toyoko Tasaki ‘86 & Kenichi Katayama
Ryan Timms & Aya Yamaura-Timms
Kosaku & Yurifa Tsuchida
Tugrul & Ezgi Tufan
Yun Wang & Jill Quinh
Shinsuke & Kanako Watanabe
Chuck ‘79 & Debbie Whitehead
Tom & Misty Whitson
Gene & Janet Witt
Takeshi & Marina Yamaguchi
Toru & Chihiro Yamaguchi
Shingo & Ann Yamanaka
Atsushi & Akari Yamashita
Yuichiro & Miki Yamazaki
Jenni Yoshida ‘91
Jessica Zhang & Changming Zhao
Yanning Zhou & Jie Kong
Amy Zuber Meehan &
Phil Meehan
Albert Kobayashi
Geoff Smith
Barb Kurtz (Hester)
Joanna Nicol (Strother)
Meredith Potter (Woods)
Nancy Eills (Brewer)
Ted Matsumoto
Leon Fattal
Stirling Rasmussen
Will McCoy
Jeannette Nielsen (Elsener)
Dave Bergt
Andrew Haines
Bonnie Harris (Bongard)
Beth Sapala (Danker)
Kei Zehr (Uramatsu)
Fred Meyer
Jill Cheng (Tsui)
Bill Martino
Louise Meller
David Perry
Andrew Wardlaw
Anne Weld-Martin
Stephen Rice
Frank Guillot
Gary Hansjergen
Nancy Kurahashi (Nagase)
Dick Lury
Mary Meyer
Daniel Marsh
Sally Turner (Noll)
Virginia Kerr
Fred Kurata
Julia Lockwood
Mary Muro Yokokawa
Rick Tanaka
Robin Trozpek (Weeks)
Jim Bartlett
Lucia Buchanan Pierce
Glenn Colville
Lee Marsden
Toni Mullen (Dyktor)
Robert Oshima
Farida Rahman
Tal Vivian
Patty Bartlett (Van Wyk)
Rick Cohen
Suzi Neff
Yo Usui
Ellen Gadsby
Ernie Higa
Debbie Huskins
Mary Katayama (Sung)
Jan Blizzard (Schaale)
Kathy Holloway
Steve Johnson
Craig Moore
Jim Sanoden
Terry Shorrock
Steve Weiss
Dave Wilson
Karin Flynn (Jagel)
Mark Francischetti
Ann Gleason
Paul Manierre
Bruce Morgen
Brad Rainoff
Sandy Schriever
Linda Suzukawa-Tseng ’73
David Boatwright
Julie Clough (Van Wyk)
John Greer
Connie Kleinjans
Jody Kroehler Magnuson
Brian Moody
Carolyn Moss
Lynn Savarese (Ashby)
Karen Smith (Frost)
Tory Thomas
Paul Nagata
A-Lan Reynolds (Von Hornlein)
Erik Jagel
Jon Kidder
Reiko Niimi
Susan Snook (Kistler)
Nathan Sult
Ernie Wakamatsu
Rusty Anderson
Judy Boatwright Stewart
Andy Feldman
Liz Horwitz (Yanagihara)
Paul Kidder
Miriam Rich
Kay Richardson
Sally Schaffer
Andy Honaman
Mitzi Kuroda
Roy Ryu
Mark Oline
Tara Smith
Norman Stephens
Chuck Whitehead
Tom Cavanaugh
Ivar Eimon
Joseph Schmelzeis
Will Walsh
Jeff Ewing
Mary Harada (Che)
Joel Hinz
Jerry Livingston
Andy Lund
Yuhka Mera
Michitaka Soga
Bob Walsh ’82
Lisa Bastick
Catherine Piez ’83
Sue Duke
Andra Ehrenkranz (Bowman)
Lungwen Kang
Joe Krisher
Fred Morgenstern
’84
’85
Caspar Appeldoorn
Tetsu Nakayama
Yuriko Takahashi Anton
Susie Brennan (Burks)
Erin Callanan
Buddy Marini
Brian Nelson
Tina Nishida (Yamano)
Sandra Orton-Tweed ’86
Ethan Berkove
Deanna Elstrom (Ciarlante)
Susan Gehrig (Brooks)
David Lee
Greg Nakamatsu
David Okamoto
Michael Slovin
Toyoko Tasaki ’87
Kari Kohl (Wilkinson)
Mike Sanders
Matthew Sclafani
Robert Sharp ’88
’89
Minako Abe
Peter Durfee
Nina Marini
David Morgenstern
Chris Munson
Barbara Wakat
Daniel DiCicco
Dave Fruehling
Michael Green
Tokuya Sano
Brett Sparrgrove
Maki Ando
Matt Barry
Heather Curnut
Bapi Ghosh
Ako Krisher (Inatomi)
Yasu Nakayoshi
Andy Ogawa
Jinly Zee
Patrick Kaser
Gaylynn Nakamatsu
Jason Wolf
Jenni Yoshida
Daniel Fillion
Chris Harvey
Allison Christopher (Babb)
Matt Clark
Lalaka Fukuma (Ogawa)
Mayumi Nakayama
Michael Corcoran
Katherine Greig
John Hanawa
Kate Holland (Franke)
Jeffrey Huo
Eiko Narita
Tetsuya Nishimi
Marc Chapman
Genji Jacobs
Anonymous
Eugene Huo
Tak Okamoto
Emilie Ewart (Fisher)
Richard Miller
Pamela Pontius
James Jones
Shinobu Morohoshi
Tetsuji Okamoto
Michel Tarna
Masato Yokosuka
Reina Boaz
Ryuzo Ogawa
Andrew Joslyn
Kaz Kawaguchi
Ryan Kearney
Akane Robinson (Wada)
Jon Sack
Sarah Thomas-Polak
Lara Tilley-Bouez
Matt Woods
Anna Delia (Tuttle)
Shino Kido
Nykkol Mozee Okabe
Kelly O’Brien
Brent Keese
Mariko Ohno
Kotoe Shirakawa
Sean Sloan
Paul Yamasaki
Ryan Butz
Casey Christianson
Sonia Livdahl
Jason Mothersill
Erika Sloan
Max Taffel
Shuji Wakutsu
Yumi Araki
Tai Dirkse
Michael Thornton
Rie Uchida
Calvin Yong
Noriko Hashimoto (Nakao)
Jaclyn Keese
Patrick O’Hearn
Yayori Takano
Sayumi Terao
Kohei Wakutsu
Laura Conwill
Will Bender
Kei Kuwahara
David Lintvelt
Kelley Rahn
Misato Suzuki
Ashley Teslik
David Forster
Justin Marut
Mimi Takano
Alexander Heideman
Julie Keese
Rei Morikawa
Takuya Wakayama
Erica Nakayama Cooper
Tamara Fou
Melanie Xu
Kenichiro Bernier
Emma Rekate
Benning
Taiga Lewis
Aaryan Kumar
Jan ‘71 & Craig Blizzard
David Boatwright ‘73
Rick Cohen ‘69 & Barbara Topper-Cohen
Andrew ‘60 & Lisa Haines
Andy ‘81 & Denise Lund
Carolyn Moss ‘73 & Daniel Hawkins
Joanna Nicol ‘52
Jeannette Nielsen ‘59
Margaret & Henry Pietraszek
Sally Schaffer ‘76
Peter & Pam Cooper
Leon ‘57 & Suzanne Fattal
Patty Floch & Ken Bruzek
Mark Francischetti ‘72
Jeffrey Huo ‘94
Larry James
Pamela Jones-Morton, PhD
Paul ‘76 & Terry Kidder
Albert ‘42 & Betty Kobayashi
Jody Kroehler Magnuson ‘73 & Clark Magnuson
Jerry ‘81 & Bonnie Livingston
Dick ‘65 & Gemma Lury
Will ‘59 & Lynne McCoy
Yuhka Mera ‘81
Mary Meyer ‘65
John & Mimi Plum
Thierry Porté
Mike ‘87 & Jun Sanders
Mid & Carol Squier
Jeffrey Tunis
Bob Walsh ‘81
Lucia Buchanan Pierce ‘68
Alan Cannon & Fuyumi Kitakado
Tom & Cheryle Coopat
Sue Duke ‘83
Emilie ‘97 & Jake Ewart
Esther Harte
Eugene Huo ‘96
Mitzi Kuroda ‘77 & Stephen Elledge
Frederick ‘83 & Kendra Morgenstern
David & Tina Nishida ‘85
Richard & Fran Snell
Max Taffel ‘04 & Allen Yang
Sally Turner ‘66
Matt Wilce & Sho Suzuki
Anonymous
Ethan ‘86 & Kyra Berkove
Jeff & Seiko Bernier
Glenn ‘68 & Dianne Colville
Daniel ‘89 & Yuko DiCicco
Andra ‘83 & John Ehrenkranz
Jonathan & Liu Epstein
Katherine Greig ‘94
Andy ‘77 & Katy Honaman
Liz ‘76 & Barry Horwitz
Eiji & Hiromi Imai
Hiroyuki & Harumi Kamano
Bill ‘63 & Betsy Martino
Louise Meller ‘63 & Jay Lukowski
Eli & Chizu Mendoza
Scott & Mary Miller
Toshizumi & Junko Mizuno
