Tokyo Speaks

Tokyo Speaks


Latest Episodes

One Woman's Passion for Social Impact
October 06, 2020

Episode 88: Angela Ortiz is the founder of the volunteer-led nonprofit, Place to Grow, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Senior Manager at Adidas Japan. In this episode, we discuss the following topics with Angela: Growing up in Japan's countrysi.

Black-Owned Anime Studio Makes History in Japan
September 22, 2020

Episode 87: In 2016, Arthell Isom and his twin brother, Darnell Isom, founded D'ART Shtajio Inc. - the first foreign-owned anime studio in Japan. Arthell and his studio has worked on projects for Netflix, Grammy Award-winning music artist, The Weeknd, an.

Japan's Travel Ban: Personal Stories from Foreign Residents
September 01, 2020

Episode 86: Sibyl Kane (lawyer), Christopher Key (engineer), and Elisa Ovalles (student) share their personal stories of how they were affected by Japan's COVID-19 travel ban.    [Follow Elisa Ovalles] @simplekyotolife Read Trapped in Japan by Elisa Oval.

Getting to Know the Organizers of Black Lives Matter Tokyo
July 14, 2020

Episode 85: Sierra Todd and Jaime Smith are organizers of the Black Lives Matter Tokyo Peaceful March. On June 14, 2020, Sierra and Jaime—along with the rest of their team—put on Tokyo's largest Black Lives Matter event, which drew more than 2,000 attend.

Destigmatizing Periods
June 30, 2020

Episode 84: Marina Yoshimura is the Founder and President of PERIOD@Tokyo, which is a chapter of the parent organization PERIOD. In this episode, Marina tells us why she decided to start a chapter of PERIOD in Japan. We'll also discuss various aspects of.

Cyberpunk Girl: Using Tech to Inspire
June 16, 2020

Episode 83: Steffie Harner is a Software Engineer at Code Chrysalis; Co-Founder of Startup Lady Japan; and Cyberpunk content creator/influencer. Steffie came to Japan simply to fulfill her childhood dreams, but a series of events led her to co-founding a.

COVID-19 Tokyo: Community Check-In
April 18, 2020

Episode 82: Returning guests, Robin Lewis, Kayoko Hirano, and Yan Fan, join Tokyo Speaks remotely to talk about how they're adjusting to this new reality caused by the Coronavirus (COVID-19). Although we all are dealing with a global pandemic that has im.

Forging Your Own Path
April 07, 2020

Episode 81: Amber Chook is Co-founder of Zebra Global and Founder of TEDxRoppongi (an independently-organized TEDx event in Tokyo). Amber moved to Mie, Japan from Harbin, China at the age of 15, and she was placed in a high school that had low expectatio.

Machine Learning Tokyo
March 24, 2020

Episode 80: The featured guests are Machine Learning Tokyo (MLT) members Suzana Ilić (co-founder), Dimitris Katsios, and Asir Saeed. MLT is a Tokyo-based nonprofit organization dedicated to democratizing Machine Learning (ML). They are a team of engineer.

Foreign Moms in Tokyo
March 10, 2020

Episode 79: Ebony Norwood-Brown and Barbara Kobayashi are teachers and moms residing in Tokyo. This episode is all about their experiences of motherhood - more specifically, motherhood from the perspective of two foreign (American) women. We discuss topi.