Anthony Al-Jamie
Anthony Al-Jamie lived and worked in Japan for over 20 years. His in-depth understanding of Japanese language and culture has allowed him to carry out interviews with many of the most renowned individuals in Japan. He first began writing for the Tokyo Journal in the 1990s as Education Editor, later he was promoted to Senior Editor, and eventually International Editor and Executive Editor. He currently serves the Tokyo Journal as Editor-in-Chief.
Virtually Falling in Love
Breaking the Glass Ceiling in Virtual Reality
Women Around the World Are Virtually Falling in Love with Voltage Inc.'s Japanese Romance Apps
While considered new to the United States’ app market, user-generated romantic storytelling apps have had a solid place in Japan’s mobile entertainment industry for over 15 years. Since its founding in 1999, Voltage Inc. has been the leading pioneer in the market for online drama and romantic storytelling. With user generated storytelling apps, such as My Forged Wedding and Be My Princess, aimed at a dominantly female audience created by a primarily female workforce, Voltage consistently ranks first in the entertainment category of app stores not only in Japan, but also 48 other countries including the United States. In addition to creating multiple award-winning romantic simulation games, Voltage has succeeded in cooperating with new communication platforms such as LINE, proving it can adapt to new technologies. In 2012, Voltage opened its first U.S. brand, bringing the Japanese virtual reality romance apps straight to a growing fan base. Tokyo Journal’s Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie met with Voltage CEO Yuji Tsutani to talk about the business’ success with female-oriented user games and the challenges of expanding into the U.S. market.
Loudness
Thunder in the East
Loudness Celebrates 30th Anniversary of Breakthrough Album
Japanese heavy metal band Loudness has long been an innovator in the Japanese music scene. They made history by securing a U.S. contract with Atlantic Records and were the first Japanese rock act to perform at Madison Square Garden. They stand out in their unique determination to become a truly international heavy metal band. They have released 26 studio albums, five of them in the U.S. The band’s roster has changed multiple times since 1981, with the current lineup consisting of the original members — lead singer Minoru Niihara, guitarist Akira Takasaki and bassist Masayoshi Yamashita — and later joined by drummer Masayuki Suzuki in 2009. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie sat down with Minoru Niihara to learn more about his time with Loudness.
Justin Baldoni
Actor Justin Baldoni
Making a Difference Through Entertainment and Social Media
Born in 1984 in Los Angeles, California, Justin Baldoni was raised in Medford, Oregon with a Jewish and Italian background. Raised in the Bahá’í Faith, Baldoni strives to make his work a form of service. He has appeared in television shows and films including Disney Channel’s e Suite Life of Zack & Cody and NBC’s Heroes, which led to a leading role in the award-winning TV show, Jane the Virgin. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie spoke to Baldoni about his experience taking part in the Youth and Leadership Panel at the Dalai Lama’s Global Compassion Summit, the importance of his Bahá’í Faith and how it has become the basis for a few of his current and upcoming projects.
Loretta Sánchez
Congresswoman and U.S. Senate Candidate Loretta Sánchez
Weighing in on Climate Change and Nuclear Weapons at the World Compassion Summit
Congresswoman and U.S. Senate candidate Loretta Sánchez has represented California in the United States Congress for the past two decades. Her district in Orange County includes the cities of Anaheim, Santa Ana, Orange and Garden Grove. A graduate of American University’s MBA program, Congresswoman Sánchez holds a senior position on the House Armed Services Committee and is the second-highest ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee. She is the founder and co-chair of the Women in the Military Caucus, co-chair of the Immigration Task Force, and also a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, and the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, preparing the U.S. for missile or nuclear attacks. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie caught up with Loretta Sánchez while she was in Washington, D.C., and talked with her about her role in the Global Compassion Summit.
Walter Munk
Walter Munk
The World’s Greatest Living Oceanographer Strives to See the Tide Turn in the Battle Against Climate Change
Born in 1917, Walter Munk is an Austrian-born American geophysicist and oceanographer whose groundbreaking studies of ocean currents and wave propagation set the foundation for oceanography as we know it today. He is a professor emeritus of geophysics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, where he earned his Ph.D. in oceanography. Also holding a master’s degree in geophysics and a bachelor’s in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), his work in the science of wave prediction became part of the planning for the D-Day landings in 1944, and he has done pioneering research in ocean sound transmission, deep-sea tides and even climate change. He has won numerous awards during his research career, including the National Medal of Science in 1983 and the 1999 Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences — the first time it was awarded to an oceanographer. He was the inaugural recipient of the Prince Albert I Medal in the physical sciences of the oceans, which Prince Rainier of Monaco created in cooperation with the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans. He even has an award named in his honor — and in 1993 he was the first recipient of the Walter Munk Award given jointly by the Oceanography Society, the Office of Naval Research and the U.S. Department of Defense Naval Oceanographic Office. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie talked with Walter Munk about hisextraordinary career, the Dalai Lama’s 80th ebration and the World Compassion Summit.
