Back from New York

also, Japan-US Innovation Awards Thursday 7/20

Friends - hope you are staying cool during this summer heat. It was nice to hear from some of you after my last post, on summer reading. Further nice to catch up with some former students during a recent visit to New York! Where I also caught up with a dear old friend, Shinji Nohara, now known to foodies worldwide for his work as Tokyo culinary navigator, and also the namesake for Shinji’s Bar in New York.

Shinji and I go back close to 30 years, to when I was working as an editor in a non-native language and he took a shine to expanding the limits of my Japanese. Later, he was my editor. Time seems to have passed differently for the two of us. And yes, of course he picked out the perfect bakery for our reunion.

Another highlight from the New York visit: Trinity Church, where Hamilton, Gallatin and other luminaries from our nation’s foundation are buried. My daughter and I visited. The juxtaposition with its surroundings was striking - it was a functioning church, complete with food handouts for the needy, in the midst of Wall Street. The pastor quietly handed us a program and continued services.

And, of course, we visited the Charging Bull and Fearless Girl.

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Also, a brief reminder: the 13th annual Japan-US Innovation Awards will be held Thursday July 20th at Stanford University. The event is an annual collaboration between the Japan Society of Northern California, where I’m on the board, and the US-Asia Technology Management Center at Stanford. Each year we highlight two emerging leaders, one from Japan, and one from the US, and five up-and-coming startups from Japan as part of our Innovation Showcase (link to agenda).

This year’s Emerging Leaders, presented by program supporter SunBridge, are Figma from the US, and Treasure Data from Japan. SunBridge Chair Allen Miner has been a strong supporter of the Innovation Awards since their inception.

Our five showcase startups are: Elephantech, Final Aim, LegalOn Technologies, Recotech, and SkyDrive.

Added to this are special sessions with Shane Gu with OpenAI

and Representative Akira Amari, who was previously a member of late PM Abe’s cabinet, and prior secretary-general of the LDP.

Hope to see you this Thursday. Here’s the link to register, and a link to the full agenda.

Onward and upward,

Jon