Keiko Fukuda
@fukudaKeiko Fukuda was born in Oita, Japan. After graduating from International Christian University, she worked for a publishing company. Fukuda moved to the United States in 1992 where she became the chief editor of a Japanese community magazine. In 2003, Fukuda started working as a freelance writer. She currently writes articles for both Japanese and U.S. magazines with a focus on interviews. Fukuda is the co-author of Nihon ni umarete (“Born in Japan”) published by Hankyu Communications. Website: https://angeleno.net
Updated July 2020
Stories from This Author
#13 Interview with the New Owner - Los Angeles Japanese Radio TJS
Oct. 9, 2023 • Keiko Fukuda
To Internet radio In the morning when I was taking my children to school, I used to listen to the Los Angeles Japanese radio station's program "LA Morning" in the car. Later, when my youngest child graduated from high school, I no longer had the opportunity to listen to Japanese radio, but without my knowledge, TJS had switched to Internet broadcasting. By switching to Internet broadcasting, the sound quality was better than FM, there was no need for expensive radio …
Japanese-American Lawyer in Hawaii - Christine A. Kubota
Sept. 25, 2023 • Keiko Fukuda
Becoming a tour guide taking Japanese people to Japan Apart from the Shin-Issei whose parents were born in Japan, I have hardly ever met a Sansei or later Japanese American who is fluent in Japanese. At the Japanese language school in Gardena that my children attended, a girl in my daughter's class was a Yonsei. Her father was Japanese and her mother was Taiwanese American. When I had a chat with her mother, she told me the following. "I had …
Yugo Tomita, an immigration lawyer who studied abroad in the US in high school to become a truck driver
Aug. 18, 2023 • Keiko Fukuda
Experience the class-based society of America I have interviewed many new immigrants who have left Japan for the United States and are now working here. Immigration lawyer Tomita, with whom I had the opportunity to interview, has a unique reason for coming to the United States. Tomita is the representative of Tomita Law Firm, which is always mentioned as a firm in Los Angeles that has Japanese-speaking lawyers. One would think that he came to America with the dream of …
Yoshito Yonezawa, the driving force behind the Los Angeles Tanabata Festival
July 26, 2023 • Keiko Fukuda
Wants to continue but problem is lack of manpower The Tanabata decorations of the Los Angeles Tanabata Festival have been delighting visitors to Little Tokyo at the Nisei Week Festival, the largest festival for the Japanese community in Los Angeles, held every August, since 2009. The large decorations, sent from Sendai, the original site, are reminiscent of summer festivals in Japan, the country of origin for the Japanese community. I first covered the Tanabata Festival in Los Angeles in 2010, …
Joshua Thomson, a British man born and raised in Japan
July 17, 2023 • Keiko Fukuda
My grandparents came to Japan One day, a conversation between a white man and an African-American woman came up in the recommended videos on YouTube. I started watching it as recommended, and before I knew it, I had finished watching the 26-minute video. What was interesting about the video? First of all, both the white man who started the video, Joshua Thompson, and the guest, Tiffany, spoke Japanese at a native level. And judging from their appearances, the two were …
Yumi Aoyama, a new second-generation Japanese-American born and raised in the United States who spent four and a half years in Japan after graduating from college
July 3, 2023 • Keiko Fukuda
New Nisei-ness I was born and raised in Japan and moved to America, so I am what they call a "new first generation." And my children are "new second generation." However, even if we say "new second generation," their level of adaptation to Japanese language and culture varies. Whether they attended a Japanese language school or not, whether their parents spoke Japanese thoroughly at home or not, whether they attended a Japanese school during the summer vacation or not, their …
Connecting Japanese anime with fans around the world — Azusa Matsuda of Anime Expo
June 19, 2023 • Keiko Fukuda
A suffocating life in Japan Anime Expo is a large-scale anime festival held every year at the downtown convention center. It is the largest in North America, and the expo held in July 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic attracted more than 350,000 anime fans over four days. Anime Expo seems to have expanded and become more well-known every year, and I had the opportunity to get to know Azusa Matsuda, the organization's vice president of business development. I was very …
Shinya Miyata, who moved to the U.S. as a resident 41 years ago and has permanent residency, plans to return to Japan permanently soon.
May 31, 2023 • Keiko Fukuda
Final home in Japan Shinya Miyata, who I interviewed online, was smiling broadly on the other side of the screen. He told me that he had just returned to Japan after four years from Los Angeles, where entry restrictions had been lifted, and that his one month stay in Japan had been as enjoyable as a dream. "The reason I came back to Japan this time is because I hadn't been back in four years and I wanted to go …
Imagine Little Tokyo Short Story Contest – Voice Actor Mayumi Saco Reads Aloud a Winning Story
May 16, 2023 • Keiko Fukuda
Imagine Little Tokyo Short Story Contest, which calls for short stories in Japanese and English on the theme of Little Tokyo, marks its 10th anniversary this year. At its award ceremony, the winning story in Japanese is read aloud each year by a Japanese actor based in the United States. This year, however, an actor in Japan, Mayumi Saco, takes the role. Saco is one of the top-tier voice actors in Japan, known as the voice of Hollywood actresses, such …
Eriko Higa, born in Japan, raised in Bolivia, became a lawyer in the United States
April 24, 2023 • Keiko Fukuda
Both parents grew up in Colonia Okinawa, Bolivia. I first met Eriko Higa, an immigration lawyer based in Los Angeles, when I interviewed her for a newsletter for a Japanese business association. "When my father moved to the US for his job, the visa procedures did not go smoothly, and I had a lot of trouble, so I'm using that experience in my current job," said lawyer Eriko Higa. She also told me, "My grandparents were Bolivian immigrants from Okinawa, …
