JCCC Celebrates New Year with Rakugo Performance, Games, and Raffles
A Janken tournament (rock-paper-scissors tournament) tests good luck of the attendees before the Raffle event.
The Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Chicago (JCCC) celebrated the 2024 New Year at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel in Schaumburg on January 14, featuring traditional rakugo performer Tozaburo Yanagiya as the special guest. About 530 JCCC members and guests attended the gathering and enjoyed Yanagiya’s performance, janken games, and big raffles.
Yoshio Goto sings the national anthem of Japan and the U.S.
Wakana Shibusa (Nichien Production) and Kai Mitsushio (G2.com, Inc.) emceed, and a moment of silence was held for the victims of the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake. The New Year’s party started with the national anthem of both Japan and the United States, led by Yoshio Goto, JCCC’s former advisor.
Opening Remarks by Chairman Akihiko Shono
JCCC Chairman Akihiko Shono
2024 JCCC Chairman Akihiko Shono (Sumitomo Corporation of Americas) was elected and approved again in the General Membership Meeting held on the morning of the day.
In his opening remarks, Chairman Shono outlined the history of the JCCC, which started in 1966 with 58 participating companies and organizations and now has about 500 members, one of the largest Japanese Chamber of Commerce in the U.S. He thanked JCCC members, senior colleagues, and local people for their long-time commitments and warm supports to make JCCC’s significant advancement and called for further supports and cooperation from the members.
He explained the JCCC’s three primary missions as follows:
(1) Making plans and implementing much-needed events such as business seminars for its members and promoting business interactions between Japan and the U.S.
(2) Continuing to support the local education effort for Japanese students through Chicago Futabakai Japanese Day School and Saturday School
(3) Contributing to the local communities as a corporate citizen through the JCCC Foundation (established in 1991), which provides grants to education-related organizations. Since its inception, it has granted more than $6 million to date.
Shono mentioned other JCCC’s activities such as participating in Chicago Japanese Picnic and Japan Festival and said, “We’ll keep the meaning of JCCC existence in the right direction and continue to strive for advancing our presence in local communities and the U.S., while we very much appreciate warm support from local people,” he said.
He also thanked many companies that donated money and prizes, and committee members for organizing the New Year's party, and called for continued support and cooperation.
Greeting Remarks by Consul General Jun Yanagi
Consul General Jun Yanagi
In his greeting remarks, Jun Yanagi, Consul General of Japan in Chicago, expressed his sympathy to the New Year's party participants from the Noto Peninsula earthquake-stricken areas and their families and friends. He also informed the participants that President Biden and many American friends had sent their messages of sympathy and offered assistance to the people in the Noto Peninsula disaster areas, including Schaumburg’s sister city Namekawa in Toyama Prefecture, and thanked for their kindness.
Consul General Yanagi spoke about three important tasks of the Consulate General in Chicago.
1. Assisting Japanese companies, which are operating in the Midwest, especially, in the Chicago area.
Japanese companies in the 10 states under the Consulate’s jurisdiction have been highly admired and trusted by governors, local authorities, and community people. He expressed his respect for those Japanese companies who are loved not only for their contribution to the economy and employment but also for their contribution to the local communities and Japan-U.S. exchanges as U.S. corporate citizens.
He then invited them to feel free to contact the Consulate office if his office could be of any assistance with new investments, plant openings, anniversary celebrations, and so on. In addition, intending to deepen understanding with the local community and expand two-way trade and investment opportunities, he has been planning to restart the grassroots caravan, a cooperative project with JETRO Chicago to visit Japanese companies in the 10 states.
2. Ensuring the safety and security of Japanese nationals: This is a top priority task of the Consulate General in Chicago, and his office will strive to ensure the safety and security of Japanese nationals, although there would be some issues with the application of U.S. laws, the actions of administrative ministry authorities, and the personnel limits of the office.
3. About the JCCC: JCCC has supported Japanese Speech Contests and Japanese language education institutions through the JCCC Foundation, participated in events like Japan Festival and Nikkei picnic to promote people-to-people exchanges, and operated the Chicago Futabakai Day School and Saturday School. As the Consul General, Yanagi appreciates their activities and his office will work together with them.
At the end of his remarks, Yanagi explained "The U.S.-Japan Tourism Year 2024," the first such year designated by the two countries. This year, which runs from 2024 to March 2025, aims to promote not only tourism but also business-people exchanges and sister-city relations. He said, "I look forward to working with all of you to make this event a great success.
Greeting Remarks by Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly
Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly
Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly welcomed JCCC’s New Year’s Party at the Renaissance Convention Center Hotel, and on behalf of the Village Board, he expressed their condolences to the Japanese community and families who were impacted by the series of devastating earthquakes.
Mayor Dailly said, “It is not aware, but Schaumburg is home to the second largest number of Japanese businesses in the state of Illinois with more than 60 Japanese companies, so we are very familiar with many families here and close tied to homeland. With such a strong connection to the Japanese people, Schaumburg offers our community support during a time of healing and rebuilding.”
Mayor Dailly said as the product of the relationship with Japan, Rapyuta Robotics set up its first U.S. office in Schaumburg last year, and the executives of the Sunstar visited to see him talk about economic development matters with the Village Board. “Now we have great investments of Japanese businesses in Schaumburg,” he said.