David Morgenstern ‘88
Amane & Chizuru Nakashima
Hiroko Nishikawa Fu & Ming-Xia Fu
Tetsuya ‘94 & Kiyoko Nishimi
Catherine Piez ‘82 & Mark Whatford
Lenore Reese & Joshua Isenberg
Miriam Rich ‘76
Richard & Cynthia Schlichting
Joseph Schmelzeis ‘80 & Yuko Mizutori Schmelzeis
Susan & Theo Seltzer
David & Masako Semaya
Nathan Sult ‘75 & Beth Tarter
Kunio & Eriko Tahara
Yuko Takada
Polly Phillips Vasché & Burt Vasché
Alejo & Lusan Yao
Jinly Zee ‘90 & Kazuya Tsujita
One new fund was established within the endowment in 2024-25:
MARE Fund | for Japanese language and culture programming
Mariko and Hiro Nakamura
We appreciate and recognize the donors who made gifts in 2024-25 to the below funds:
The Equinox Fund
Peter Lee and Ann Tang
General Endowment
Robin ’67 and Ludd Trozpek
Strength and Courage Fund
Gaylynn Nakamatsu ’91
Zee Family Fund
Jinly Zee ’90 and Kazuya Tsujita
Anonymous (3)
Tricia Apel
Warren Apel
Rieko Armstrong
Katrina Baker
Peter Baker
Meena Beardsley
Miyuki Benning
Maka Black Elk
Sanne Bloemarts
Sayako Bryson
Sean Bryson
Ryan Butz ‘04
Barb Callaghan
Amy Carey
Ryan Carey
Christy Carrillo
Milan Claudio
Polly Cline
Shayne Cokerdem
Diane Cokerdem-DePriest
Raquel Constenla
Rigel Crockett
Anne Cunningham
Pip Curtis
Lennie Davis
Tamera Davis
Tai Dirkse ‘06
Carmen Dolman
Casey Doumitt
Ivar Eimon ‘80
Cory Evans-Klock
Bart Fabianowicz
Kate Fabianowicz
Andy Faulk
Laura Faulk
Emily Fichardt
Hardi Fichardt
Misael Fisico
Meagan Frazier
Yoshiko Furukawa-Lee
Jessica Ganet
David Gardner
Pia Gardner
Bapi Ghosh ‘90
Miwa Ghosh
Kiranmayi Gorantla
Kathy Gruzynski
Caroline Haddad
Jim Hardin
Jeff Harrison
Manon Harrison
Nick Heidt
Naoko Hirasawa
Chris Hopper
Taeko Ito
Catherine Iwata
Ken Iwata
Laurel Janewicz
Andy Jones
Paloma Julian
Koji Kadotani
Erin Kahle
Saori Kakihara
Christy Kaneko
Iku Kano
Aileen Kanoh
Catherine Kim
Mary Koizumi
Ako Krisher ‘90
Leah Kuykendall
Matt Kuykendall
Heidi L’Heureux
Marc L’Heureux
Meenakshi Lahad
Tracie Landry
Kathleen Lewis-Workman
Johnson Lin
Karen List
Leah Llamzon
Craig Macek
Debby Macek
Annie Markovich
Natalia Martinez
Justin Marut ‘10
Ai McShane
Phil Meehan
Shinobu Morohoshi ‘98
Carl Murray
Jilene Murray
Ikuko Nakayoshi
Yasu Nakayoshi ‘90
Becky Naughton
Ryan Naughton
Anjali Nirmalan
Craig Noon
Yumi Noon
Bill Novy
Mariko Ohno ‘03
Cami Okubo
Sayaka Osabe
Tanya Pachter
Zoë Paraskevopoulos
Nami Pettit
Josh Raub
Jamie Richard
Damaris Rivera
Jon Sack ‘00
Leila Sakagawa
Jared Sell
Joy Sell
Todd Sessoms
Mihoko Shimada
Leah Shy
Kate Sikora
Minako Sugiya
Sarah Sutter
Ryosuke Suzuki
Kyoko Takano
Mimi Takano ‘10
Yue Takigayama
Nicola Takizawa
Andy Thiel
Tia Thiel
Jeff Torchon
Nikki Torchon
Ali Trainor
Ty Trainor
Koshiro Tsuji
Miho Vargo
Srilalitha Venkatesh Prasad
Marc Vermeire
Suzanna Voigt
Amy Vriend
Pete Vriend
Kyoko Wakutsu
Russell Walsh
Matt Wilce
Scott Wilcox
Sheila Wilcox
Cory Willey
Dee Willey
Frazer Wilson
Min Wu
Bronwyn Yamasaki
Mariko Yokosuka
Amy Zuber Meehan
Dan Bender
Ruth Bender
Pam Cooper
Peter Cooper
Clee Edgar †
Jenn Eng
Patty Floch
Dan Gogerty
Lana Gogerty
Marti Hardin
Joe Hoffman
Susan Huber
Pamela Jones-Morton, PhD
Miranda Liu
Claire Lonergan
Mary Margaret Mallat
Margaret Pietraszek
Carol Prewitt
Dave Prewitt
Josh Reckord
Nancy Reckord
Fran Snell
Richard Snell
Carol Squier
Mid Squier
Polly Phillips Vasché
Deborah Vermeire
Randy Wanless
Gene Witt
Janet Witt
Mary Gene Woods
Anonymous (16)
Minako Abe ‘88 & Michael Shelton
Jeff & Akiko Acton
Shigeki & Noriko Adachi
Jordi Agud Ruiz & Raquel Vila Viñas
Akshay & Shuchandrima Ahuja
Rei & Rumi Aiba
Jeffrey & Miwa Annis
Matthew & Nagako Aoyagi
Takashi & Haruka Arikai
Rieko & Ryan Armstrong
Giovanny & Rie Arroba
Yasu & Izumi Ashikawa
David Asikin & Ayumi Chikamoto
Avi & Tal Baingold
Peter & Katrina Baker
Andrew & KT Barous
Jack Basaly & Regy Makary
Sean & Madeleine Batson
Meena & Steve Beardsley
Jamie Becchetti & Kyoko Okada
Selim Benba & Deniz Aygun Benba
Brian & Ayako Bender
Michael & Noriko Benner
Taro & Sayoko Bhasin
Rachel Bibee & Uriah Cooper
Michael & Keiko Bidinger
Jason & Nagisa Block
Sanne Bloemarts & Pieter Terpstra
Christopher & Miki Bonsi
Kristian & Miki Bradshaw
Denis Bregeon & Karine Desperques
Rick & Ayumi Brown
Sayako & Robin Bryson
Pascal Buckley & Stephanie Waugh
James & Ali Buford
Ian Burkheimer & Yoko Inaba
Dale & Megumi Caldwell
Barb Callaghan & Evan Resnick
Christy Carrillo & Tim Littlefield
Jerry & Kiyoko Carter
Kieron Cashell & Kotoha Haga
Yeongnam Chae & Yunji Jeong
Jack Chang & Cindy Zhong
Cram & Anya Chavali
Changyu Chen & Ai Nakao
Charles Chen & Samantha Cao
Luyi Chen & Ruby Xu
Stephen & Candice Chen
Eunjo Chon & Kyung Eun Jang
Richard Chuang & Stephanie Hong
Katie & Doug Chuchro
Archie & Yoko Ciganer Albeniz
Simon Clancy & Yuki Hikage
Shayne Cokerdem &
Diane Cokerdem-DePriest
Justin & April Cook
Eduardo Costa & Susana Murteira
Rigel Crockett & Ariel Janzen
Magnus Damm
Basil & Chieko Dan
Lennie & Tamera Davis
Ozgur & Ozge Demirkol
Daniel ‘89 & Yuko DiCicco
Taiichi Doi & Fanglin Ho
Mark & Miwako Drabkin
Russell & Tiffany Duncan
Peter ‘88 & Megumi Durfee
Robert & Hitomi Early
Masato & Yoshiko Edo
Hiroaki & Nao Ehira
Sariel Engel & Olla Honigman
Jonathan & Liu Epstein
Gonzalo Esparza Pedroza &
Martha Esparza Gaucin
Kate & Bart Fabianowicz
Laura & Andy Faulk
Hardi & Emily Fichardt
Jim & Mika Fink
Michael & Kayoko Foley
Eric Frost & Erica Finsness
John Fu & Ai Ito
Kenta & Noriko Fujii
Manabu & Aki Fujita
Fuyuki & Tomoko Fujiwara
Yuka & Daisuke Fujiwara
Lalaka ‘93 & Jin Fukuma
Daisuke & Naomi Fukumoto
Taro & Keiko Fukuzaki
Tak & Natsumi Furukawa
Yoshiko Furukawa-Lee & Michael Lee
Jeff & Miki Galvin
Nilay Gami & Monika Sharma-Gami
David & Pia Gardner
Taka & Aiko Go
Renaud Gocsei & Aya Higashio
