Keiko Fukuda
@fukudaKeiko Fukuda was born in Oita, Japan. After graduating from International Christian University, she worked for a publishing company. Fukuda moved to the United States in 1992 where she became the chief editor of a Japanese community magazine. In 2003, Fukuda started working as a freelance writer. She currently writes articles for both Japanese and U.S. magazines with a focus on interviews. Fukuda is the co-author of Nihon ni umarete (“Born in Japan”) published by Hankyu Communications. Website: https://angeleno.net
Updated July 2020
Stories from This Author
No. 12 Sakura Radio, an internet radio station that reaches across the US
March 31, 2023 • Keiko Fukuda
Connecting the community Sakura Radio, which is broadcast online from New York, started in October 2017 and has gradually spread into Japanese communities across the U.S. over the years. What makes the radio unique is that it is run by Interesse, a human resources company that is in a different industry from the media. Interesse President Masato Fujiwara explained the background to the launch of the radio station as follows: "While traveling around the US for my recruitment business, I …
Kyoko Sugimoto Hicks, who came to the U.S. in 2014 and welcomed skateboarding exchange students from Japan
March 17, 2023 • Keiko Fukuda
Studying abroad in the US after raising children Kyoko Sugimoto Hicks first came to America at the age of 18. She currently lives near Los Angeles and welcomes and looks after skateboarding students from Japan. She recalls, "The reason I came to America for the first time was to visit my brother who was studying abroad in Connecticut. I've always loved American goods, and I used to frequent Sony Plaza (a shop in Japan that sells overseas accessories and cosmetics)." …
Former journalist and current VP of the U.S.-Japan Council — Fred Katayama
March 2, 2023 • Keiko Fukuda
From Japanese society to white society Thirty years ago when I moved to Los Angeles, Tricia Toyota was a Japanese-American anchor who played a major role in local television news. I still remember the footage of her flying to the site to interview victims of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995. Other famous "Japanese-American journalists" include sports anchor Rob Fukuzaki and KABC anchor David Ono, who was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette by the …
Tsutomu and Misa Igarashi travel to the US to make their children surfers
Feb. 8, 2023 • Keiko Fukuda
Migration gives children the gift of a place to be born Igarashi Kanoa is a top surfer who won a silver medal as a representative of Japan at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and has continued to make great strides in competitions around the world since then. Kanoa's younger brother, Keanu, is also an active surfer. The Igarashi brothers are from Huntington Beach, California, a mecca for surfing. Their parents are Tsutomu and Misa, who immigrated to the United States from …
Grammy-Nominated Musician Masa Takumi and His Move to the U.S. in 2018
Jan. 20, 2023 • Keiko Fukuda
To the Most Prestigious of the Music Industry On the list of nominees in the Global Music Album category of the 65th Grammy Awards, which will be held in February 2023, we see a Japanese name: Masa Takumi. In Japan, he goes by the name Masanori Takumi, and he has led a successful career as a musician, composer, and producer who has helped produce some of the biggest artists such as EXILE, DA PUMP, and AAA. In January 2018, Masa …
11th Japanese TV Connecting Generations: "Japan Hollywood Network"
Dec. 21, 2022 • Keiko Fukuda
The maximum number of viewers was 850,000. When I moved from Japan to Los Angeles 30 years ago, I developed a new habit: watching Japanese TV dramas broadcast locally on Sunday nights. Before coming to Los Angeles, I was busy at a publishing company, so I rarely watched TV dramas, and I enjoyed watching Hollywood movies much more than Japanese dramas. However, once I left Japan, I began to look forward to Sundays with dramas like "Wataru Seken wa Oni …
Katherine Birkinshaw writes about her mother's experiences as a survivor of the atomic bombing
Nov. 28, 2022 • Keiko Fukuda
Daughter's illness and mother's confession There is a novel called "Last Cherry Blossom." Set in Hiroshima during wartime, the main characters are an impressionable young girl named Yuriko, her kind-hearted father, and her aunt, who lives with her and from whom Yuriko feels a distance. The latter half of the novel describes the day of August 6th, when the city of Hiroshima was reduced to ashes, and their fate after that. The first half, leading up to the atomic bomb, …
Fumio Ouchi, an American citizen living in Japan
Nov. 4, 2022 • Keiko Fukuda
Returning to Japan after 50 years in the US Fumio Ouchi, who moved to the United States at the age of 25, joined the chemical company DuPont after earning his doctorate at the University of Florida. He is an expert in materials engineering and taught at the University of Washington for many years. When Ouchi retires from the university in June 2022, his final position as professor in the Department of Materials Engineering, he has chosen Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, …
Part 3: Return to Manchuria
Oct. 19, 2022 • Keiko Fukuda
Following in my grandfather's footsteps More than 40 years have passed since my mother and grandmother left Manchuria, and in 1988, 34 years ago, I put into action a plan I had been thinking about for a long time. It was to visit the former Manchuria with my mother, grandmother, and myself. At that time, I was working at a publishing company in Tokyo. I had seen the film "The Last Emperor" directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, which depicts the life …
Part 2: Postwar Repatriation
Oct. 12, 2022 • Keiko Fukuda
End of the War and the Journey to Xinjing It was in May 1945 that Emiko's father, Susumu, went to the battlefield. "Because my father had poor eyesight, he was one of the last to be drafted, and he was also the lowest-ranked soldier. He was drafted locally in Manchuria, and I saw him off at Suika Station with my mother, my younger brother Masanori, who was still a small child at the time, and my sister Fumiko. My father …
