Advisory Board

Bruce Brenn serves as Chairman of the Center for Japanese Studies Advisory Board. Bruce's career in international business spanned nearly 30 years including senior management positions with Citibank, Nike Japan, Continental Bank, and Smith New Court plc, working in Hong Kong, India, Taipei, and Tokyo before finally retiring back in the US. He currently serves as a board member the Japan-America Society of Oregon and the Portland Japanese Garden.  He is a member of the Tokyo Lawn Tennis Club, Tokyo American Club, and Multnomah Athletic Club. He holds a B.A. degree from University of Oregon and M.A. degrees in Japanese Studies and Economics from the University of Michigan.

Dean Alterman, a lifelong Portlander, is a partner in the Portland law firm of Folawn Alterman & Richardson, where he practices real estate and business law.  He is a board member of the Japan-America Society of Oregon and of the Japanese Garden Society of Oregon, where he was the president from 2011 to 2013.  His past civic involvements include service as a trustee of The Catlin Gabel School, Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center, and Portland Civic Theatre, and three terms as chairman of the Multnomah County Planning Commission.  Dean is a graduate of Harvard University and Lewis & Clark Law School.

Yoshio Kurosaki (Kuro) was born in Tokyo, Japan. Kuro emigrated to the United State in the late 1980s and became a naturalized US citizen in 1995. He serves as President of Summit Properties, Inc. a Portland-based firm specializing in industrial real estate development and property management. Kuro is active in many local organizations that focus on US-Japan relations. In addition to the Center for Japanese Studies Advisory Board he is Treasurer and a Board member of Portland-Sapporo Sister City Association and serves in the same capacities for the Japanese Garden Society of Oregon. Kuro is a graduate of Waseda University in Tokyo.

Lynn Moyers is a residential real estate investor, licensed construction contractor, and Macintosh computer consulant. He spent 22 years in a variety of senior management positions in the computer technology industry, focusing on supply chain management and new product development with Asian OEM manufacturers. Lynn also serves as Vice-President and Board of Directors member for the Portland-Sapporo Sister City Association. He holds a BS degree in Business Management from Virginia Tech.

Verne Naito is a vice president in Naito Corporation, a family owned and managed business.  He oversees property management, real estate investments, financial management, and new business development.  In its 92-year history, the company has been an importer, distributor, retailer, and real estate developer.  Mr. Naito’s father’s family immigrated to America in 1917.  His mother’s family immigrated in 1906 and farmed in the Los Angeles area until WWII.  Mr. Naito has held board and advisory board positions in numerous nonprofit and business organizations including: the Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce; the Harvard Business School Alumni Association of Oregon; the University of Portland, Center for Entrepreneurship; the Japanese American Citizens League Portland Chapter; and the Portland Japanese Garden Society.   Mr. Naito received his BA from Pomona College and MBA from Harvard Business School.

Yoshio Oda is Executive Director of Epson Portland Inc. (EPI) in Hillsboro, Oregon, which makes Epson ink cartridges for North and South America.  Before EPI, he worked in Japan for Seiko Epson Corporation (parent company of EPI) and in Singapore for Singapore Epson Precision Ltd., a manufacturing affiliate of Seiko Epson. He is a board member of the Japanese Business Association (Shokokai) of Portland and the Japan-America Society of Oregon. Yoshio has a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology and has worked for 20 years in the mechanical engineering field.

Katherine Melchior Ray specializes in global marketing and business strategies in fashion and luxury, having worked for Nike, Hanna Andersson, Nordstrom, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci in the US, Japan and France.  Ms. Ray began her career with Fujisankei Communications International (Fuji TV), Japan’s largest media group, where she worked as a reporter and producer for 8 years in Tokyo and New York.  Dividing her time between consulting and communication, she is a contributing spokesperson in the media regarding international trade issues between the US and Asia and has lectured on international business at Wharton, Stanford, Brown and Portland State Universities. Ms. Ray received her A.B in History at Brown University in Providence, R.I. and studied at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan. She sits on the Board of the Brown Alumni Association.

Ed Reingold is a journalist who reported from Latin America, Africa and Pacific Asia for more than four decades. Since 1969 he has specialized in reporting on Japan, where he served as Tokyo and East Asia bureau chief for Time Magazine. He retired from Time in 1992 and directed the University of Southern California's Center for International Journalism for four years. In addition to his reporting for Time he has published four Japan-related books: Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony, with Akio Morita (E.P. Dutton, 1986), Chrysanthemums and Thorns, (St. Martin's Press, 1992), and Toyota: People, Ideas and the Challenge of the New (Penguin, Ltd, London, 1999). Reingold moved to Portland in 2004 where he continues to write on Japan and Asian affairs.

Gabe Rosen is an owner of Biwa, a Japanese restaurant in southeast Portland specializing in izakaya-style dining. He has worked in the restaurant and hospitality industry for 20 years as a chef, butcher and restaurateur in Iowa, Oregon and California. He holds a Certificate of Culinary Arts from Western Culinary Institute and a B.A. in Japanese Language and Literature from Portland State University, where he conducted much of his research for Biwa while studying under Pat Wetzel and Ken Ruoff, and in Japan as a Monbukagakusho scholar at Hokkaido University.

June Shiigi is currently Co-Chair of Tomodachi-kai, a committee of the Japan-America Society of Oregon. She is also a member of Oregon Nikkei Endowment, Japanese Ancestral Society of Portland, and Portland Nikkei Fujinkai. June has a B.F.A. from the University of Hawaii  and has worked as a biologic researcher at University of California at Berkeley, Oregon National Primate Research Center, Reed College and as a scientific illustrator at the Vollum Institute, a division of Oregon Health & Science University. Before retiring she worked as a publications and marketing coordinator at the Oregon College of Art & Craft.

Doug Smith is a founding partner of InSpec International LLC in Lake Oswego, OR. Doug's primary experience is in international project development and strategic management consulting, including site selection, market entry strategy, feasibility analyses and business process reengineering. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Japan-America Society of Oregon. Doug has a degree in international studies from Cornell University and worked with the Oregon Economic Development Department as Manager of International Business Development.

Masaru “Mas” Yatabe was born in Japan and has been a resident of the United States since 1964. In March, 2010, he became a U.S. citizen. Mas was a banker for 20 years before joining the Azumano Group, where he is currently Vice President. In 1987 he accompanied Gov. Neil Goldschmidt on his Trade Mission to Japan and lectured on the “Investment Climate in Oregon for Japanese High-Tech Industries” at the Mitsubishi Bank Head Office in Tokyo. Mas  has served on the board of PSU Alumni Assn. and is current chairman of the Friends of MacDonald, a Committee of the Clatsop County Historical Society. He sits on the board of the Japanese Ancestral Society [Nikkeijin-kai], and is also a board member of JASO.  In the past Mas was on the Portland Japanese Garden Resource Committee and helped restore the Sand and Stone Garden to its original design.

Honorary Board Members

Tim and Martha McGinnis

Isao Iwashita 

Ex-Officio Members - PSU

Ken Ruoff,  Director, Professor of History

Larry Kominz, Professor of Japanese

Patricia Wetzel, Professor of Japanese

Hiro Ito,  Professor of Economics

Suwako Watanabe, Professor of Japanese

Masami Nishishiba, Professor of Public Administration

Jon Holt, Professor of Japanese

Emiko Konomi, Professor of Japanese

Wynn Kiyama, Assistant Professor of Musicology and Ethnomusicology