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Japan America Society of Colorado

Contact: Dilek Eccles

1625 Broadway, Suite 680Denver, CO 80202Tel: (303) 592-5364

E-mail: info@jascolorado.orghttp://www.jascolorado.org/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JAPANS AMBASSADOR TO SPEAK IN DENVER:Japan: Where we are going

His Excellency Ichiro Fujisaki will present a keynote speech at theColorado-

Yamagata 25th Anniversary Celebration Luncheon sponsored by Japan AmericaSociety of Colorado

Event: Luncheon marking 25 years of Colorado and Yamagata Sister State relationshipDate: Saturday, August 6Time: Registration from 11:30 a.m. Lunch from 12:00 p.m.Place: Brown Palace Hotel, Grand Ballroom 321 17th Street, DenverCost: $35 students, $45 JASC members/educators, $60 non-membersContact: JASC at 303-592-5364 or info@jascolorado.org for reservations and additional details

Denver, CO, (July 28-2011)

The Japan America Society of Colorado (JASC) has announcedthat Japanese Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki will be in Denver August 6 to mark the 25

th

Anniversary Celebration luncheon honoring the Colorado-Yamagata sister-state relationship.The event will also feature a high-level delegation from Yamagata including its Vice GovernorTakashi Takahashi and Kozo Taira, Chair of the Yamagata Prefectural Assembly (State Senate).

In 1984, then governor of Yamagata came to Colorado on a mission to advance internationalrelations in the Tohoku (Northern Japan) region. As a result, the opportunities for a sister-staterelationship increased, and after government officials from both Colorado and Yamagataexchanged correspondence and visits, the State of Colorado and Yamagata Prefecture enteredinto their sister-state relationship by signing a sister-state agreement on December 2, 1986.

Since that time, Yamagata and Colorado have regularly hosted cultural, educational, andbusiness exchanges for both youth and adults.

The noon luncheon will be held at the Brown Palace Hotel, and the public is invited to

attend. Contact JASC at 303-592-5364 or info@jascolorado.org for reservations and

additional details.

http://www.jascolorado.org/http://www.jascolorado.org/http://www.jascolorado.org/

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This is the first time Ambassador Fusjisaki has visited Colorado since the March 11 earthquakeand tsunami in northeast Japan, where efforts continue to rebuild. The Japan America Society ofColorado is donating more than $120,000 raised on Colorado directly to the Tohoku region.Yamagata Prefecture, located in the Tohoku Region, has been supporting the hardest hitneighboring prefectures.

Ichiro Fujisaki served as the political minister of the Embassy of Japan in Washington, DC, from1995-99 and became Ambassador of Japan to the United States in 2008, but his association withthe United States goes back much farther.

It started with a year in the early 1960s as a junior high school student in Seattle, Washington.He also studied one year each at Brown University and Stanford University Graduate School inthe early 1970s.

Fujisaki was a research associate at IISS (International Institute for Strategic Studies) in Londonfrom 1987-88. He taught as a lecturer of International Relations at Sophia University in Tokyo

from 1991-95. Since his arrival, he has spoken at Harvard, Columbia, Georgetown, SAIS,Stanford, Yale, and Brigham Young University as well as at several think-tanks in Washington,DC, such as the Brookings Institution, AEI, Carnegie Endowment, CSIS, and Stimson Center.He speaks English and French fluently.

As a diplomat, he has also served in Jakarta, Paris (OECD), and London. Prior to his currentpost, he served as Ambassador to the UN and to the WTO in Geneva. While there, he served asthe Chairman of the Executive Committee of UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees).In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo, he has held such posts as Deputy Director-Generalfor Asian Affairs and Director-General for North American Affairs before being appointed as theDeputy Foreign Minister. He has also served as the Sherpa, or the personal representative, of thePrime Minister to G8 Summit meetings.

His wife Yoriko attended kindergarten at Ben Murch in Washington, DC. Their two daughtersalso attended school in the Washington area. The elder daughter Mari graduated from StoneRidge High School in Bethesda, MD. The younger daughter Emi studied at the same school aswell as at Somerset Elementary School in Montgomery County, MD. Both daughters now workas journalists in Japan.

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