Atsuko Fish Hosts a Commemoration Luncheon for Tohoku

/in /by

Atsuko Fish, the JWLI Founder and a U.S.-Japan Council board member, hosted a luncheon featuring two speakers, Megumi Ishimoto and Hideki Matsunaga in Boston on Friday, March 10th. Six years have passed since the Tohoku disaster in 2011. This event was to commemorate the tragedy and learn the current situation in Tohoku from the speakers.

Megumi is our 2014 Fellow and a founder of Women’s Eye. She gave a powerful presentation about her work with Women’s Eye. Women’s Eye has approximately 600 workshops, and has served 6,000 women since its inception in 2011. She also shared her future plan to continue to host the International Grassroots Women’s Academy Leadership Development Training in Tohoku and abroad.

The other speaker, Hideki Matsunaga, is a former Tohoku team leader of Japan Platform. He has been involved in a number of Tohoku-based projects and organizations including BEYOND Tomorrow and, currently sits on the board of Tono Magokoro Net. He spoke about the big picture of what has happened so far and what is happening now.

After the presentations, over 25 attendees discussed the importance of events like this luncheon as interests in Tohoku in the Boston area are fading away.

2012 Fellow featured on the Medill Reports Chicago Article

/in /by

Noelle Takahashi, our 2012 Fellow, was recently featured on the Medill Reports Chicago article, “Will Japan’s ‘Womenomics’ work?” The article is about gender inequality in Japan.

Noelle emphasizes gender inequality still exists in Japan, and she sees it herself from her own experience. She also explains many women in Japan are living under pressure.

Noelle says in the article, “Japanese women are expected to be a good wife and good mothers, and if you get married, you are expected to cook well suddenly, and you are expected to have children.”

As one of a few female politicians in Japan, she advocates for creating a better society where women leadership is more valued.

Click here to find more detail about the article!