Tokyo
東京

Become a Member
会員になる
About Tokyo
YPFP 東京とは

Founded in 2021, Tokyo is the newest YPFP branch and the first in Asia, reinforcing a commitment to truly global leadership. Providing a nexus of engagement for scholars, students, professionals, and thought leaders across sectors, Tokyo connects people from around the world with those living in and interested in Asia.

 

2021年に設立されたYPFP東京支部は、最も新しいYPFP支部であり、グローバルリーダーシップの強化に向けて開設されたアジア初の支部です。学者、学生、専門家、ソートリーダーなど、さまざまな分野の人々が集う場所であり、世界中の人々とアジアに住む人やアジアに関心のある人たちをつなげます。

Tokyo Offerings        私たちの活動

Engaging Events 

イベント

 International Research

 国際研究

Discussion Groups

ディスカッショングループ

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Discussion Groups
ディスカッショングループ

Peer-led communities that offer members an opportunity to gain in depth knowledge of a particular region or subject.

特定の地域やテーマについての深い知識を得る機会を提供する、仲間同士のコミュニティ。

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International Research
国際研究

Project-based opportunities to build and refine skills, while sharing and contributing to research in your field of interest.

プロジェクトを基として、自身が興味のある分野に関する研究に取り組みそれを共有しながら、スキルを獲得し磨いていく機会。

YPFP Tokyo Upcoming Events
YPFP東京のこれからのイベント

Tokyo Spring Luncheon 2022
Register here / 事前登録

YPFP Tokyo is pleased to invite you to our Spring Luncheon! This event will be held in-person on May 1, 2022 from 12:00 to 14:00 at a venue in central Tokyo. The exact location will be announced after we confirm the number of attendees.

While there is no cost to attend this event, all attendees are expected to cover the cost of their meal (estimated ￥1500-2000 + drink).

This event is open to YPFP Tokyo members and guests, and also those who are interested in learning more about our organization. We kindly ask that you RSVP by April 18 by registering for this event. We hope you’ll join us!

 

YPFP東京より春の昼食会ご招待のお知らせです！こちらのイベントは2022年5月1日の12:00-14:00に東京の都心にて開催する予定です。具体的な開催場所につきましては、参加者の皆様の人数が確定しました後にご連絡いたします。参加費はかかりませんが、参加者の皆様にはご自身のお食事代（およそ1,500-2,000円に加えてドリンク料）をご負担していただきます。YPFP東京のメンバー、ゲスト、そして当団体についてさらに知ってみたいという方々のご参加をお待ちしております！

 

参加を希望される方は4月18日までに下のリンクからご登録ください。

 https://members.ypfp.org/event-4782049 

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Did you know that YPFP Tokyo will be at the 2022 ECOSOC Youth Forum? Catch our YPFP Tokyo Communications Director, Eriko Yamada, representing us on 19 and 20 April on COVID-19 recovery: Youth taking action for a sustainable future!

ECOSOC will provide a platform for young people to engage in a dialogue with Member States and other actors on concrete actions to rebuild from COVID-19 and to advance towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Decade of Action. The 2022 ECOSOC Youth Forum is convened by the President of ECOSOC and  co- organized by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the Office of the Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth (OSGEY), in collaboration with the United Nations Inter- Agency Network on Youth Development (IANYD), and co-convened by the Major Group for Children and Youth (MGCY) and the International Coordination Meeting of Youth Organizations (ICMYO), with technical input from youth organizations relevant to the theme of the forum.

 

Youth leaders from around the world will have the opportunity to engage with government representatives, youth delegates, policymakers and other relevant stakeholders in civil society and the private sector. They will contribute to the review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs and to shaping policy recommendations at the HLPF and other Intergovernmental fora, such as the UN Transforming Education Summit, the UN Ocean Conference, the Financing for Development (FfD) Forum, among others.

Find out more here: https://www.unmgcy.org/main-news-updates/2022/3/6/ecosoc-youth-forum-2022

Latest News from YPFP Tokyo

YPFP東京の最新ニュース

Tokyo Team

YPFP-Tokyo is comprised of a diverse and accomplished team of volunteer staff who work together to manage the organization’s national and global operations, develop fruitful partnerships, and, via its base in metropolitan Tokyo, engage the robust international affairs community in Asia and the world.