Eric & Ayako Golden
Julius & Momo Goldsmith
Carlos Alejandro Gonzalez Gonzalez
& Alicia Andrea Murrieta Fernandez
Tristan & Brad Goodrich
Samuel Gordon &
Tomoko Katayama Gordon
Fumiko Goto
Natsuki & Aika Goto
Seth Graham & Akemi Suzuki
Thomas & June Grant
Michael ‘89 & Yuki Green
Eddie & Chi Guillemette
Wayne Guo & Rachel Zhong
Corey & Yasuko Gustin
Caroline & Scott Haddad
David & Michiko Hamaty
John ‘94 & Ellie Hanawa
Mami Handa
Kenjiro & Ryoko Harada
Masatomo & Tomoko Harigaya
Jeff & Manon Harrison
Noriko ‘07 & Akinori Hashimoto
Matthew Hassan & Mari Ojima
Keiji & Mayumi Hattori
Dustin Havenar & Inna Caron
Eiji Hayakawa & Paula Tashima
Toru & Miwako Hayasaka
Andrew & Mika Hershon
Akihito & Tomoko Hirasawa
Naoko & Taku Hirasawa
Michie Hisada
Hiroaki Hishida & Kyungmi Kim
Ian Ho & Sandra Wong
Mats & Hiroe Holjo
Shinichiro & Suzuko Hori
Eiji & Hiromi Imai
Ken & Yuriko Imai
Yoh & Anna Imoto
Yasutaka & Kanako Inoue
Yuko & Hisashi Inoue
Atsuko & Yuichiro Ishibashi
Keiko & Masayuki Ishido
Victor Ishikawa Katagiri & Kaori Ishikawa
Riei & Kaoru Ishizeki
Narumi & Yuki Ito
Taeko & Katsuhiro Ito
Ken & Catherine Iwata
Makoto Iyobe & Claire Chen
Takuzo & Hanako Izawa
Andy Jones & Erin Kahle
Osamu & Mami Kagawa
Saori Kakihara & Yongjin Chang
Stephen & Kaori Kampa
Yasuyuki & Aya Kanda
Jun & Akane Kaneko
Tetsuya & Sofia Kaneko
Youjong Kang & Haejin Kwon
Johannes & Lisa Kaps
Reo & Ai Kasai
Rika & David Jun Kasamatsu
Ryotaro & Junko Kato
Tadashi & Mena Kato
Kirk & Sharmaine Kauffman
Kaz ‘00 & Maki Kawaguchi
Jun & Noriko Kawahara
Keiji & Yuiko Kawamoto
Koji & Ai Kikura
So & Haruko Kikuya
Catherine & Mark Kim
Eungjin Jeremiah Kim & Hyungha Gweon
Jungin & Yunjoo Kim
Minsu Kim & Yoonha Lee
Mike King & Makiko Nishimura
Michael Kinstle & Teruko Iida-Kinstle
Hideki Kinuhata & Vicki Chen
Mai Kitamura
Eita & Miyuki Kitani
Toshiki & Masayo Kitao
Manami & Masatoshi Kobayashi
Norio Kobayashi & Margaret Yu
Takashi & Toshiyo Kobayashi
Terumi & Takashi Kobayashi
Shuhei & Sayako Koga
Taka & Yoko Kohata
Junji & Aya Koike
Taro & Reiko Kondo
Preeti & Vivek Kothari
Wei Ku & Mina Utsuki
Matt & Leah Kuykendall
Elad & Saori Lachovitzki
Steve & Yuriko Lai
Benjamin & Aki Lang
Phi & Masumi Le
David ‘86 & Kaori Lee
Kevin & Stephanie Lee
Peter Lee & Ann Tang
Rian Heungsil & Soojean Lee
Jerry Levin & Minako Sakurai
Hailin Li & Yan Dai
Hiroshi Li & Sherry Sun
Nan Li & Ye (Emily) Bai
Zhibin Li & Yanqi Wang
Hideyuki & Marina Liu
Aaron & Chiho Lloyd
Sam Ma & Veronica Quan
Akira & Yuko Makita
Katsuhiko & Sachiko Mano
Buddy ‘85 & Hitomi Marini
Aki Matz Matsudaira
Akira & Yumi Matsuya
Enrique Mazon & Suheir Nasereddin
Ronald & Shontrease McKinley
Kevin & Nobuko McNeeley
Ai & Rory McShane
Nancy & David Michels
Chad Miller & Cathy Kitahara
Kristen & Richard Miller ‘97
Michael & Jennifer Min
NingNing Minamisawa
Ayanori & Miriam Mitsui
Hiroshi & Junko Miyashita
Tomoya & Megumi Mizogami
Shinichi & Ayaka Mizuta
Eelco Modderman & Emily Hengeveld
Chris & Kumiko Moores
Ryosuke & Rie Morii
Ricardo Morisco Tasca & Mariana Bechara Tasca
Hiroki & Yukina Morita
Jim Muir & Miwa Kanai
Yumiko Murakami & Todd Moses
Kensuke & Maiko Murashima
Yo & Nozomi Nagami
Ikutaro & Mika Nakajima
Maki & Dai Nakamura
Mariko & Hiro Nakamura
Naoya & Hitomi Nakamura
Akinori & Mariko Nakano
Kozo & Minako Nakatani
Tetsu ‘84 & Ayumi Nakayama
Yasu ‘90 & Ikuko Nakayoshi
Norihiko & Keiko Namba
James & Stacey Nation
Shogo & Yuki Nishida
Mori Nixon & EunYoung Choi
Craig & Yumi Noon
Bill Novy & Thi Huong Giang Le
Stephen & Karen O’Neill
Yusuke & Junko Oba
Masato & Akari Ochi
Noriyuki & Naho Ogawa
Ryuzo ‘99 & Tomoko Ogawa
Aisa Ogoshi & Sam Baillie
Jisa Oh
Mariko Ohno ‘03
Hikaru & Yoshiko Okada
Junichi & Aoi Okada
Tetsuji ‘98 & Eri Okamoto
Cami Okubo & Roger Gula
Nao & Rie Okuda
Kirk & Agnes Ouellette
Arthur & Kaya Ozeki
Tanya & Ben Pachter
Paul Pang & Ellie Huang
Chiman Park & Alice Seo
Chris Park & Chloe Cha
Mark Park & Jung Hwang
Petar & Bojana Petreski
Nami & Isaac Pettit
Albert & Kara Piscopo
Shane & Nao Predeek
Roy Prieb & Miho Walsh
Shuangliu Qi & Shasha Shi
Josh Raub & Mihoko Shimada
Lenore Reese & Joshua Isenberg
Ken & Debbie Reilly
Alberto Rinon & Kyoko Matsushita
Davide & Haruna Rossi
Alan Roth & Blair Perilman
JP & Anna Said Pullicino
Leila & Kenichi Sakagawa
Hiko & Yoko Sakamoto
David Sancho Shimizu & Risako Shima
Kenjiro & Keiko Sano
Junichi & Rachel Zhang Sato
Jeff & Ikuko Schrepfer
Ichiran Seki & Iris Wu
Heather & Shuhei Sekiguchi
Todd Sessoms & Jessica Ganet
Fumiko Shiobara & Hideyuki Hiramoto
Keita Shiotani
Leah Shy & Frazer Wilson
Kris Sisneros & Tomoko Sisneros(Yasutake)
Charles & Emi Smith
Gary Smith & Amy Jeng
Billy So
Hisaya & Kinuko Sobajima
Chris & Leslie Sobotka
Alan & Emi Sorba
Darren & Sally Spencer
Jonathan & Amanda Stradling
Yoshitaka & Mizuki Sugihara
David & Aude Sun
Tao Sun & Ying Dong
Shoko Suto
Erimitsu & Tamami Suzuki
Kenichi & Akira Suzuki
Ryosuke & Sara Suzuki
Shunsuke & Saeka Suzuki
Andrey Svininnikov & Yasuko Svininnikova
Mark & Grace Swaine
Kunio & Eriko Tahara
Fumiko Tajima
Keiichi & Yuko Tajima
Hal & Tomoko Takahashi
Tomomichi & Yoko Takahashi
Yoshiro & Rie Takahashi
Yoshiyuki & Mayu Takanashi
Hiro & Yuka Takeda
Yue & Hiroaki Takigayama
Hiroyuki & Yukari Takizawa
Sayo & Eiji Takizawa
Kiyotaka Tanaka & Shiho Watabe
Wakana Tanaka
Hideto & Ayaka Tanihara
Michel ‘98 & Chie Tarna
Toyoko Tasaki ‘86 & Kenichi Katayama
Ted & Lia Tawara
Sayumi Terao ‘07 & Hiroshi Horikoshi
Andy & Tia Thiel
Philippe Thirouard & Akiko Kikuchi
Ryan Timms & Aya Yamaura-Timms
Kei Toki & Jie Cao
Jeff & Nikki Torchon
Ty & Ali Trainor
Shoji & Junko Tsuboyama
Carol Tsuchida
Ikushin Tsuchida & Elaine Yang
Kosaku & Yurifa Tsuchida
Hironobu & Maki Tsujiguchi
