Dear Friends,
Happy New Year!! Last year was a great year for Japan Society (see some of our program highlights below) – thank you for all of your support! I’m confident that 2025 is going to be even better since it is a huge milestone year for us. This year marks the 120th anniversary of the founding of Japan Society of Northern California. Read more about Japan Society’s early history here.
We have a lot of exciting events planned in celebration of our anniversary. In the meantime, I’m particularly excited about our growth as an organization. Some milestones as we enter 2025:
- Growing individual membership: Individual members have more than tripled over the last three years. Thank you to those of you who have joined! If you’d like to join or renew your membership and be an official supporter of our 120th anniversary, you can do so here – annual individual membership is only $65.
- Growing corporate membership: We have added 40 new corporate members in the last two years – why not get your company to sign up here and join the fun? We have several tiers of corporate membership and they include benefits for corporate member employees.
- Fun, diverse and active program agenda: In each of the last two years, we organized more than 70 events and programs. Here’s a trivia quiz for our superfans – what was our best attended event in 2024? What was our most highly rated? (see answers below!) What was your personal favorite?
Our 2025 is already off to a good start, with three very popular annual events and a special Japanese dance performance already scheduled for this month.
- Japan Night Networking Reception (1/13): This is an amazing, invite-only networking reception for companies, investors and entrepreneurs interested in the healthcare sector and Japan that coincides with the JP Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco. Last year we had more than 300 attendees, and we expect an even bigger turnout this year. (I’m sorry, but we’ve already reached capacity for this very popular event.)
- CES 2025 Recap (1/14): This hybrid event is being put on in collaboration with JETRO, AlchemistX and JIC features several experts reflecting on the 2025 Consumer Electronics show that has just wrapped up. They will be sharing their insights about trends and takeaways from the event and what it means for the consumer technology industry in the months ahead. Register to join us in person or online.
- Japan Outlook 2025 (1/29): Japan expert/Vice chair of SIPC (the Securities Investor Protection Corporation and JSNC Board Member) Glen Fukushima and Prof. Vinod Aggarwal, Distinguished Professor of Political Science from UC Berkeley, will join JSNC Board Chair, Larry Greenwood, for our popular annual program on the outlook for Japanese politics and economics in the coming year.
- Nihonbuyo: The Art of Classical Japanese Dance (1/25): We will welcome Ume Nakamura, an expert in Nihonbuyo, who will be doing a live classical dance performance in San Francisco. (I’m sorry, but this event has also sold out.)
In addition to the above programs, our spring registration for group language classes is now open! Please check out our offerings here. I encourage you to sign up quickly, as the number of students studying Japanese has increased a lot over the last year, and we have been selling out most of our group class spots. We also offer private lessons for those seeking more personalized instruction.
Coming Attractions
We will be offering many more programs during the coming months, but I particularly hope that you will take part in some (or all!) of these major events:
- The Grassroots Summit is bilateral exchange program that will welcome 50 visitors from Japan to the Bay Area for a week of engaging activities between June 3-9, including homestays with local families. (If you would like to volunteer for this big program or host a visitor, please send us an email at grassroots@usajapan.org).
- The 15th Annual Innovation Awards on July 17, 2025. This program is the longest running celebration of US-Japan Innovation. We recognize highly innovative early-stage companies from Japan and the U.S. and provide excellent networking opportunities. We are currently accepting nominations for this year’s Awardees.
- The 11th U.S.-Japan Healthcare Conference, in Tokyo and Osaka during the week of September 15, 2025. A week-long series of programs and events brings together leaders from the public, private and academic sectors in Japan and the U.S. who are eager to drive healthcare innovation. In 2024, we also featured pitches from more than a dozen US-based healthtech startups.
- The 39th Award of Honor Gala in late fall will celebrate the work of the Japan Society and recognize individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to our cause. Our 2024 Gala featured Snoopy and jazz pianist David Benoit, and awards for the Peanuts organization and Koichi Nakamura of Sozo Ventures.
If you would like to be involved in planning or supporting any of these activities, or suggest other things you would like to see us do, please contact us directly.
Looking Forward
Thank you again for your great support for Japan Society. We look forward to your continued and active involvement in the year ahead.
Oh – the answer to my earlier trivia questions? The most popular single event in 2024 was our Innovation Awards program, which had 343 attendees. Our online program about Japanese Gardens was a close second, with 334 attendees (you can view the video of the program here). Our highest rated program of 2024 was our Theatre of Yugen live kyogen performance which had a satisfaction rating of 9.9/10. I can tell you personally that it was a FANTASTIC performance.
We hope to have many engaging, fun and informative activities in the coming months. To stay informed about our coming attractions, please visit our website at www.usajapan.org. We hope you’ll join us in celebrating this milestone year by participating in the many exciting programs we have planned.
Wishing you a 2025 filled with learning, joy, adventure—and plenty of Japan Society activities!
With warm regards,
Steve Pollock
President
Japan Society of Northern California