東京チーム

YPFP東京は、多様で優秀なボランティアで構成されており、メンバーは共に協力してチームの国内およびグローバルな運営を管理し、実りあるパートナーシップを構築し、東京という大都市を拠点に、アジアや世界の重要な国際問題コミュニティに関与しています。


Lauren S. Power
Managing Director, YPFP Tokyo Branch

Managing Director, YPFP Tokyo Branch

Professor of Global Humanities, Temple University Japan

Researcher and Ph.D. Candidate, University of Tokyo

Lauren is an award-winning researcher, author, speaker, and migrant advocate. She is an Adjunct Professor of Global Humanities at Temple University Japan and a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Tokyo with a focus on understanding the economic and social lives of highly skilled migrants. Lauren is the Founder and Managing Director of YPFP Tokyo Branch. Lauren is currently a contributing researcher to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-OHCHR) and is the Co-founder of the University of Tokyo Violence Against Women Working Group (UT-VAW).

Lauren was the Founder and Country Leader for the Japan Migration Working Group of the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth (UN-MGCY), leading comprehensive international research and publications on youth and migration and was selected as a civil society spokesperson for the United Nations Asia-Pacific Regional Review of the Global Compact for Migration in 2021. In 2020, Lauren was appointed Head Delegate of the American Delegation to the G20 Youth Summit (Y20) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and was selected for the Global Dialogue Fellowship. Lauren has subsequently served as a member of the C20 Working Groups on the 2030 Agenda and Education and Global Citizenship for the 2021 G20 Summit in Rome. Lauren previously worked as an Official for the OECD, an entrepreneur starting her own consultancy, and a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal for Human Security Studies Special Edition and the Refugee Review.

Lauren Power
ローレン・パワー

Tokyo Managing Director

東京マネージングディレクター


Eriko Yamada
Communications Director

Communications Director, YPFP Tokyo Branch

Student, University of Tokyo

Eriko is an aspiring scholar in the field of education for minority and marginalized children. She is a half-Chinese and half-Japanese fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Tokyo majoring in Japanese and East Asian cultural studies. Her undergraduate thesis looks at how state-based and non-state-based education shape and influence the educational opportunities and outcomes of ethnic minorities in Japan. Eriko is the Communications Director of YPFP Tokyo Branch.

Eriko was a founding member of the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth (UN-MGCY) Global Compact for Migration (GCM) Japan Working Group and has co-authored the Japan Country Report on Youth Consultations for the UN-MGCY GCM National Reviews series in 2021. From 2020 to 2021, Eriko worked in collaboration with the New York Times as an editor, graphics designer and the Head of Translations for the UTokyo English student publication Komaba Times, advocating for students from multicultural backgrounds in Japanese universities. She is also involved in the translation of educational materials and the provision of English language education at the University of Tokyo.

Eriko Yamada
山田江理子（やまだえりこ）

Communications Director

コミュニケーションディレクター


Chikara Uchida
Programming Co-director

Programming Co-director, YPFP Tokyo Branch

Research Associate, Toyo University

Project Researcher, University of Tokyo

Chikara is a researcher and lecturer on the twentieth-century Japan, and book author of the books on World History and Global History. He is a Research Associate at the Center for Sustainable Development Studies, Toyo University and Project Researcher at the University of Tokyo. He is a Programming Co- director of YPFP Tokyo Branch. Since 2017, he has been a Judge in History Category at the Global Undergraduate Awards, which is an NPO in Ireland. He is working on the history writings in the twentieth-century Japan, with special focus on historians in the 1980s.

He received his Ph.D. in 2020, and his dissertation was a monograph about the social engagements in the 1980s by a social historian on the Middle Ages. Recently he also has a keen interest in the history narrative of modern scholars on forestry and ecology. Chikara was a member of the Japan Migration Working Group of the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth (UN-MGCY). He is a type of researcher who actively engages with real issues such as migration and refugees, while focusing on historiography in his research activities.

Chikara Uchida
内田力（うちだちから）

Programming Co-director

プログラミングコーディレクター


Adrijana Miladinovic
Programming Co-director

Programming Co-Director, YPFP Tokyo Branch

Master of Arts in Sociology, Keio University

Junior Optimisation Coordinator, Better Collective, Serbia

Adrijana is a published author and a speaker in the field of race and migration studies. During her studies, she has received multiple scholarships to support her studies and her research, allowing her to travel across borders and experience different cultures. After completing her undergraduate studies in Japanese language, literature, and culture at University of Belgrade in Serbia, she obtained her Master of Arts degree in Sociology at Keio University, Japan in March, 2020 as a MEXT scholar of the Japanese government. While studying in Japan and after, Adrijana has had several opportunities to speak at conferences and share her research findings and receive feedback from other experts. She was also a member of the UN-MGCY GCM Japan working group, during which time she has had the opportunity to write multiple papers and share her own experience as a migrant.