Tugrul & Ezgi Tufan
Maiko Uda Hasumi & Teppei Hasumi
Tom & Sachiko Ueki
Hajime & Junko Ueno
Ko & Misato Umeno
Miho & Keith Vargo
Marc & Deborah Vermeire
Pete & Amy Vriend
CJ Wang & Lina Bair
Duan Wang & Chelsea Shi
Jianfeng & Ting Wang
Yun Wang & Jill Quinh
Richard Watanabe & Deni Cheng
Shinsuke & Kanako Watanabe
Hai Wei & Nicole Wang
Neil & Andi Weingarten
Daniel Wichert & Tomi Osawa
Scott & Sheila Wilcox
Cory & Dee Willey
John & Fumie Winebarger
Bill & Akane Wiswell
Robert Wray & Takako Morishima
Roger & Toshimi Wright
Wengang Wu & Mingzhu Jiang
Simon Xiao & Lesley Wang
Satoshi & Erina Yamagata
Takeshi & Marina Yamaguchi
Toru & Chihiro Yamaguchi
Yumi Yamaguchi
Shingo & Ann Yamanaka
Atsushi & Akari Yamashita
Yuichiro & Miki Yamazaki
An Yan & Grace Hu
Jack Yan & Natsuko Moriyama
Frank Yang & Lina Chen
Ayako Yashiro
Chris Yeh & Shino Torigoe-Yeh
Masato ‘98 & Mariko Yokosuka
Akira & Fumie Yorisue
Tatsuo & Miho Yoshikawa
Yoshi & Nancy Yoshitsugu
Pedro & Gypsy Zacharias
Jinly Zee ‘90 & Kazuya Tsujita
Charles Zhang & Shirley Shen
Frank Zhang & Susan Huang
Jessica Zhang & Changming Zhao
Liangping Zhang & Yuki Fu
Yanning Zhou & Jie Kong
Amy Zuber Meehan & Phil Meehan
Anonymous (6)
Jordi Agud Ruiz & Raquel Vila Viñas
Jeffrey & Miwa Annis
Matthew & Nagako Aoyagi
Rieko & Ryan Armstrong
Avi & Tal Baingold
Sue Barber
Jim & Sue Barrett
Jim ‘68 & Patty ‘69 Bartlett
Jack Basaly & Regy Makary
Dan & Ruth Bender
Michael & Noriko Benner
Miyuki Benning
Jeff & Seiko Bernier
Jan ‘71 & Craig Blizzard
Christopher & Miki Bonsi
Denis Bregeon & Karine Desperques
Susie ‘85 & Sean Brennan
Catlan & John Brinsley
Ian Burkheimer & Yoko Inaba
Dale & Megumi Caldwell
Alan Cannon & Fuyumi Kitakado
Amy & Ryan Carey
Christy Carrillo & Tim Littlefield
Marc Chapman ‘95 & Yoshiko Matsuhisa
Eunjo Chon & Kyung Eun Jang
Shayne Cokerdem & Diane Cokerdem-DePriest
Andrew & Chitose Conrad
Justin & April Cook
Tom & Cheryle Coopat
Peter & Pam Cooper
Jeannette Cosby
Roxana Daver & Peter Massion
Daniel ‘89 & Yuko DiCicco
Jeff & Deanne Dornoff
Bryan & Christa Douglass
Eric & Misa Edmunds
Deanna ‘86 & Peter Elstrom
Jonathan & Liu Epstein
Gonzalo Esparza Pedroza & Martha Esparza Gaucin
Daniel ‘92 & Erin Fillion
Jim & Mika Fink
Richard & Stephanie Folsom
Manabu & Aki Fujita
Bapi ‘90 & Miwa Ghosh
Dan & Lana Gogerty
Kiranmayi & Ramana Gorantla
Eddie & Chi Guillemette
Corey & Yasuko Gustin
Caroline & Scott Haddad
Esther Harte
Matthew Hassan & Mari Ojima
Beatrice & Kenneth Hermann
Ernie ‘70 & Aya Higa
Akihito & Tomoko Hirasawa
Michie Hisada
Ian Ho & Sandra Wong
Mats & Hiroe Holjo
Susan Huber
Jason Hyland & Andrijana Cvetkovikj
Katsuo & Asami Inoue
Atsuko & Yuichiro Ishibashi
Yu & Yoshino Ishihara
Francisco & Kyoko Izawa
Genji ‘95 & Moko Jacobs
Larry James
Jay & Adrianne Johnson
Saori Kakihara & Yongjin Chang
Stephen & Kaori Kampa
Mary ‘70 & Shohachi Katayama
Jack & Pamela Keese
Jon & Sachiko Kindred
Taka & Yoko Kohata
Taro & Reiko Kondo
Partha & Lia Kumar
Marc & Heidi L’Heureux
Meenakshi & Samir Lahad
Nick & Holly Lane
The Latner Family
Morgan Laughlin & Rumiko Sato-Laughlin
Phi & Masumi Le
Eun & Angela Lee
Kathleen & Steve Lewis-Workman
Leah & Larry Llamzon
Hiroko Lockheimer
Dimitri Lorenzon & Laura Huizi
Craig & Debby Macek
Nasir & Chie Majid
Mary Margaret Mallat & David Deck
Toyokazu & Naomi Matsumoto
Eli & Chizu Mendoza
Nancy & David Michels
Scott & Mary Miller
Masashi & Kayo Mizobuchi
Toshizumi & Junko Mizuno
Frederick ‘83 & Kendra Morgenstern
Noriko Murai & Bill Yeskel
Yumiko Murakami & Todd Moses
Amane & Chizuru Nakashima
Mayumi Nakayama ‘93
Yasu ‘90 & Ikuko Nakayoshi
James & Stacey Nation
Brian ‘85 & Aileen Nelson
Kirk & Mariko Neureiter
David & Tina Nishida ‘85
Emi Nishikawa
Hiroko Nishikawa Fu & Ming-Xia Fu
Hideo & Kazuko Niwa
Stephen & Karen O’Neill
Marcus & Kazuko Okuno
Kirk & Agnes Ouellette
Arthur & Kaya Ozeki
Chiman Park & Alice Seo
Margaret & Henry Pietraszek
Kathy Pike
Albert & Kara Piscopo
John & Mimi Plum
Thierry Porté
John & Shoko Possman
Dave & Carol Prewitt
Josh & Nancy Reckord
Lenore Reese & Joshua Isenberg
Ken & Debbie Reilly
Damaris Rivera & John Fahy
Yutaka & Kyoko Sano
Richard & Cynthia Schlichting
Jeff & Ikuko Schrepfer
Susan & Theo Seltzer
David & Masako Semaya
Saori & Tom Silecchia
Nick & Yumiko Silver
Ronald & Toshiko Slattery
Charles & Emi Smith
Richard & Fran Snell
Hisaya & Kinuko Sobajima
Darren & Sally Spencer
Marco Spola & Elena Fangazio
Mid & Carol Squier
Susan Sullivan
Linda Suzukawa-Tseng ‘72
Yuko Takada
Kyoko & Roy Takano
Nicola & Takao Takizawa
Jay & Yuki Talbot
Hiroshi & Michiyo Tanimoto
Andy & Tia Thiel
Stephanie & Jon-Paul Toppino
Jeffrey Tunis
Hajime & Junko Ueno
Yo ‘69 & Mariko Usui
Srilalitha Venkatesh Prasad & Venkatesh Prasad Sharma
Marc & Deborah Vermeire
Kurt & Sayaka Wagner
Ernie ‘75 & Yuko Wakamatsu
Kyoko & Hiroshi Wakutsu
Linda Wardell
Tom & Misty Whitson
Albert & Ineke Wierman
Scott & Sheila Wilcox
John & Fumie Winebarger
Gene & Janet Witt
Bob & Mary Gene Woods
Paul & Afifah Yamasaki
Alejo & Lusan Yao
Pedro & Gypsy Zacharias
ASIJ Faculty and Staff
Toru & Miwako Hayasaka
Kris Sisneros & Tomoko Sisneros (Yasutake)
Amy Carey and Barb Callaghan
Kozo & Minako Nakatani
Christy Carrillo and the ELC Team
Yoshiro & Rie Takahashi
Ray ’50 † and Vicki Downs
Jill ‘63 and Hung Cheng
Heidi L’Heureux and Miwa Ghosh
Natsuki & Aika Goto
Yoko and Yoshisada Narita
Eiko Narita ’94
Kyoko Takano
Kei Kuwahara ’09
Gifts were made to ASIJ in memory of
Leslie Crandall
Jill ‘63 and Hung Cheng
Bill Jacobsson
Jerry ’81 & Bonnie Livingston
John Hsia ‘57
Kimberly Hsia
George Wright and Marian Dobbs
Roger & Toshimi Wright
Gloria Gellai
Jon & Sachiko Kindred
Nakao Tawara
Yasuyo Yamada
Anonymous (3)
Kimberly Hsia
