Words to Remember: Glen Fukushima

Words by Ellie McGuire; Photos by the '23-'24 HIS Publications Team

Background

Glen S. Fukushima is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he focuses on U.S.-East Asia relations. Mr. Fukushima has had a lot of achievements throughout his career, such as being nominated to serve as Vice Chair of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation by President Biden on October 14, 2021. Furthermore, the United States Senate officially confirmed him to this position on April 6, 2022. Another thing to add is the jobs Mr. Fukushima has partaken in throughout his life. After graduating as a scholar from Stanford University, he worked his way through many jobs such as a lawyer at the law firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. From 1990 to 2012, Mr. Fukushima was a senior business executive representing several major multinational corporations. He was elected to serve for two terms as President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. With all of this being said, having Mr. Fukushima deliver a speech about the many issues surrounding Japan and U.S. relationships was a great opportunity for all of our student participants to learn more about the world.

 

The Speech

On December 5th, 2023, a small group of our high school students departed by bus to arrive at Sapporo University. Sapporo University is a private university founded in 1967 in Sapporo, Japan. It is open to both Japanese and international students with the hope of supporting students to achieve their future goals. Upon entering the building, students were led to an auditorium room where they waited for Mr. Fukushima to arrive and start the event. As more and more students poured into the open seats, the lights started to dim, and the room quieted down. A few moments later, Mr. Fukushima walked onto the stage with a smile and a wave. He started off his talk with an introduction about himself and an overview of what he would be talking about. After that, his first main topic was the future of U.S. and Japanese relations. Solutions that could help to lessen the topic were presented with the hope that students who are looking forward to working in politics keep these issues and ideas in mind for their future. The speech lasted from 1:00 to 2:20 with the main focus being on how to deal with major issues happening around the world, such as the Israel-Gaza and Ukraine Wars. Mr. Fukushima provided a professional view of what it is like dealing with these kinds of issues first-hand and how tough of a decision it is to choose which side to support. This has been a wonderful opportunity for students to learn about the career of a professional figure and we are grateful to Sapporo University for allowing us to witness it with them. We hope for more opportunities to explore and let our students learn about the different issues happening worldwide every day.