Adrijana has worked at Keio University as a teaching assistant for graduate-level courses and has taught Japanese in the Japanese language proliferation project of the Embassy of Japan in Serbia. Adrijana has had experience working as an English language teacher, a manga translator, and an SEO coordinator as well. At present, she continues her research in the field of sociology, focusing on race and ethnicity, and especially on White supremacy narratives. She intends to expand on this research as a PhD student in the future but is currently striving to share and increase her knowledge through her role as a founding member and Programming Co-Director at YPFP Tokyo Branch.

Adrijana Miladinović
アドリヤナ・ミラディノヴィッチ

Programming Co-director

プログラミングコーディレクター


Xin ‘Charlie’ Qing
Membership Director

Membership Director, YPFP Tokyo Branch

Student, the University of Tokyo

Academic-year Exchange Student, Princeton University

Student, Vantan Design Institute Career College

Xin is an undergraduate student at the University of Tokyo, enrolled in the International Program on Japan in East Asia (PEAK - JEA), with two sub-major programs in Linguistics and Cognitive Neurosciences. She is a research student in the Global Leadership Program (GLP-GEfIL) at the University of Tokyo, with two independent research projects: one looking into the correlation of birth rate, domestic chores, and family model in Tokyo, and the other on the role and potential of Japan-based transnational corporations in Jakarta in reconstructing colonial memory and redefining monumentality. Xin is also a part-time student in the Graphic Design course at Vantan Design Institute Career College, Tokyo.

Xin has worked as a simultaneous interpreter (Japanese to English) at the Japan Society for International Development (JASID) in 2019. She has done translation work for the East Asian Academy (EAA) at the University of Tokyo, published in Frontiers of Literary Studies in China (2021, Volume 15 Issue 1). Xin is the Membership Director of YPFP Tokyo and has designed posters and post-event surveys for various webinars hosted by YPFP Tokyo. Xin is currently an academic-year exchange student at Princeton University, with her study and research foci on East Asian Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Xin ‘Charlie’ Qing
青馨 (キンシン)

Membership Director

メンバーシップディレクター


Akari Takahashi
Communications Officer

Communications Officer, YPFP Tokyo Branch

Student, the University of Tokyo

Akari is an undergraduate student at the University of Tokyo majoring in liberal arts with a focus on Japan and East Asia. Having spent her childhood across several countries, including the United States, China, and Spain, Akari’s current interest lies in the impact of globalization on different socioeconomic and racialized groups around the world and the ways in which network effects of globalization can be utilized to minimize current disparities in the distribution of human security and resources. From her studies at the University of Tokyo, she has become particularly devoted to tackling the global refugee and migration crisis, believing that it is the culminated, brutal symptom of an unsustainable form of globalization that is concurrent today, in which resources are distributed highly unequally throughout the world in a way that puts refugees and migrants at the greatest risk of death. Her research focuses on the role of media in portraying such groups of people as invaluable lives and its interrelations with policymaking.

Akari Takahashi
髙橋明李（たかはし あかり)

Communications Officer

コミュニケーションオフィサー


Yusuke Kumaki
Communications Officer

Communications Officer, YPFP Tokyo Branch

Student, Faculty of Economics, the University of Tokyo

Yusuke is a student who has broad interest in a variety of academic fields. He entered the College of Arts and Sciences, the Junior Division of the University of Tokyo in 2019, and went on to the Faculty of Economics, the Senior Division there in 2021. Apart from economics as his major, he studies at the East Asian Academy for New Liberal Arts (EAA) and Global Leadership Program (GLP-GEfIL).

Yusuke has experienced several bilingual tasks and studies, which surely helps him fulfill the role of Communications Officer in YPFP. The earliest bilingual role given to him was the translation task at the magazine circle called Komaba Times at the University of Tokyo, in collaboration with the New York Times, in 2020. He also used to conduct group research on overseas workers in Japanese nursing care in 2020 and 2021, which was bilingual research mainly conducted in English and sometimes in Japanese supplementally. In 2021, he joined the translation team of Tokyo for India, which has been reaching out to help those in India suffering from the Covid-19 pandemic through crowdfunding to aid local NGOs and actual support activities in India.