Hiroyuki & Harumi Kamano
Eric Ristow
Kenneth Rosenbaum
CHANEL G.K.
Coca-Cola (Japan) Co., Ltd.
Dave ’89 & Anne Fruehling
Jim & Marti Hardin
Masato & Akari Ochi
Irene Anderson ‘74 & James Somes
Dave ‘60 & Jeannine Bergt
Frederick Cohen ‘69
Peter & Pam Cooper
Thurman Dennis †
Ray Downs ‘50 †
Vicky Downs
Bruce Forgrieve ‘77
Kenneth Glazier ‘67 †
Mary Harada ‘81
Frederick Harris †
Robert Haven †
Ann Hesselink ‘71
Abigail Hoffsommer 1927 †
Walter Hoffsommer 1929 †
James Huddle ‘70
Pamela Jones-Morton, PhD
Alcon Labs Japan
Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd.
Google Cloud Japan
Google GK
Google Japan
Indeed Japan
Microsoft
Netflix
Salesforce
T Rowe Price Japan KK
Julia Ludlow-Ortner ‘72 & Robert Ortner
Dick Muhl
Kerry & Lynn Nichols
David Nicodemus 1933 †
David Proctor
Hideko Shibata ‘66
Ronald Snyder †
John Sullivan †
Carl Sundberg ‘77
Chizu Suzuki ‘64
George Ting ‘64
Robin ‘67 & Ludd Trozpek
Jeffrey Tunis
Brent Ware ‘74
† deceased
Entrance to the Chofu campus circa 1964.
Zelda Edmunds ‘05 explores Third Culture Kid identity and how the shared experiences alumni have across generations make ASIJ feel like their emotional homeland.
It was one of the first cool mornings after a demandingly hot summer. I made my way to the front of the high school building, which generations of ASIJ students have walked past for decades on their way into another school day. A group of 1970s alumni were gathered there, speaking with Eric F Niles, ASIJ’s new Head of School. For some of these alumni, this is the first time they'd seen campus since they graduated over fifty years ago. Attention to the conversations being had was mingled with glances around at the spaces, familiar yet bigger and newer. The flag poles before us were flying the same four flags that they had for decades: the United States, Japan, the United Nations, and ASIJ.
Walking through the high school building entrance past the intersection of hallways, one of the alumni asked, “Didn't the book lockers used to be here?” Peering into the library, another reflected on how different it looks today, with what I expect was a tinge of relief that it was still in the same location. And the historic ASIJ gate, standing proudly in the courtyard, prompted the question: “Was it always there?” The familiar sense of the past tangled together with the present as they lingered in memory.
The ASIJ gate holds significant symbolism for our school and for students past and present. It not only survived the school shut-down of the 1940s during World War II, but the gate made the transition from the downtown Meguro campus to the promising suburbs of Chofu in 1963. It’s a symbol not only of entry and access, but of heritage, adaptability, and resilience. It remains positioned as a dependable frame between worlds. It's no surprise that visiting alumni almost always make their way to the gate when they arrive on campus. It’s a physical manifestation of the experience of traversing place and time.
When I looked through my lens to take the photo, in front of my camera were not my elders, but younger versions of themselves smiling and laughing together as they waved small ASIJ flags, and chanted together, “Once a Mustang, always a Mustang!”
When I inquired what it was about ASIJ that led to them still connecting with each other today, half a century after they graduated, Paul Kidder ‘76 answered, “It really is kind of a shared experience. Anybody that went to ASIJ, you already kind of know what they went through. And there's
Paul Nagata ’74 and Lisa DeYoung Jastram ’74 at their 50th Reunion in San Francisco.
a really good chance when I meet somebody who went to ASIJ that we're going to get along pretty well, because you can be fairly assured they’re going to have a lot of the same shared values.”
Paul, who started at ASIJ in Grade 2—just three years into the campus move to Chofu—went on to say, “[ASIJ] started as home. So there was never anything to compare it to. But I can tell you that the culture here, frankly, was magical. Some of the most interesting people I met in my life, I met here.”
As an alumna who began in early elementary school myself, I can appreciate the expression that ASIJ started as home. Many of my oldest memories are from ASIJ spaces. I was surprised then when I asked what ASIJ meant to them, that the alumna in the group who had spent just three years at ASIJ Marcia (Reynolds) Skall ‘75, responded with tears starting to form, “ASIJ was transformational for me. I came here and my eyes were opened by the quality of the teachers, meeting different people, having different experiences, and I just became a different person. I became much more worldly. And that has stayed with me and really has helped me become who I am today.”
This year, as our advancement team looks more closely at what ASIJ connections have meant for alumni and what the sentiment of belonging feels like across the generations of our community, we decided to check back in with an alumna who has been thinking about these themes for the better part of a century, Lisa DeYoung Jastram ‘74. In 2004 Jastram wrote a piece in The Ambassador titled “Going Home,” in
Lisa DeYoung Jastram ’74 with Patricia Lynn Harbour ’74 at their Nashiville Reunion which she wrote about in 2004.
which she reflects on the experience of reconnecting with other alumni at reunions: “For those of us who grew up as Third Culture Kids, going to our high school reunions is really about going home. Home to people who understand our unique background. Home to people who knew us in our formative years when we came of age. Home to a place where we are instantly accepted into the family.”
