Day 1 — Our first day in Tokyo began with a luncheon at the U.S. Embassy, hosted by Minister of Public Affairs Hugh Hara. Dean Anderson addressed a small group on the Middle East, her area of expertise, and invited questions from the audience.

Our next two meetings were with Columbia alumni: Yasushi Akashi, ’94, the former deputy general of the United Nations, and current chairman of Japan Centre for Preventive Diplomacy, and Richard Mei, ’85, director of communications, Pacific Region at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers Co., Ltd.

The day ended with a dinner meeting with the leaders of the Japan Alumni Association (JAA), Yuji Takana, ’98, Steven Greenberg, ’98 and Akiko Oi, ’00. We savored Japanese cuisine and talked about ways SIPA can provide increased support to the alumni association.

Day 2 — After a breakfast meeting at Yebisu Garden Place with Yasuko Hata, ’87, vice president, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, we toured her offices and were introduced to Takafumi Kagiyama, managing director, with whom we hope to explore internships for SIPA students.

From there, we were off to Waseda University in Shinjuku-ku. After a tour of the Center for Scholarly Information, the University’s central library, we met with Mana Nabeshima, ’91, private wealth manager at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Japan.

Before the evening’s alumni reception, the dean had back-to-back interviews with Noburu Okabe, ’94, from the Sankei Shimbun and Kenji Kato with the Daily Yomuiri.

The alumni reception at the International House of Japan was well attended and a great success. With special guest speaker, Professor Makoto Tuniguichi of Waseda University, Dean Anderson welcomed close to 60 alumni guests and gave a state-of-the-school address followed by remarks from Richard Mei, ’85.

Steven Greenberg, ’98 served as an excellent master of ceremonies and translator for Kyoko Komatsuzawa from Television Tokyo Channel 12, Ltd., who spoke about her friend and fellow SIPA graduate, Hitomi Kuwa. Her emotional remembrances of Ms. Kuwa, who passed away only weeks before our trip to Japan, was a touching tribute to a valued member of the SIPA community. It seemed fitting to announce JAA’s desire to establish an endowed fellowship fund in Hitomi Kuwa’s memory. (For more information on the fellowship, see page 27.)

In closing the evening, Yuji Takana, ’98, past chair of JAA, was thanked for his commitment to the association and Aikiko Oi, ’00 was introduced as the new chair of JAA.

Day 3 — We met Hiroo Mori, managing director, Mori Building Co. and his team for breakfast and a tour of the Academy Hills facility to continue discussions on distance learning opportunities, begun a week earlier when Mr. Mori and his team were in the United States.

At Keio University we were welcomed by Professor Taizo Yakushiji, vice president of academic and international affairs and Professor Takeshi Yukawa, executive vice president and professor of history. Takako Hikotani, a Columbia Ph.D. and a Keio alumna, who is currently teaching at the East Asian Institute, was our guide and contributed to a wonderful visit.

Next stop was the Capitol Tokyo Hotel for a public talk by Dean Anderson, entitled “Next Generation Leadership in the Middle East,” hosted by IIPS President, Mr. Okawara.

Immediately following the dean’s talk we were off to Shanghai. We arrived well into the night but found a warm welcome. [Yang Lan (born 1968)], ’96, a SIPA Advisory Board member and our host for the rest of our stay in Asia, and her assistant, Jane Wong, met us at the airport and took us for a brief tour of the Bund, with its impressive skyline, dressed in brilliant displays of blues and greens.

Day 4 — We began by meeting with Charles Haigh, ’80, president of Gilwood Company, Ltd, a fabric and garment trading company with offices in New York City and Shanghai. Coincidentally, Sun TV (Yang Lan’s business) and Haigh’s business are on different floors in the same building. One inevitable outcome of these trips is to bring alumni together who were unaware of each other.

Haigh then joined us for a tour of [Yang Lan (born 1968)]’s Shanghai Sun TV studio. We learned that Sun is a content provider with plans to produce approximately 300 hours of high quality programs on historical culture for China’s viewing population. In the afternoon, we visited the very peaceful and beautiful Yu Garden, followed by a trip to the “Old City,” filled with buildings of a bygone era. After a full day, we boarded an evening flight with Yang Lan and Jane Wong to Hong Kong.

Day 5 — Over breakfast at the China Club, we met with Daniel Fung, a highly regarded attorney who has a sense of the Hong Kong pulse. He advised us to engage local government and arranged a meeting with a leading government official. Next we introduced SIPA to three individuals who have an active interest in advancing education — Johnson Ko, chairman of Universal Appliances, Ltd., Ronnie C. Chan, chairman of the Hang Lung Group and Dr. Fong Yun-Wah, senior managing director of Hip Shing Hong.

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