11th Minnesota Youth Seminar

11th Minnesota Youth Seminar ( Minnesota Career Month Seminar ) 
On the morning of February 15, 2020 (Saturday), the 11th Minnesota Youth Seminar was held at the satellite campus of Hiroshima University.
 
Mr. Minoru Nakamura of Shiseido's CPO (Chief People Officier) who he has shared his global career so far to attendees. With the cooperation of Mr. Minoru Nakamura, he explained his career and the circumstances of Shiseido. Many questions were raised from the participants even during the session, and they shared what Shiseido is aiming for in Japanese companies and what Mr. Nakamura is aiming for.
He shared his career in detail, including the events which were turning point (even though he wanted to be a police officer when he was a student).
As a message to the young professionals who participated, he summarized three things that he would have been particularly conscious of among his experiences.
Those were, "Choose where to play", "Think, Act and Win Globally", and "Be Agile / Constantly Evolve" In addition to these messages, "work can be challenging and stressful, but all your experience will be for professionalism".
After the session, Both Mr. Nakamura and participants had time to interact with each other while eating light meals, which was useful for thinking about future careers.

2019 Christmas party

On December 1st, 43 members of the Japan Minnesota Association gathered at Stockholm Restaurant in Akasaka for their annual Christmas Party. The restaurant offers delicious Nordic cuisine, which is a mother’s taste for Minnesotan.

 

MC of this year is Mr. Kota Mishina. Mr. Timothy J. Wolf, Director of University of Minnesota Foundation joined from Minnesota and donated special pins and ornaments for the auction. In addition to Tim, Ms. Mariko Usuba and Mr. Brian Emch, who took part for the first time, and Mr. Aki P. Yokoyama, Ms. Yoko Mizuno, Mr. Takehito Kamata, and Mr. and Mrs. Sano’s family delivered warm speeches.

 

Auction donors, 2019 are as follows. Mr. Kuhihiro Fujii (luxury diaries), Mr. Akihiko Yonehara (10 of U of M caps and a T-shirt)、Mr. Akitomo Tsuchiya (about 100 postcards drawing sceneries of Minnesota, by Mr. Tsuchiya, a professional painter) , Ms. Yuko Miyamoto (many goods from Mall of America) , Mr. Tadao Komiyama (a pair of shirts for golf), and Mr. Fukuda (20 kg, special rice from Hokkaido, and a calendar of 2020). Mr. Fukuda was also active as an auctioneer, as usual. The auction is always exciting and lively due to his excellent facilitating. 

 

Time flies when we’re having fun. Members said their goodbyes with smiles after a closing speech of Mr. Yamaguchi. It was another fantastic year for the JMA Christmas Party.

2019 Day of Service (took part of U. of Minn. event in Tokyo)

The Day of Service in Tokyo, 2019

 

Japan Minnesota Association took part in the University of Minnesota Day of Service on Sunday, September 29, 2019 (September 28, at Minnesota time) co-hosted with Teacher Yamazaki’s “Tokyo Benkyo Kai”, and “Nihon wo Utsukushikusuru Kai (the Society to Make Japan Beautiful)”, where Mr. Kagiyama, an alumnus of the University of Minnesota, assumes Vice President. This is the third time at Japan venue, and we have the largest number of participants, 43 people, to the event this year. The prize for the participation, a knapsack, received for UMAA, is very popular among us.

 

We started to clean as gavage collectors around Shinjuku Station area from 7 am. As you can see in the attached photos, we removed the cover of the grating of the road and took the garbage and separate from the soil, in order to prevent the flooding that recently occurred due to heavy rain caused by greenhouse effect.

 

We also learned that all gray stains on the streets are chewing gum. More time have passed, the harder it is to get off the road

2019-2020 University of Minnesota mentor

· Carlson School Mentor Program

o Invest in Others- Invest in Yourself! Registration for the 2019-2020 Carlson School of Management long-term mentor program is now open. For questions, contact the Mentorship Coordinator, Rebecca Dordel at mentor@umn.edu. The deadline for applications is Wednesday, September 25, 2019.

o The U of M College of Science and Engineering is seeking mentors for the 2019-20 academic year.  Mentors are paired one-on-one with CSE sophomores, juniors, and seniors and are asked to be in contact with their students twice per month. Contact Joelle Larson, CSE Director of Alumni Relations, at jblarson@umn.edu with questions. The registration deadline is Friday, September 20, 2019.

· Looking for other mentor programs? Click here: All U of M Mentor Programs

June 30(Sun) Summer party

The Japan-Minnesota Association’s summer party celebrating the 35 years anniversary was held on June 30 (Sunday) at Shinjuku-Mitsui Club. In the first part of the event, Koji Toyama, Professor, The Open University of Japan, gave a lecture on “100 Years of Life: Problems and Solutions in the Unknown World”. He is an appropriate speaker for the anniversary party because he established our society in 1984 as a founder.

 

During the second part of the party, Prof Toyama’s first book, “A Guide of Life in Minnesota”, handwritten in 1977, was introduced, and guests who were participating for the first time gave speeches. The party was wrapped up with the closing address by Mr. Numagata, the former president of our society.

 

U of Minnesota Alumni Association CEO visit Japan

June 5~7, 2019 University of Minnesota Alumni Association CEO Lisa Lewis visited Japan. She visited several prestigious University(Hitotsubashi U., Nihon U., Keio U.) Alumni in Japan during her 1st and 2nd day of stay in Tokyo.

Then, she invited many Minnesota related people to the industry club of Japan hall on June 6.  

Mar.31(Sun) Cherry Blossom viewing party(OHANAMI 2019)

How nice! We had a nice cherry blossom viewing party at Inogasira park Tokyo, on Mar.31. This event is a time for all of those with a connection to Minnesota to come together and enjoy both good company and the fleeting beauty of the cherry blossoms. There are almost 50 young and old people

who are interested in Minnesota joined with potluck food. The lake was

filled by many swan shaped boats. Cherry blossoms are just in full bloom.   

Feb.15(Fri) UMAA Career Month Event

On the 15th of February, Japan Minnesota Association supported a reginal network event at Restaurant AONA in Marunouchi, Tokyo, as part of the first-ever UMAA(Univ of Minn Alumni Association) Career Month. Twenty-six participants enjoyed drinking and eating, and networking activity (a game of collecting name cards).

 

We would like to continue hosting the event every February to give our members and UMAA alumni a great opportunity to think about own career developments.