The concept of home can feel complicated for many students and alumni, particularly those who grow up as what has become known as Third Culture Kids. Coined in the 1950s by Ruth and John Useem, sociologists living in India with their children, the term was originally used to describe children, particularly those from western societies living outside of their country of nationality. It has since expanded to include anyone living outside of their parents’ home cultures, nationalities, or customs and traditions.
Being a Third Culture Kid often means carrying a quiet sense of in-betweenness, and for some a feeling of being an outsider no matter where you are. In her book, Growing up in Transit: The Politics of Belonging at an International School, Danau Tanu brings attention to the impact of feeling recognized within the language we use. "The term ‘Third Culture Kid’ can act as a powerful narrative tool to help those with a transnational upbringing locate an emotional homeland," she wrote. Since 1902, ASIJ has strived to create such a space where the connected feeling of an emotional homeland can live through the experience and expression of students, even when it’s difficult to feel it in the world beyond.
Lisa is a living example of this. Now over fifty years after she graduated from ASIJ, not only does she moderate the 1970s
Facebook page with over 800 members, but she’s hosted multiple reunions, visited with alumni across the United States and the world, and opened her house to ASIJ community members more times than she can count. When I asked her how she would reflect on the sentiment she shared over two decades ago about ASIJ reunions, she said, “The word I like to use is furusato,” using the Japanese term for your family's hometown. “It's deeper than just a homecoming. Furusato is more. It's where you go. It's your roots… Every reunion I go to, you don't just fall back into what it used to be, the jocks and the cheerleaders and the behind-the-library crowd. Now we are so equal. And we all just say, ‘Remember riding the Bochi Bullet [the train from Musashi-Sakai] and remember Mr Tanner?’ And especially since we are all at retirement age, we don't even talk about what we do [for work] anymore. You feel like you've come home to your family.”
It’s undeniable that something foundational to a sense of belonging, something that can be hard to put words to, happens when you’re together with ASIJ family—I expect you feel it too. The ecosystem of our community lives in little moments between one another. It’s built in the laughter of first graders as they’re learning to spell a new word, in the curiosity of a middle schooler inspired by their teacher, in the tears of a graduating senior as they walk through the ASIJ gate with their best friend, and it’s in the hearts of alumni gathered around the world.
For Third Culture Kids, being asked “Where’s home?”can be a dreaded question that's answered in convoluted explanations or inauthentic simplifications. So at this year’s
alumni reception in Tokyo when Reiko Niimi '75 answered what ASIJ means to her today, her response resonated with me. She reflected on the notion that ASIJ is a place where people don’t ask where you’re from. It serves as a reminder that when you're with fellow alumni, the insatiable desire to feel like you belong can dissipate, when you realize you’re already home.
This sense of connection was brought to life in a poignant way in the spring of 2024 when Grade 5 students worked with musician Kathryn Claire [Lorish] ‘97 on writing a new school song. When I entered the music room, I started filming without knowing what was unraveling, but I could tell that it mattered, whatever it was. Goosebumps popped up on my arm as I heard one of the students suggest the melodic depth to match her classmates’ lyrics, “The power of the Black and Gold is guiding me.” After weeks of Kathryn working with students to capture in song what it means to be a Mustang, the final piece perfectly captured what we consistently hear from people across the generations: “With my friends, they feel like family; no matter where we come from, we're community.”
Explore more of the voices and perspectives behind ASIJ’s Third Culture Kid experiences in our latest podcast episode. Find ASIJ Audio wherever you listen to podcasts.
Our annual Tokyo Alumni Community Reception on October 3 at Meiji Kinenkan was a lovely evening with alumni from the ‘60s to the ‘20s — shoutout to the ‘80s for the largest turn out! Our numbers swelled this year with the addition of members of the Class of 1975, who were in Tokyo for their reunion, as well as some other visiting alumni who were able to attend. We also welcomed a record number of alumni parents including many parents of our recent Class of 2025 graduates. Head of School, Eric F Niles, enjoyed the opportunity to engage with such a broad representation of our community at his first major alumni event.
The event saw Mustangs from every era come together to celebrate their continued connection to the School. To paraphrase one alumna: “Being in a room of Mustangs is a place where no one asks where you’re from.” And it's clear that ASIJ alumni feel a sense of home together.
1990s Alumni.
There was a great turn out of parents of alumni, many of whom are
The Classes of 2002–2008 gathered on the Chofu campus in June 2025 for a special cluster reunion, initiated to mark the Class of 2005’s 20th anniversary. It brought together over 30 alumni and their families for a day filled with nostalgia, reconnection, and family fun. Among those in attendance were alumni who flew in from across the globe, mingling with others who came from across town.
“When I think of ASIJ, I think of a home for change makers.” Nick Harris ’05 who organized the event reflected on afterwards. “I spoke to people that were working with governments in Africa, I spoke to people that were working for NGOs in Japan, I spoke with someone who is quite big in the AI space. These examples can go on and on where, you know, essentially everyone is in a different part of the world doing different things. A very unique thing about ASIJ is that people really do live everywhere.”
In the lead-up to this reunion, Nick coordinated ten former and current teachers and staff to send video messages of celebration. And on the day, alumni were excited to see familiar faces among the crowd. Peter Vergel [P ‘06, P ‘10] and Steve Harris [FF ‘97-’14, P ‘05, P ‘08, P ‘13] both spoke to the group, reminiscing about the collective personalities of the years represented and reflecting on how special it was to see everyone “all grown up.”
Flipping through old yearbooks and memorabilia on display was followed by a group stroll through campus. Laughter mixed with delight as children of alumni played in the sprinklers and enjoyed popsicles on the hot June day. Whether it was their first visit since graduation or one of many, the day served as a vibrant reminder that the bond of the Mustang spirit endures.
Chicago May, 2025
The Class of 1974 celebrated its 50th cluster reunion in Chicago, IL, in May 2025. The event was a tremendous success.
“We can attest to the fact that Mustangs remain proud Mustangs as they scatter around the world,” the organizers happily shared.
Participants thoroughly enjoyed reconnecting, sharing life stories, exploring Chicago in self-organized groups, and engaging in program activities.
A special thank you to the reunion organizers: Steve Sundberg, Mirja Hanson, Yen King, Dayne Kono, and Susan Schlegel.
Additional photos from the event can be found on their website, 50th.asij74.com
38th Reunion
Utah October, 2025
40th Reunion
Portland
July, 2025
The Class of 1985 recently marked their 40th anniversary since graduating from ASIJ by gathering for a lively four-day reunion in Portland, OR. Alumni enjoyed a packed itinerary of events, including group dinners, hiking excursions, a pedal bar adventure, and a scenic happy hour cruise.
This memorable celebration was made possible by the hard work of the organizing committee: Sandra Orton-Tweed, Dave Sheehan, Karen Savereide, and Pam Elliott Moore
’20
5th Reunion
New York City
August, 2025
Arman Balian and Celine Maeda-Tarumoto planned an incredible three-day reunion in New York City to celebrate five years since the Class of 2020’s graduation.
The event featured picnics on the East River and in Central Park, as well as a night out in Manhattan. It was a wonderful opportunity for the class to finally reconnect in person after the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the end of their high school careers.
Tokyo July, 2025
The Classes of 2000 (with 1999 and 2001) recently organized a fantastic reunion in Tokyo, Japan, to celebrate their 25th anniversary since graduation.
Despite the July heat, the event drew a great turnout of over 40 people. The itinerary was packed with memorable activities, including a full campus tour (complete with custom walking instructions for slow and fast walkers from Tama Station!), an evening at a jazz bar, a group dinner, and a trip to a Fujisan Winery.
A huge thank you to Gary Yamada ’00, Paulene Kawasjee ’00, and Aimee Singer ’00 for all their hard work organizing the celebration!
In September, alumni gathered in London at Ye Olde Mitre Pub. Thank you to Deanna Elstrom ’86 for organizing! In attendance were Jessica Connors ’90, Amanda Barlow ’85, Mariko Miyamoto ’93, Kai Laughlin ’15, and Andreas Elstrom ’24.
Alumni from the Classes of 2010-2024 gathered at ASIJ’s Early Learning Center (ELC) in downtown Tokyo to reconnect, network, and reminisce. The event featured a lively speed networking activity, encouraging participants to share stories, make new connections, and strengthen ties within the ASIJ community.
