Cultural Brand Strategist: Managing expectations across borders. Bridging the gap between Western brand identity and Japanese cultural reality, backed by three decades of technical, creative, and marketing leadership.
I am a legitimate American (to some "The American") and Western business face, not the stereotyped one. Being American is not a racial monolith; it encompasses Black, Brown, White, and Asian identities alike. Yet, overseas culinary and premium lifestyle brands routinely compromise their expansion by outsourcing strategy to consultants based entirely on an outdated, superficial … Continue reading The White Face Fallacy: Who Really Opens the U.S. Market for Japanese Brands
Unlike other ethnicities in the U.S., the vast majority of us Asians identify by our specific ethnic backgrounds. The day we go by "Yellow" (the official future color code for the Americanization of Asians in the U.S.) so that we fit neatly among White, Black, and Brown people, I say, "Maybe so, sir, but not … Continue reading Being an American with 123 years of Japanese Ancestry in the United States
Nowadays, with the internet, everybody expresses what they think without any accountability for what they say. Feelings and opinions often overshadow facts, so itโs no shock to hear comments like, โI do not care about Asians. What have they done for the Black community?โ To be clear, solidarity is not a zero-sum game, but here … Continue reading Japanese American Activists in the Civil Rights Movement, Here Are the Facts, Not My Feelings
Thatโs how I felt when I submitted my immediate response to their editorial, so it was not a one-way street. Yeah, that picture is of my dad (far left) who was interned at Rohwer (individual number 26285F). This is a personal response I originally published on Oishii-desu.com after The Denver Post used the internment of … Continue reading Cultural Critique: Exploiting My Fatherโs Internment for Political Narrative