Yusuke Kumaki
熊木雄亮 (クマキ ユウスケ)

Communications Officer

コミュニケーションオフィサー

Brian Hu
Communications Officer, YPFP Tokyo Branch

Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, University of Tsukuba

Originally from the US, Brian decided to move to Japan straight out of high school in order to experience a different cultural background. After two years of Japanese Language school, Brian obtained the MEXT scholarship, starting at the University of Tsukuba and graduating in March 2022 as a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. His research is centered on early childhood adversity (such as maternal neglect and extreme environmental stress on mothers and children) on the future development of psychopathologies in offspring, using mice as an animal model to simulate life experiences. Brian has worked for 3 years as an undergraduate research assistant at the Laboratory of Behavioral Endocrinology and has presented at JSBN 2020 for a joint project with Professor Aki Takahashi.

Brian has experience working in education as an English teacher in both Japan and Indonesia. He also has extended Japanese/English translation experience for research settings and start-up companies. He considers furthering his education as a PhD student in Clinical Psychology in the future, but is currently striving to grow professionally in Japan.

Brian Hu
ブライアン・フー

Communications Officer

コミュニケーションオフィサー


Helix Tsz Yuen Lo
Membership Officer

Membership Officer, YPFP Tokyo Branch

Master’s student, Graduate School of Arts and Science, the University of Tokyo

Helix is a graduate student at the University of Tokyo in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Having been engaged in public affairs for years, with a major in political science and minor in criminology during undergraduate studies, his interests majorly lie in the fields of political behaviour, comparative politics, political philosophy and youth issues. In 2019, he was selected for an exchange with Meiji University of Japan, where he found his interests in Japan and decided to devote himself to Japanese society in the future.

Helix has worked for the City University of Hong Kong as a research and teaching assistant for around two years. He used to work as a district developer, debate coach and manager in various companies and organizations as well. These experiences have forged him to be a skillful, sophisticated and philosophical man, and will be contributive through the role as a Membership Officer at YPFP Tokyo Branch. At present, he is working on research in relation with political behaviour, and intends to expand his knowledge further on language and philosophy.

Helix Tsz Yuen Lo
羅梓源（ラヒリックスシゲン）

Membership Officer

メンバーシップオフィサー


Marin Ekstrom
Programs Officer

Programs Officer, YPFP Tokyo Branch

Writing Instructor, Toyo University 
Research Assistant, Central Asia Watch Project 

Marin is currently a Programs Officer at the Tokyo branch of Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, as well as a Writing Instructor at Toyo University and a Research Assistant with the Central Asia Watch project. Marin has extensive experience in teaching English as a foreign language. She has taught in China, Russia, Finland, and Japan and has worked with a wide range of age and ability levels. She enjoys the procedural components of language education-- that is, presenting abstract grammatical and vocabulary concepts in a manner that is clear, concrete, and applicable to real life-- as well as the intercultural exchange aspect of teaching. Marin also has a strong background in international relations. She has a Master of Arts degree in International Relations from Central European University, where she wrote her thesis on Russia and Japan's territorial dispute over the Southern Kuril Islands through the frameworks of neoclassical realism, ontological security, and two-level game theory. Her primary research interests include Eurasian integration and language rights and education. She has explored these research interests through her current work with the Central Asia Watch Project, as well as her prior experience with the e-think tank The Eurasia Research and Analysis Institute and the non-governmental organization The Institute for Cultural Relations Policy Budapest. Her shorter articles have been published by such outlets as The Diplomat, Modern Diplomacy, the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs, the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia's blog, and the Wilson Center-Kennan Institute's blog. She has also published academic articles in the Cultural Relations Quarterly Review and the ICRP Human Rights Issues Series (currently under review). Marin is looking forward to pursuing additional research projects and becoming more actively involved in foreign policy research community both in Tokyo and beyond. 


