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Eleven Hawaii business executives will be in Japan from Saturday through Aug. 29 to perform service projects in areas still struggling after the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
The theme of the trip by members of the Hawaii Asia Pacific Association is "Leading from the Heart," and the group will team up with business and cultural leaders from Japan.
The areas the group will be working in are safe, said Duane Kurisu, chairman and CEO of aio — a media, sports, food and technology company. Kurisu is also a HAPA executive committee member.
The group going to Japan includes Jason Fujita, vice president of consumer sales, Hawaiian Telcom; Marko Miljkovic, floor manager, Servco Pacific; Kristen Yamane, strategic planner, the Queen’s Health Systems; David Hinazumi, vice president, Grove Farm Co.; Brandon Kurisu, president, Upspring Media; and Jason Fujimoto, senior vice president and COO, HPM Building Supply. Brandon Kurisu is Duane Kurisu’s nephew, and Upspring Media is among the elder Kurisu’s business holdings.
The Japanese colleagues with whom they will work include a corporate officer from Pokémon, the director of Japan’s fashion week, a 16th-generation potter, a fifth-generation noh theatrical performer and a professional go (board game) player, among others. The Japanese group earlier came to Hawaii for cultural immersion activities and local-style leadership training led by Glenn Furuya, president and CEO of Leadership Works.
The group will not just sit around in conference rooms talking. Rather, members will get their hands dirty harvesting and processing sea urchins, oysters and scallops to help a fishing family in Kesennuma whose business was decimated by the disaster.
Among other projects, the group also will pick and process special flowers to assist a small Japanese cosmetics company in Iwate prefecture "that has an exceptional reputation for what it does," Kurisu said.
The combined group will evaluate several projects for possible long-term collaboration, such as possibly re-branding a food company whose products are not selling due to consumer fears over radiation, or perhaps forming a partnership with a nonprofit that helps social-benefit-geared entrepreneurs get established in Third World countries.
Many affected areas still need help rebuilding, and of those, "there are areas that really need a lot of help," Kurisu said. A goal of the group is to get "companies back on their feet" because they employ people, he said.
When HAPA leaders travel to Asian countries, "we feel it is part of our responsibility to leave something of value for the countries that we visit, and we think, What better way to do this than to help them with their future?" Kurisu said. Young Hawaii business leaders also will benefit from helping others through working with "some of the best and brightest young leaders in Asia," he said.
KAWANO RETURNING TO HER ROOTS
Former KGMB-TV sports reporter and producer Lynn Kawano is returning to Hawaii for a job at Hawaii News Now after 17 years of career- and résumé-building and ice hockey-loving on the mainland. She also plays the sport, according to her bio on the website of KDFW-TV in Dallas.
Since she left the islands, she has worked as a morning anchor and executive producer or as a reporter and fill-in anchor at stations including KBCI-TV (now KBOI) in Boise, Idaho; at KCTV in Kansas City, Mo.; and for the last nine years at KDFW, where she has one more week of work before packing up her home, husband and children for the big move.
"It’s very stressful," she said of the move, but of actually returning to Hawaii, she said, "I’m so excited." Kawano grew up in Pearl City and graduated from St. Andrew’s Priory and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Parenthood spurred the move. "I’ve always wanted to come home, but (the children) really triggered it," she said. "It became like now or never, because once they get older it’s harder to move them."
With retired parents, aunties, cousins and her best friend all living in close proximity, "the support system is there," she said.
Her husband hails from Austin, Texas, and while moving to Hawaii may require some adjustment, "he loves Hawaiian food, he loves manapua and he loves my family," she said.
At Hawaii News Now she will be a law enforcement-focused general assignment reporter, and her target start date is Sept. 12 because "I don’t want to start on Friday (the 13th). … I’m superstitious," she laughed.
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