Thank you to our speakers Chisei Mizuno ’14 and Yosuke Higashi ’14 for sharing their experiences working in America and Japan and their expertise on how AI has impacted software engineering across industries.
Robert Sharp ’87, Daniel Brandt ’92, and Lisa Katayama ’97 hosted “a wild and crazy night” of networking and reminiscing in San Francisco with members of the Classes of 1980-2021 in attendance.
Class Agents Kyoko Minegishi and Haruna Abe are working to plan a Tokyo reunion to celebrate the Class of 2001’s 25th reunion, likely in June or November 2026. To RSVP, please reach out to Kyoko (kyoko.minegishi@ gmail.com) or Haruna (runa.abe@gmail.com).
The Class of 1996 plans to meet up Friday night, have daytime activities on Saturday, and a formal dinner Saturday night. Organizers are currently looking for a headcount; please Richard Gilbert (Rkgilbert@hotmail. com) and Dennis Hudachek (dahudachek@gmail.com), even if you are a “maybe.”
The Class of 1981 is planning to gather in Tokyo, Japan, in the Fall of 2026. The planning team includes Debbie Krisher Steele, Joyce Stewart Parker, Sherry Davis Tighe, Lee Bowman, and Yuhka Mera
Nov 14-16, 2025
Depending on when you receive this edition of the Ambassador, this reunion may already be in progress. We are so excited to hear more from the Class of 1995 following their three-day reunion weekend!
The Class of 1966 is planning a 60th reunion in Franklin, TN. As the reunion planners put it, “we are not going "gentle into that good night;” we shall keep doing reunions as long as we can.” The reunion will include David Bradford’s BBQ, beautiful weather, and lots of Mustang Spirit!
Please reach out to Annie Campbell (campbell.annie@ gmail.com) with any questions.
Dec 4, 2025, 7:00–9:00pm
Yona Yona Beer Works, Ebisu
Log into your Mustangs Online alumni account for more details and to buy a ticket.
Jan 3, 2026, 12:00–4:00pm Chofu campus
Email alumni@asij.ac.jp or log into your Mustangs Online alumni account to RSVP.
Players and spectators are welcome to sign up for the alumni soccer game at Chofu. Hot chocolate and high energy guaranteed!
Jan 9, 2026, 9:30am - 2:00pm
Chofu campus
Calling all alumni musicians! This year’s High School Jazz Band invites you to join an ASIJ Alumni Jazz Band performance. All alumni are welcome to join, regardless of how recently you have played your instrument. Alumni musicians will rehearse with the high school jazz band at 9:40am, and perform with them at 1:00pm. (For College-Aged Alumni, there will be time for you to join Class Comps)
If you have any questions please reach out to current jazz band director Jeff Torchon (jtorchon@asij.ac.jp).
Jan 6, 2026, 11:00am
Chofu campus
Will you be home for the holidays? Do you miss competing in the legendary class competitions? Or just miss being surrounded by Mustang Spirit? If you are hoping to visit ASIJ, all ASIJ graduates Classes of 2022–25 are welcome to visit campus, reconnect with teachers, and enjoy lunch on ASIJ on Jan 9. RSVP required, email alumni@asij.ac.jp.
On their recent trip to the US Pavillion at the Osaka Expo, our seniors saw the same moon rock that many alumni also encountered back at Expo 70. While we may not have a lump of the moon in our archive, we did find a piece of photographic film from the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. The attached certificate documents the film's journey to and from the moon, but after it returned to earth we’re unsure how it made its way to ASIJ. If anyone knows the story of how this piece of history ended up at school, please let us know.
We’re trying to reconnect with several "lost alumni" — classmates from your year for whom we have no current email or mailing address on file. If you know how to get in touch with someone on the list, and they're willing to be "found" please let us know — or feel free to encourage them to reach out to us directly so we can update their contact information.
Ayame Goto
Hayato Nogaki
Jay Edson
Sei Yoshioka
Chihiro Yaginuma
Joe Kokubu
Lisa Napoli
Beth Goldstein
Colette Randall
Hiroko Nagumo
Sarah Schwenzer
John Muscari
Sam Shah
Paul Nash
Liz Osborne
Rika Shimada
Ryan Amlin
Cori Dean
Mari Kawaguchi
Rotem Agmon
Steve Van Derhoff
Pete Davidson
Shin Iwasaki
Stassen Henderson
Chad Arthayukti
Sarah Nielson
Brooke Bryant
Maya Jo
William L. Cryderman
Mei Sun Li
Sandra L. Maclver Thompson
Charles C. Wu
Class Agent Welcomed
Class Agent Welcomed
David E. Bergt
Isao Okada Herring
Kiki Skagen Munshi 1962 Katherine C. Bauernschmidt Clarke 1963 William L. Martino
Nancy Wu
David Bonner
Scott Hutchinson
Susan Broe Parmelee
Annie Nichols Campbell
Grenda F. Penhollow Moss
Nicholas D. Connor
David T. Sakamoto
Laura B. Hertenstein Swanson
Daniel Garnitz
Kathy K. Kobata
Linda Suzukawa-Tseng
Leif Neve
To
Class Agent Welcomed
Reiko E. Niimi
Elizabeth M. Yanagihara Horwitz
Carl E. Sundberg
Deanna Adams Smith
Class Agent Welcomed
Margaret Meiers
Sherry L. Davis Tighe
Lisa Bastick
George Mimura
Class Agent Welcomed
Sandra L. Orton Tweed
Diane E. Stewart Wack
Robert L. Sharp
Sergei P. Hasegawa
Linnea M. Hasegawa
Samantha Fritz Hurd
Kentaro K. Relnick
Galles
Mayumi Nakayama
Midori Kano
Margaret R. MacCallum
Pearl Maddox Vos
Class Agent Welcomed
Hannah T. Siegel
Philip T. Tseng
Vicky Carter Chen Sarah Godfrey
Rose E. Hastings
Kacie E. Rosenberg Leviton
T. Yamada
Paulene Kawasjee
Aimee Singer
Haruna Abe
Kyoko Minegishi
Anna L. Tuttle Delia
Mifumi Asano
Dirkse Mana Sasaki Kalohelani
Rosalind E. Onions
Jemil Satterfield
Caitlin E. McHose
Ashley Teslik
Seung Joon Sung
Lia Camargo
Andrew Deck
Akira Camargo
Sayuri Sekimitsu
Mina F. Hattori
Haruka Higo
Ray M. Hotta
Andy Takagi
Hikari Shumsky
Kenichiro Bernier
Arman Balian
Celine MaedaTarumoto
Karen Fukuda
Joshua Inahara
Nio Kwan
Ellie Reidenbach
Ryan Haddad
Tomo Ishikawa
Anna Ito
Campbell Little
Shaan Shah
Arisa Enokido
Arnab Karmokar
Sopheen Lee
DON-MICHAEL BRADFORD ’66, passed away on July 22, 2025. He was born in Graham, TX. When he was eight years old, his parents were sent to Japan. After graduating from ASIJ, he traveled around the world visiting Southern Baptist Missionary churches and then graduated from Texas State University. He then enlisted in the Air Force Reserves. In 1972, he was commissioned as Second Lieutenant and entered into Civil Engineering. He was later promoted to Colonel and was sent to the Civil Engineering Group at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan, which was the largest civil engineering unit in the US Air Force. He was the first commander to speak fluent Japanese. His family remembers him as “a bright light.”
JAMES CLIFTON “CLEE” EDGAR FF ’76-’79 passed away on March 27, 2025, after a brief but courageous battle with melanoma. Clee was a student at Upland Country Day School, PA, graduated from St. Mark’s School, MA, and then the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He majored in history and played Varsity lacrosse. He later returned to Upland to teach and coach, and founded the boys’ lacrosse program there. After a career of teaching, including at ASIJ from ’76-’79, he again returned to Upland as Head of the Upper School. Clee and his late wife Suzanne shared 50 years of marriage. His favorite activity was spending time with his daughter, Kde [sic], son-in-law, Steve, and grandson, Cooper.
