2022 World Affairs Council of the Year
Network of Independent World Affairs Councils of America

Consul-General of Japan Kayoko Fukushima | Aug 4

Consul-General of Japan Kayoko Fukushima

Host Karl Dean, Former Mayor of Nashville and Member of the Board, TNWAC

Co-Host John Scannapieco, Head, Global Business Team, Baker Donelson

Moderator, Patrick Ryan, President, TNWAC

In this episode former Nashville Mayor Dean will talk with Consul-General Kayoko Fukushima of Japan. Nashville is home to the Consulate.  Japan and the Nashville region have a long history of friendship and collaboration. Our economic connections go back decades with Japanese-owned companies like Nissan, Bridgestone and Mitsubishi making Nashville their North American headquarters. Over 19,000 Middle Tennesseans go to work each day in Japanese-owned companies.

Japan is the state’s and the region’s largest foreign direct investor nation both by job creation and capital investment. To put some context around exactly what that means, we would have to add up the jobs created by the next 4 countries to get close to Japan’s 19,000 jobs. The roots of our relationship may have been built on business connections but it is the people who have made this relationship flourish.

Consul-General Fukushima assumed her role as Consul-General of Japan in Nashville in December 2019. The Consulate of Japan in Nashville services the states of Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. This is Consul-General Fukushima’s  third diplomatic posting in the United States. She has held a variety of posts at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in Tokyo and has extensive experience working with the United Nations having served as the founding director of the UN Women Japan Liaison office based in Tokyo.

Among the topics that may be discussed:

  • The role of the Consul-General and the Japanese Consulate
  • Japan-US and Japan-Tennessee relations — commercial, cultural and friendships
  • JET (Japan Education and Teaching) Program
  • Impact of Japanese economic and cultural influences on Nashville
  • The new social media work at the Consulate
  • The Tokyo Olympic Games set for July 23, 2021
  • Consul General Fukushima’s goals for the time she will be posted in Nashville

Consul-General Kayoko Fukushima

Consul-General Fukushima assumed her post as Consul-General of Japan in Nashville in December 2019. This is her third diplomatic assignment in the U.S.; she received a Master of Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University in 1985 and served at the Consulate-General of Japan in New York (1993-1996). The Consul-General has extensive experience working with the United Nations. She served as a Program Officer at the United Nations University (2003-2006) and as the founding Director of the UN Women Japan Liaison Office (2015-2017), both based in Tokyo.

Consul-General Fukushima joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA) in 1981 after receiving a Bachelor of English Literature from Sophia University. She has held a variety of posts at MOFA headquarters in Tokyo, most recently serving as Director of Diplomatic Archives (2017-2019). Prior to that, she held several posts in the Minister’s Secretariat, including as Senior Coordinator of the Public Diplomacy Strategy Division (2014-2015) as well as Assistant Chief of Protocol (2011-2013). She served overseas at the Embassy of Japan in Ireland (1985-1988) and the Embassy of Japan in Thailand (2006-2008).

Consul-General Fukushima is married with two adult daughters.

Karl Dean was the sixth mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County. He was elected on Sept. 11, 2007 and was re-elected on Aug. 4, 2011. He completed his second term in office on September 25, 2015. Dean first held public office when he was elected as Nashville’s Public Defender in 1990, a post he was re-elected to in 1994 and 1998. He served as Metro Law Director from 1999 to January 2007, when he resigned to run for the office of mayor. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Vanderbilt. Dean was the Democrat Party nominee for Governor of Tennessee in 2018. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee World Affairs Council.

John Scannapieco is head of the global business team at Baker Donelson. He assists U.S. and foreign clients in connection with the sale or disposition of assets, as well as the negotiation and drafting of distribution, manufacturing, employment and agency agreements throughout the world, including the United States, Central and South America, Europe and Asia. He works with a variety of U.S.-based companies in connection with their business activities in China, Europe, the Americas and Africa. He also advises companies that are contemplating pursuing a China strategy, as well as those companies that are currently doing business in China or with China-based businesses.  Mr. Scannapieco serves as Honorary Consul from Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Tennessee. He is a board member of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce’s International Business Council and has served as a chairman of the board of the Japan American Society of Tennessee. He also serves as a board member for Tennessee-China Network, Tennessee World Affairs Council and Belmont University Center for International Business. He has been recognized by Mid-South Super Lawyers in International Law.

LCDR Patrick Ryan, USN (Ret) is a native of New York City. He enlisted in the Navy at age 17 and volunteered for submarine duty. He served aboard nuclear fast attack and ballistic missile boats during the Cold War, rising to the rank of Chief Petty Officer. In 1982 he was commissioned and served aboard a cruiser in the Western Pacific before becoming a Navy Intelligence Officer. Ryan served aboard the carrier Constellation in the Pacific, the Joint Staff Intelligence Directorate in the Pentagon, the Center for Naval Analysis, and the Intelligence Directorate of U.S. Central Command. Ryan retired from the Navy in 1998 and worked as a consultant on Intelligence Community projects and as the VP/COO of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations. Ryan ran a newsletter publishing business on international affairs from 1999-2016. He founded the Tennessee World Affairs Council in 2007.

PROGRAM PARTNERS

THANKS TO BELMONT UNIVERSITY’S CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

THANKS TO THE NASHVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS COUNCIL