About Us
The Japan Society of Boston, Inc., is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote cultural and economic ties and active interchange between Japanese and Americans for mutual understanding, business exchange, social connection, and friendship. We serve as a programming nexus for individuals, institutions, and businesses linked together by a strong interest in Japan and a shared recognition of the importance of the U.S.-Japan relationship.
Staff
Naoko Takayanagi
Executive Director
Remy Kaldawy
Volunteer
Arianna Ruhoy
Intern
Julia Napier
Operations
Danielle Cochran
Volunteer
Joanne Ha
Program Manager
Noah Coltani
Volunteer
Naoko Takayanagi was born and raised in Tokyo. She received a B.A. in Modern Languages from McGill University and an M.A. in International Public Administration from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. She worked in corporate banking, asset management, and financial translation, and has extensive experience teaching Japanese.
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Remy Kaldawy was born in New York and grew up in the greater Boston area. He is currently a student at Columbia University, where he studies mathematics. He has a passion for Japanese literature, which he has been cultivating since stumbling upon Kobo Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes. His favorite Japanese author is Yukio Mishima, the majority of whose works he is proud to have read. When he’s not puzzling over math, you can find him reading literature of all types, struggling to squeeze a half hour of exercise into his day, and scouring the mean city streets for a decent café.
Arianna Ruhoy is a student at Tufts University where she is majoring in International Literary and Visual Studies. She studies literature and film from around the world including Japan.
Arianna has studied Japanese language and culture at Tufts, the summer Middlebury Language School, and at Doshisha University in Kyoto. She is currently working on her senior thesis inspired by Japanese women writers of the Heian Era. In her free time, she enjoys listening to the songs of Hiromi Iwasaki, making mizuhiki knots for gifts, eating dorayaki with her friends, and
writing and illustrating.
Julia Napier has a BA in East Asian Studies and a minor in Art History. She has spent three years in Japan and loves learning about Japanese pop culture, traditional culture, literature, film, and food.
Danielle Cochran has studied the Japanese language for almost 20 years. She has a BA in East Asian Studies and minor in Japanese Language from UMass Boston. The first time she lived in Japan was to study at Intercultural Institute of Japan and the second was for an internship at the Sakae Institute of Study Abroad. Her interests include gaming and horror movies!
Joanne Ha was born in South Korea, and was raised in a multilingual and multigenerational household in Maryland. She graduated from Boston University with a BS in Film and Television, a BA in Religion, and a minor in Japanese language. Outside of JSB, she works as a freelance videographer and her current hobbies include tennis, nail design, and crochet!
Noah Coltani was born in Seattle and attended public schools in Tokyo throughout his childhood summers. His family lives in Setagaya-ku, and he enjoys visiting them every summer and winter. He graduated from Boston University and is currently attending Boston University School of Law.
Board
ADVISORY BOARD
Lawrence K. Fish
Heisuke Hironaka
Robert D. Reischauer
PRESIDENT EMERITUS
Peter M. Grilli
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
*denotes Executive Committee
Brian Chiappinelli*
Glen S. Fukushima
Andrew Gordon*
Todd Guild
William W. Hunt, Chairman*
Kiyoshi Kurokawa
Midori Morikawa
Kiyoko Morita*
Susan Napier
James Nuzzo, Treasurer*
Bernard Pucker
Roger T. Servison*
John A. Shane, Vice Chair*
John Sinclair
Hirotaka Takeuchi
Keiko Thayer
Mikio Yoshimura
Contact Us
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Japan Society of Boston
50 Milk Street, 16th Floor
Boston, MA 02109
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JSB History
The Japan Society of Boston began as an informal discussion group sympathetic to Japan in the Russo-Japanese War. Until it disbanded during World War II, the Society was primarily an informal social organization, and mainly hosted visiting Japanese dignitaries.
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Under the leadership of the late Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer, with his return to the U.S. and to Harvard in the late 1960s, interest in the U.S. Japan relation in Boston and the surrounding regions was revived. In the late 1970s, the Society began to expand, acquired office space, and hired its first part-time staff member. Beginning in 1980, the Society received a series of milestone grants from the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission that enabled it to hire a full-time executive director, expand its membership, increase its level of programming, and introduce new publications and other services.
The Japan Society of Boston has continued to thrive and grow, and currently offers its members and the general public a wide array of programs and informational services.