Yoshie Ito, Assistant Director of Global Initiatives at Asia Society in New York, will travel to Japan from March 7 to 14 as a member of the 2015 Japanese American Leadership Delegation (JALD) program, which brings ten prominent Japanese Americans to Japan for a week-long trip dedicated to building people-to-people connections with Japanese leaders. In its 15th year, JALD provides opportunities for Japanese Americans to establish a meaningful role in strengthening U.S.-Japan relations across all sectors of society.
The delegates will travel to Tokyo, where past delegations have typically met with the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and top business executives, among others.
At Asia Society, Ms. Ito is responsible for developing, managing, and raising money for all its global initiatives– high level international dialogues, speaking engagements, seminars, and conferences – that connect leading business figures from Japan, China, South Korea, India, and other countries in East and South Asia to their counterparts in the United States.
“My work at Asia Society is the passion of my life,” Ms. Ito says. “It allows me to deepen my knowledge and awareness of issues affecting not only Japan, but all of East and South Asia.” Ms. Ito is fluent in fluent in Spanish and can read and speak mid-level Japanese. She is also a black belt in karate and has a traditional Japanese cultural upbringing from Mexico City’s Chuo Gakuen.
Ms. Ito, a dual citizen of Mexico and the United States, was born in Mexico City of mixed Japanese and Mexican parentage. She is a graduate of Liceo Mexicanos Japonés, a K-12 school attended by Japanese immigrants to Mexico and Japanese nationals. She spent a summer in Japan as an exchange student, then received a B.A. in Banking and Finance from Escuela Bancaria y Comercial and an M.A. in Finance and Investment from the University of Exeter in England. Ms. Ito also holds an M.A.in East Asian Studies from Yale University. She is the daughter of Rafael Ito and Salomé Camacho de Ito of Mexico City.
Ms. Ito began her professional career as head of Investor Relations for Grupo Elektra, a $8.3 billion Mexican retail company. She then led StarMedia through its IPO process as the company’s Investor Relations Director, after which she became the Investor Relations Manager at Zephyr Management, a private equity firm with holdings in Latin America, Asia and Africa.
The JALD delegates come from across the country and are active in their communities, engaged in U.S.-Japan relations and committed to deepening ties between Japanese Americans and Japan. USJC President Irene Hirano Inouye will lead the delegation. The program is sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and organized by USJC.
** Yoshie Ito is available to comment before, during and after her trip to Japan. Contact USJC Communications Manager Shiori Okazaki at sokazaki@usjapancouncil.org or 202-223-6843 to arrange an interview. For more information and biographies of all ten delegates visit: http://www.usjapancouncil.org/jald
Shiori Okazaki
US-Japan Council