Consul-General Watanabe Attends the Japan-America Society of Tennessee (JAST) Annual Meeting

On May 24, Consul-General Watanabe attended the Japan-America Society of Tennessee (JAST) Annual Meeting held at the Tennessee State Museum. Consul-General Watanabe opened the annual meeting with a keynote speech in which he thanked JAST for the contributions it has made to building Japan-Tennessee relations. A session was then held in honor of Dr. Jim Auer, former director of the Center for U.S.-Japan Studies and Cooperation at Vanderbilt University, who passed away on May 16, with remarks by U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty, Dr. Auer’s daughter Helen Girard, Torkel Patterson (Senior Advisor at Central Japan Railway Company), and Suzanne Basalla (Partner at Geodesic Capital). The annual meeting concluded with a fireside chat on U.S.-Japan relations, moderated by JAST Board Chair Masami Tyson, with Ambassador Shigeo Yamada, Japanese Ambassador to the United States of America, and Senator Bill Hagerty as speakers.