Meet our Board of Trustees

Chancellor of Showa Women’s University

Chancellor Bando graduated from the University of Tokyo and was later a visiting fellow at Harvard University. Dr. Bando joined the Prime Minister’s Office in 1969, beginning what was to be a distinguished career as a public servant. In 1995, she became vice governor of Saitama Prefecture. In 1998, she became Japan’s first female consul general with an appointment to Brisbane, Australia. In 2001, she became director-general of the General Equality Bureau of the Cabinet Office. In 2004, Showa Women’s University invited her to serve as a professor and director at its Institute for Women’s Culture. She went on to become vice president of the university in 2005 and president in 2007. In 2014, she was elected chair of Showa’s Board of Trustees, and in 2023 became chancellor of the entire Showa school system. Dr. Bando serves on numerous boards, appears regularly in the media, and has authored over 40 books, including the best-seller The Dignity of a Woman, which sold over three million copies in Japan and has been translated into several languages. She has honorary doctorates from Queensland University of Technology and Temple University Japan.

Dr. Gordon earned his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1981 in History and East Asian Languages after completing a B.A. from Harvard in 1975. He is the Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Professor of History at Harvard, where his teaching and research focus primarily on modern Japan. He has written, edited, or translated numerous books and has published articles in journals in the United States, Japan, Great Britain, France, and Germany. At Harvard, he has served as chair of the History Department (2004-07), director of the Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies (1998-2004 and 2010-2011), and acting director of the Asia Center (2016-2017). In 2011, while serving as director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies, Dr. Gordon led the Institute in founding the Japan Disaster Archive (http://jdarchive.org). His publications include Fabricating Consumers: The Sewing Machine in Modern Japan (2011), Nihonjin ga shiranai Matsuzaka mejaa kakumei [Matsuzaka’s Unknown Major League Revolution] (2007), A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present (2002), The Wages of Affluence: Labor and Management in Postwar Japan (1998), Postwar Japan as History (1993), Labor and Imperial Democracy in Prewar Japan (1991), and The Evolution of Labor Relations in Japan: Heavy Industry, 1853-1955 (1985).

After graduating from Keio University in Tokyo, Japan with a degree in Economics, Mr. Hoshino started his career in the insurance business at Tokio Marine and Fire Insurance Company. At Tokio Marine, he was involved with the insurance and finance sides of the business in both domestic and international markets. His assignments included the Osaka branch office, the International Department as a manager , the Underwriting Department as a deputy general manager , and New Financial Markets as a group leader . He also spent six years at the New York branch office. In 2006, Mr. Hoshino joined Atradius Credit Insurance N.V., a multinational credit insurance company based in Amsterdam, and was appointed its legal representative for Japan and CEO of its Japan operation. In 2022, he joined Showa Women’s University as director-general at the Central Administrative Office.

President of Showa Women’s University

Dr. Kanao earned a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Tokyo. He started teaching Life Aesthetics at Showa Women’s University in 1992 and later helped establish the Environmental Design Department while taking on other duties such as director of Admissions. His research topics include legible path and road design in urban environments and urban planning and community development (Machizukuri). He has been recognized in his field and won such prizes as the 5th Digital Design Competition and the Nagahama-Kanebo Town Development Competition Residential Housing Division. His numerous articles include “Route Selection in Tokyo's Road Network: A Study of Route Selection for Intra-Urban Travel by Car” (1996), “Modeling of Residable Paths: A Study on Route Choice in Intra-Urban Travel by Car” (1994), and “A Study on Route Selection for Automobile Travel in Urban Areas” (1992). Dr. Kanao has also spoken extensively on such topics as “Research into the Organizational Management of Community Development and Other Activity Groups” (2017). He was appointed as a member of the Board of Trustees and president of Showa Women’s University in 2023.

Dr. Kawahata earned her B.A. and M.A. in English and American Literature at Showa Women’s University and her Ed.D. at the Boston University School of Education. She has taught in Showa’s Department of English and American Literature and Department of International Studies for over 30 years, and currently holds the positions of professor of International Studies, dean of Faculty of International Humanities, chair of the Department of English and American Literature in the Graduate School of Letters, and research scholar at the Institute of Women’s Culture. Dr. Kawahata has published numerous articles, including “Introducing World Literature: And Then There Were None” (2010), “College Life and the Image of Women as Represented in College Fiction” (2007), and “Repressed Narratives and the Road to Self-Made Woman in The Promised Land” (2006), and co-authored several books, including Literature, Labor and America (2010), College Fiction: The Image of Women and College Life in American Literature (2010), and The World of William Styron (2008). In addition, she has contributed to the partial translation of American Literature: The Essential Glossary by Stephen Matterson in 2010. She also serves as a member of Showa Women’s University’s Board of Trustees.

President of SHOWA Boston Institute

Dr. Stronach earned his M.A. MALD, and Ph.D. at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1980 after completing his B.A. at Keene State College in 1974. He has spent his entire career in Japanese and American institutions of higher education, including serving as an assistant professor at Tokyo’s Keio University and as a researcher at Keio’s Shimbun Kenkyujo and Sangyou Kenkyujo; professor of Japanese Studies and dean of the International Relations program at the International University of Japan; COO, provost, and acting president of Becker College in Worcester, Massachusetts; president of Yokohama City University; and dean of Temple University’s campus in Japan (TUJ). Among other positions, he has also served as the vice chair of the Japanese University Accreditation Association; Advisory Group Member at the United Sates – Japan Conference on Educational and Cultural Interchange (CULCON) Education Task Force; and as a member of the Tsukuba University Advisory Council. Dr. Stronach has authored and co-authored several books and numerous articles on Japan and Japanese higher education, including The History of Temple University Japan: An Experiment in International Education (2023), Globalization: The Future of Japan and the World (2022), and Beyond the Rising Sun: Nationalism in Contemporary Japan (1995). Dr. Stronach was appointed president of Showa Boston Institute in 2023.

Mr. Yamazaki graduated from the University of Osaka and studied at the London School of Economics. He started his career in the Japanese government’s Cabinet Office, and his later assignments included director of the General Affairs Division at the Cabinet Office’s Gender Equality Bureau, director of the General Affairs Division of the Statistics Bureau, counselor of the Minister's Secretariat at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, first secretary at the Embassy of Japan in the United States, director of the National Archives of Japan, and ambassador of Japan to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mr. Yamazaki is currently president of the Japan Public Relations Association, auditor for the Japan International Education Association, and chair of Showa Women’s University’s Board of Trustees.

Mr. Yoshikawa graduated from International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan, and completed the AMP at Harvard Business School. He joined Mitsubishi Corporation in 1997 and held such positions as manager at the Bahrain office and the Atlanta office, assistant general manager in the Regional Coordination Dept, executive assistant to the President & CEO, general manager of the Singapore Branch; general manager of the Regional Strategy & Coordination Department, senior vice-president and general manager of the Global Strategy & Coordination Department, senior vice-president and chief regional officer of Middle East, United Arab Emirates office, and executive vice-president and regional CEO for Middle East & Central Asia. After retiring from Mitsubishi Corporation, Mr. Yoshikawa became a corporate advisor at Mitsubishi Research Institute, and became its executive vice president, COO, and senior corporate advisor. Since 2021, he has been serving as an advisor to the chancellor and visiting professor (department of Business Design), research fellow at the Institute of Current Business Studies) at Showa Women’s University. He is also vice chairman and the executive director of the Japan Singapore Association and its outside director.