SUZANNE BARBER EDGAR FF ’77-’79, passed away on July 30, 2018. Suzanne graduated from Kennett High School and Southern Seminary Junior College, and attended West Chester University. Suzanne coached multiple sports at Upland Country Day School, and joined her husband Clee working at ASIJ. After their time in Tokyo, Suzanne returned to the States and worked at Everything but the Kitchen Sink gift and accessories store for 38 years. Suzanne’s creativity and vision extended to her gardens, where she spent many happy days with Clee creating a beautiful and welcoming setting. She was a fiercely loyal friend who was happy to share laughter and tears, support and direction, and was always game for a day of shopping, cookie baking, or dinner and drinks with the girls.
MARGARET LINTON FIELDS FF '79-'88
P’79 passed away on June 9, 2025, at the age of 88. An engaged parent, Margaret ran the ASIJ Social Studies Resource Center after her daughter's graduation in 1979. During that time, she helped lead the ASIJ travel club and formed lifelong friendships. After returning to her native Australia in 1988, she continued to travel the world. When at home, she took pride in hosting her friends at her beloved McMahons Point, Sydney, apartment with its view of the Opera House. She loved children, ballroom dancing, music, and photography. She is survived by her daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter, and numerous friends and nieces, all of whom will continue to raise a glass each year to "Margaret/Marnie/Mom" on her birthday, August 20.
JOHN CLARK GINGERICH ’70 passed away on June 1, 2025. John Clark lived in Oklahoma, Iowa, Ohio, Japan, and Kansas. He graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in journalism and then worked as a reporter. John Clark bravely started his own publication, Back Pages, a Kansas City, MO, magazine driven by a mission to foster community within the Midtown area. When he wasn’t working on the magazine, he spent time in his darkroom, bringing his photographs of urban scenes to life. His family remembers his gentle nature, wit, and always-present twinkling eyes.
KENNETH GLAZIER ’67 passed away on October 16, 2025. Ken’s sister Ginny Babal ‘70 shared that he passed peacefully in his sleep and that he had fond memories of his time at ASIJ. She discovered a whole folder of old Hanabi papers in a folder in his bookshelf when we were cleaning things out back from when he was the editor. In his role of Vice President of Suzlon Wind Energy Corporation oversaw the installation of commercial wind turbines, predominantly in the Midwest and Pacific North West.
LAWRENCE RICHARD “DICK” HAGE FF ’72–’74 passed away on October 6, 2025. Dick was born in St Paul, Minnesota, and after serving in the Marine Corps, he returned home to attend the University of Minnesota. He taught for over 30 years at several schools, including The Blake School and ASIJ. His family will remember his gentleness and the many wonderful experiences they shared together.
GORDON HAGEN ’53 passed away on February 6, 2025. Gordon was born in Minnesota. Following WWII, the family moved to Tokyo, though Gordon ultimately graduated from Central High School in Crookston, Minnesota. He then attended St. Olaf College and enlisted in the Army after graduation. He later attended George Washington Law School at night while working full-time for the Federal Government and then worked for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Gordon found his passion in planting trees and in 1990 opted for early retirement to grow his expanding arboretum. The same year, he married Roberta Davids and became the stepfather of two young boys. Together, they traveled on “plant trips,” bringing back thousands of trees and perennials, which he would grow in his nursery and eventually plant in the former pastures and fields.
DAN JONES ’60 passed away on September 6, 2025. Dan and his wife, Paula, moved from Florida to Colorado to be near their son, Chris, and his family. He was a “wonderful, intelligent, and insightful person.”
ROBERT "ROB" JORDAN '81 passed away on August 8, 2023. Rob was born in Wilmington, DE. He attended ASIJ for five years, from 1976 through graduation in 1981. He was a project manager for Leon N. Weiner & Associates in Elkton, MD. Rob loved being outdoors, going to the gym, and taking his boat and jet skis out on the Chesapeake. He was a motorcyclist, mountain biker, horse rider, and scuba diver, among other things. He was able to fix anything, especially if it had a motor. His family and friends remember he was always there to help others, and they will miss him.
SKIP TEMPLETON ’71 passed away on February 16, 2024. He was known by friends and family as "a wonderful man, who enjoyed his time in Japan."
PHILLIP TRACKWELL ’68 passed away on April 25, 2025. Phillip had been struggling with Parkinson’s for a while. He and his wife Katherine split their time between Singapore and Washington State.
EUGENE “GENE” J. WERLICH P’79,’81,’83 passed away on May 17, 2025. Gene grew up in Minneapolis, graduated from DeLaSalle High School, and joined the Air Force. Gene went to the University of Minnesota. While there, he married the love of his life, Roberta Bertsch. In 1968, he took his family to Japan, and served there for 20 years as the senior executive of American Subsidiaries. In 1987, they returned to the United States, and Gene established an OEM parts manufacturing supplier to Ford and the transplant Japanese Auto Assemblers, serving for 12 years as president of Rocknel Fastener in Rockford. Retiring in 2002, Gene and Roberta toured America in their motorhome for four years. They particularly loved trips with their grandchildren. Settling in Waconia, Minnesota, Gene and Roberta started the Young at Heart Club for seniors, and Gene served as the Secretary of Friends for four years at the Waconia Library. They also played Japanese Mahjong with friends every week in their home.
High school Deep Learning Seminar II and art teacher Brendan Sarsfield joined ASIJ in 2015 and is known by colleagues and students for his sense of humor. Hailing from the UK, Brendan has extensive training with degrees in Art and Design, Fine Art, and a Masters in Sculpture from the Wimbledon School of Art.
Where are you from?
Liverpool in the North West of the UK (I should put up a disclaimer here: I don’t follow "soccer"... which I guess is the reason I was asked to leave.)
What kind of student were you in school?
Rebellious, a bit confrontational. I’d have spent a lot of time chatting with "Mr Jones," Assistant Principal in High School. Generally I was quite frustrated by the experience of school.
Why did you choose to work at a school?
It was an evolution rather than a decision, from professionally working as an artist to being asked to run workshops in schools and colleges, on to part time lecturing, through into full time lecturing… then a switch to secondary teaching to facilitate living in different parts of the world. Along the way I have worked in a variety of educational establishments, from universities to an art specialist high school. From a "last chance saloon" (a school for those on the verge of juvenile detention), to even a three month spell teaching art on a prison ship! Through it all I have valued the opportunity to help others overcome challenges and elevate themselves.
If you weren’t at ASIJ, what would you do?
I most likely would have stayed working as a professional artist. I may not have had as many hot dinners, but I would have continued to explore my own artwork in greater depth than I have been able to. I would have liked to get involved in working to support those with physical or mental impairment who use visual art as their voice. I admire the honesty and power of their work. It is something I am looking forward to doing when I retire.
What is your favorite thing about Japan?
My wife… with close seconds being the landscape, which I find deeply inspiring, the food, which is without doubt incredible, and the architectural diversity, which I greatly enjoy. Thinking about it, the key element for me that makes Japan truly unique is the people.
What is your favorite thing about ASIJ?
This goes back to what makes Japan unique: it is the people. But also, it has been the intentional shift to empower students to bring greater agency to their learning.
What advice do you give your students?
It does depend on the student… anything from "stop drinking the paint," to advice given not in soundbytes, but I hope in actions "whilst you cannot control what happens to you in life, you can choose how you respond."
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
I think the students would better answer that… but in my mind I imagine it is something erudite, eloquent, or high brow, such as: "listen to the bald man."
Which talent would you most like to have?
I can’t honestly answer that because I’m not a believer in talent. I believe in sustained attention and genuine engagement. I feel that talent is a word that is a deflection used by those who really don’t wish to put in the effort. It suggests that ability is a "gift" from on high. “If I’m not bestowed there is little I can do." It is the antithesis of what I strive to do each day. I believe in a focus on cultivating growth through persistence, reflection, and deliberate
practice. Truly "blessed" are those who get on with it.
Who are your favorite writers?
Dylan Thomas, Spike Milligan, Jaroslav Hasek, Dario Fo, Pablo Neruda, Laura Esquival, Viktor Frankl, Italo Calvino... I am also partial to a word or two from Joseph Conrad. I read a lot—I just noticed that it’s mostly male writers!— but these are the ones whose works I most frequently revisit.
Which living person do you most admire?
I think you have to admire anyone who is still living, so many aren’t living any more… so kudos to all those who manage to do it.
When and where were you happiest?
I believe that being happy where you are, at exactly the time that you are in, is the best way to experience the world. When and where was I the happiest ? ... Now… no... now! No! ... Now!
by Mina Goto ’27
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