Marin Ekstrom
マリン・エクストロム

Programs Officer

プログラムオフィサー


Byron Muhlenberg
Programs Officer

Programming Officer, YPFP Tokyo Branch

Director of Business Operations, United States Air Force

Byron is an active-duty officer currently assigned as the Director of Business Operations to the 35th Contracting Squadron at Misawa Air Base, Japan. He oversees 45 personnel providing acquisition support to both joint and bilateral Army, Navy, and Air Force operations throughout Northern Japan and the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. He currently holds his unlimited Contracting Officer warrant which ensures the execution of the 35th Fighter Wing's largest acquisitions. His previous assignments include the Defense Contract Management Agency, serving as the Space Systems Administrative Contracting Officer, and Yokota Air Base, Japan. He is a member of the Air Force's Language Enabled Airman Program with a target language of Japanese. He has used his language and cultural expertise in support of various bilateral and mutlilateral excercises and taskings including COPE NORTH, NORTHERN VIPER, and the Bilateral Defense Okinawa Working Group. 

Byron recieved his commission in 2014 as a distinguished graduate from the United States Air Force Academy and earned his B.S. in Biology and a minor in Japanese. He received his Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern California in 2021. He is a member of the Pacific Forum's Young Leaders Program. He currently focuses his efforts on security issues such as alliance cooperation, logistical support, and international civil-military relations. 

Byron Muhlenburg
バイロン・ミューレンバーグ

Programs Officer

プログラムオフィサー


Courtney Halverson
Programs Officer

Programs Officer, YPFP Tokyo Branch

Courtney is currently an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) with the JET Programme located in Minakami, Gunma, Japan. She teaches English as a second language to first through sixth graders across three elementary schools in her town. Her impetus for pursuing the JET Programme was to return to Japan and continue to grow her fluency in Japanese, while gaining further international experience in hopes of working in diplomacy in the future. 

Courtney graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelors of Arts in Global Studies (with a focus in International Politics and regional concentration in Asia) and minors in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and Information Science. Her undergraduate thesis focused on a comparative study of post-conflict statebuilding projects in Japan (following World War II) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (following the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s). Throughout this project, she became particularly interested in the concept of local ownership and the ethics of statebuilding or peacebuilding via external powers. While in college, Courtney interned for the Duke-UNC Rotary Peace Center, and was offered an internship with the US Agency for International Development, which was unfortunately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After graduation, Courtney interned for a Human Rights Think Tank, where she was able to contribute to numerous research reports centering human rights and assist in the planning and running of several civil society events focused on the UN. Courtney's current research interests broadly include political development and human rights. While, specifically, she has recently been interested in democratic backsliding, populism, regression on human rights protections in emerging 'illiberal' democracies, and the impact of globalization and history education on nationalism. All in all, Courtney is passionate about exploring solutions to better peoples' lives through democratic means and institutions. 

Courtney Halverson
コートニー　ハルバーソン

Programs Officer

プログラムオフィサー


Tristan Norman
Programs Officer

Tristan Norman is a Tomodachi alumnus and 2020 graduate from Hendrix College, a small liberal arts school in Arkansas, with an interdisciplinary major in Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, with a thesis focused on climate adaptation, social innovation, and green growth in Japan and China. In 2018, he was a Tomodachi Kakehashi Inouye Scholar to Japan and studied at United International College, a Liberal Arts College near Hong Kong. Since graduating university in 2020, he participated in the UNITAR United Nations Young Leaders Program, based in Geneva, and interned at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs at the UNHQ in New York, working on issues related to the impact of COVID-19, climate change, and digital and frontier technologies on young people.

 

At UNDESA, he contributed to the 2021 World Youth Report, published a UN Policy brief on digital public goods and youth inequality, and assisted in designing a Science, Technology, and Innovation strategy for UNDESA. Additionally, in 2022, he served as a US Youth delegate for the US-UN Youth Consultation for the United Nations Climate Strategy. Tristan is particularly interested in emerging global trends and how we can utilize multi-sectoral and multi stakeholder partnerships to design a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient future. Currently, Tristan is an Assistant Language Teacher with the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program in Kami-Cho in Northern Hyōgo prefecture and wants to pursue a career in international affairs focused on Asia-Pacific Studies.

Tristan Norman
トリスタン・ノーマン

Programs Officer

プログラムオフィサー

Jay Makhijani
Programs Officer

Jay is a recent undergraduate focused on finance. He is an experienced professional with a demonstrated history of working in the non-profit organization management industry. Skilled in non-profit organizations, fundraising, research and development (R&D), business development, and business strategy, he has worked in various capacities. Currently, Jay is  part of the Global Policy, Diplomacy, and Sustainability (GPODS) Fellowship and part of the BIED society as a fellow for the Indo-Pacific region.

Jay Makhijani
ジェイ・マキジャニ

Programs Officer

プログラムオフィサー

Volunteer with us

ボランティアになる