He mentioned that Japan ranked the fourth and top country of origin of the foreign-born population in Schaumburg, and said, “We are pleased to continue welcoming the Japanese community and its commerce in Schaumburg. We know you find Schaumburg is the place for business in Illinois.”
New Year’s Resolution by Rintaro Kishi
Rintaro Kishi, Senior at Chicago Futabakai Japanese School, Saturday High School
Rintaro Kishi, Senior at Chicago Futabakai Japanese School, Saturday High School, expressed his aspirations for this year, saying that he would like to do his best as "a person who can contribute even in small ways.”
In Myanmar, where Kishi used to live, there is a New Year's festival in April, and the people sprinkle water on each other to purify themselves and pray for the happiness of the other. In hot Myanmar, jars filled with water are placed everywhere on the roads for thirsty people.
Such the spirit of altruism is shared well among the people of Myanmar; thus, there is no word in the Myanmarese language to express gratitude. “A person, who did something good for someone, interprets it as a great opportunity for him/her to step up their human quality, so they never expect to be thanked by other people,” Kishi said.
On the other hand, wars and conflicts have been repeated over and over again in some regions of the world, and Kishi began to think that the keyword for facing such times would be “altruism.”
Kishi spoke to the audience, “I was impressed by the Myanmarese’s wisdom which was ‘give and give’ rather than ‘give and take.’ So I think if all people in the world start a new year with altruism, we’ll have a chance to make a better world.”
Kishi is about to graduate from high school and has reached a turning point in his life where he has to make a major decision regarding his future. He has continued to be active in the student council to see if there is anything he can do to help and is currently serving as President of the student council.
“I’m going to continue to shift to a spirit of ‘give and give’ to the extent that I can, and devote myself to being a person who can contribute to even small things," he said of his resolution for the year 2024.
Rakugo Performance by Tozaburo Yanagiya
After a luncheon, the fun began with Tozaburo Yanagiya’s rakugo performance.
Tozaburo Yanagiya III was born in 1976 in Tokyo, Japan. He entered an apprenticeship with Master Gontaro Yanagiya III in April 1999 and received the Okamoto Maki Award in 2003 for his contribution to rakugo performance culture. He assumed his professional name Tozaburo Yanagiya in 2014 as a shinuchi and in 2016 received the 71st Japan Arts Festival Newcomer Award in the Popular Arts Division. After moving to New York in 2019, he has been actively performing Rakugo in English in the U.S. and Canada, with a passion for spreading the traditional Japanese art of Rakugo around the world.
Tozaburo-san went on tour to commemorate 10 years since becoming a shinuchi and 5 years since moving to the United States. He bought a car for the first time, packed it with tatami mats, a zabuton (Japanese cushion), and a scarlet carpet, and went around the U.S. and Toronto, Canada. Part of the tour was by air, of course, and the goal of the tour is a rakugo performance at Carnegie Hall on April 22.
Tozaburo-san created an organization called the RAKUGO Association of America, which is abbreviated as RAA. He has asked for donations to the organization, but “Some people donated to Rifle Association of America by mistake," he said and immediately drew laughter from the audience.
After the laughter, Tozaburo-san began to talk about a short rakugo story in English. Its title was “The Monkey.”
A family car had an accident and all were taken to the hospital. When the police officer questioned the monkey, which was in the car with the family, he found that the child was engrossed in a game, the mother was napping, and the father was drinking. Now, who was driving...
Then Tozaburo-san went on to the main subject, an English rakugo story called "Zoo.” A man, who had no luck at any job, got a job at a zoo. The man was happy to have an easy job with no experience required, but he had to wear white-tiger suits and wander around a cage. An announcement in the zoo calls out to the visitors that a deadly battle between a white tiger and a black lion is about to begin. The black lion immediately enters the man's cage. What will be the fate of the man who is shaken by the unexpected turn of events? The action of the shivering white tiger and the black lion coming with its big mouth open was very powerful in the rakugo story.
Rakugo stories often invite the audience to the Edo period of the samurai world. Tozaburo-san performed “Sanma in Meguro” in Japanese, a story about a lord in a strict samurai society who cannot even eat delicious grilled saury because that fish is a vulgar food.
Tozaburo-san received applause from an audience of over 500 and was presented with a bouquet of flowers by Chairman Shono.
Raffle Taikai
The final round of excitement at the New Year’s Party was Raffle Taikai.
10 winners play janken games with Consul General Yanagi to win the first, second, and third place.
Before that, janken (rock-paper-scissors tournament) was held as a "test of luck.” Each table picked a winner, and rock-paper-scissors continued among them until 10 winners were left. Then the 10 winners went up on stage and continued to play rock-paper-scissors with Consul General Yanagi until three winners remained. The three winners then played a decisive game to determine the first, second, and third place. The janken tournament was both thrilling and hilarious.
Finally, Raffle Taikai began, with the sixth to first place winners of the luxurious prizes being drawn on the stage. There was also a lucky draw for a round-trip ticket from Chicago to Tokyo on All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, and a lucky draw for a ticket on United Airlines with a choice of destination. The audience cheered and sighed, and the event was a great success.
Closing Remarks by Atsushi Nakao
Atsushi Nakao (ANA), