A Letter from our President

Posted September 2, 2022

Hi Friends,

I’m Steve Pollock and I’ve just completed my first week as the new president of Japan Society of Northern California. I am incredibly excited and honored to have the opportunity to lead this great organization. As a long-time board member (7 years!) and enthusiastic participant/attendee in many of our programs, I am sure I have met many of you previously, and I look forward to getting your ideas and help to make JSNC an important part of your world going forward.

I spent part of my first week in New York, where Miho Greenberg and I attended the annual NAJAS meeting for Japan Societies from across the US. (Did you know that there are Japan Societies in 38 cities?) I loved meeting so many people dedicated to building connections between Japan and the US. On a personal note, it was great to visit the beautiful office of the Japan Society of New York, where I remember seeing many outstanding Japan-related programs when I was a young(er) man.

COO Miho Greenberg and President Steve Pollock attended the NAJAS meeting in New York in August.

I am excited to be back in the Bay Area, and working with our excellent team and Board. I’m also enjoying my first few sessions of my Japanese Movie Chat course, and I’m really looking forward to our lineup of excellent programs this fall, including:

Golden State Warriors – learn about professional basketball in Japan and how Rakuten helped arrange exhibition games in Japan between the Warriors and the Washington Wizards (9/14)
Sake tasting – taste Japanese sake alongside shio koji (Japanese foods infused with umami). We are we are hosting an in-person event in San Francisco on Fri., 9/30 in honor of International Sake Day
Healthcare Conference – for the first time ever, we are putting on a conference in Japan entitled “Precision and Predictive Healthcare” that will feature excellent speakers and introduce early-stage US healthcare companies to the Japanese audience (10/31 and 11/2)
Charity Gala – get ready for our annual marquee fundraising event coming in November (tentatively 11/19)

I really look forward to seeing you at these and other events, and I welcome your suggestions about future programs and activities.

Thank you for your interest and support!

Steve