I was born and raised in the City of Utsunomiya located about 60 miles north of Tokyo where we find rich of tourism, industry and agricultural resources , until I graduated high school. I started skiing since I was 6 years old as ski resorts are in handy distance and skiing is still my crucial part of my life. I was a serious swimmer, too while off season of skiing. I have been long lasting Beatles fun since I was 10 and listening 70’s/80’s classic goldies rock music is my routine even today.
Upon graduating Waseda University as bachelor of law, I started my business carrier with one of the largest Japanese conglomerate company called ITOCHU Corporation(ITOCHU) which is the commodity importer and exporter as well as the investor to every crucial industry in the global business portfolio, simply because as I wanted to have the opportunity to work overseas.
For better understanding, ITOCHU has 25% share of our grand parents company, Tokyo Century Corporation(TC)and the great-grand parent of AP Equipment Finance(AP).
I worked for ITOCHU over 33 years which included 3 times overseas assignments in Kenya, USA(Orange County CA, Detroit and Cincinnati) and South Africa . My business carrier is somewhat in conjunction with automotive industry, specially related to Japanese major OEM such as ISUZU and Mazda as ITOCHU has been equity partner of overseas distributor of these OEM.
One of my unique hi-lite in ITOCHU was the last overseas assignment in South Africa as Chief Executive Officer for Africa., overseeing ITOCHU’s commodity trade and investment activity in 48 sub-sahara African countries. In 2013, I was assigned as Chairman of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in South Africa and made various diplomatic contributions on behalf of Japan.
I joined Tokyo Century(TC) in 2014 as executive officer to oversee TC’s automotive portfolio as well as to promote M&A activity in overseas aiming to acquire a unique company playing in the industry niche. I am very honored to have assigned as a member of board of AP and am very excited about my 4th overseas assignment here in beautiful Bend where I can challenge games of golfing, fly fishing, tennis as well as my life time winter sports, skiing at my off time.