Dr. Veerabhadran Ramanathan
Dr. Veerabhadran Ramanathan
Atmospheric Scientist Believes Religion and Compassion Across Borders are Keys to Stopping Global Warming
Dr. Veerabhadran Ramanathan, known simply as “Ram,” discovered the greenhouse effect of halocarbons in 1975. Along with climatologist Roland Madden, he predicted in 1980 that global warming would be detectable by the year 2000. He is a distinguished professor at the University of California at San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and oversees a University of California initiative for all 10 campuses to become carbon neutral by 2025. His most recent proposal — that the mitigation of short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon, methane, ozone and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) will slow global warming significantly this century — has been adopted by the United Nations and 30 countries. Dr. Ramanathan believes that while science and technology are needed to solve global warming, the underlying solution is to change people’s attitudes toward nature, and to make this happen a religious leader is required. This belief led him to serve on Pope Francis’ Council for the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie spoke to Dr. Ramanathan about climate change and his part in the Dalai Lama’s Global Compassion Summit’s panel discussion entitled “The Global Impact of Climate Change.”
Rajiv Mehrotra
His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Personal Student, Rajiv Mehrotra
The Trustee the Dalai Lama's Foundation for Universal Responsibility
A close personal student of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Rajiv Mehrotra is the Trustee and Secretary of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility, established by the 14th Dalai Lama with the Nobel Peace Prize funds he received in 1989. In addition, he is a writer, television producer and director, and a documentary filmmaker. He is also well known as the acclaimed host for over 20 years of In Conversation: one of India’s longest running talk shows on public television, that features distinguished interviewees including heads of state and Nobel Laureates. He has published nine books in more than 50 editions and a dozen languages. Mehrotra was educated at the University of Delhi, Oxford University and Columbia University, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts in film direction. He has been managing trustee, executive producer and commissioning editor of the Public Service Broadcasting Trust, which has produced more than 650 independent documentary films that have won more than 230 awards from 1,300 film festival screenings. He has also served on the Government of India’s Steering Committees of the Planning Commission to recommend policy and strategies for information broadcasting and dissemination of information technology. He addressed two plenary sessions at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, held earlier in 2016. At the Forum he was nominated “Global Leader for Tomorrow.” Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie spoke with Rajiv Mehrotra on the occasion of the 80th birthday celebrations of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, about his long association with His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a student, and the lessons that he has tried to learn from his spiritual guide. Among the many issues that he discussed, particularly significant is the one on the challenges of practicing compassion.
Tom Tait
Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait
The "City of Kindness" Initiative that Brought His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Anaheim, California
Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait’s “City of Kindness” initiative was instrumental in His Holiness the Dalai Lama choosing the city of Anaheim to celebrate his 80th birthday in July 2015, as well as in bringing together thought leaders for the Global Compassion Summit in Orange County, California. With a juris doctorate degree and an MBA, Tom Tait has served 10 years on the Anaheim City Council and is in his second four-year term, which began in 2010, as the mayor of Orange County’s most populous city, while also serving as the CEO of an engineering and environmental services firm. He spearheaded Anaheim’s program to help the homeless and introduced “Drug Free Anaheim,” a program that encourages chronic drug users to ask for help at Anaheim police stations in exchange for a free ride to a rehabilitation center. He has also worked toward improving relations between the Anaheim police and residents. Tait is known for standing up for what he believes in, even when this means holding his ground against the city’s corporate giants. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie talked to Mayor Tait about his trip to India to meet the Dalai Lama and Anaheim’s celebration for the spiritual leader’s 80th birthday.
US Sumo Open
US Sumo Open
The World's Largest Annual Sumo Tournament Outside Japan
Founded by Andrew Freund in 2001, the US Sumo Open is the largest annual sumo tournament in the world outside of Japan, with over 400 sumo wrestlers, including numerous past and present World Sumo Champions. Through his organization, USA Sumo, Freund has arranged for sumo wrestlers to appear in over 20 films, 250 television shows, 300 television commercials, 500 live events and numerous other public appearances. These include such films as Ocean’s Thirteen, Memoirs of a Geisha and 47 Ronin, plus commercials for Nike, Doritos, Ford and other brands. Freund spoke to Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie about his event and how the roots of the US Sumo Open trace back to Tokyo Journal, while four sumo stars shared their thoughts on the sport.
The Harlem Globetrotters
The Harlem Globetrotters’ “Buckets” Blakes
Ambassadors of Basketball and Goodwill Celebrating 90 Years
The Harlem Globetrotters are celebrating nine decades of combining basketball with family-friendly comedy and theatrics. Over the years, the team has performed in over 26,000 exhibition games in 122 countries, with around 450 live events every year. Wilt Chamberlain was a Globetrotter before joining the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he became a legend. In the 1970s, not only were Globetrotters like Meadowlark Lemon and Fred “Curly” Neal household names, but they also made guest appearances on TV shows and cartoons, as well as having their own Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon program. In 2013, three Globetrotters, including guard Anthony “Buckets” Blakes, made history by performing in an exhibition game in North Korea in front of the Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Kim Jong-un, and retired NBA all-star Dennis Rodman. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie talked with “Buckets” about the history of the team, their community outreach and traveling the world for basketball.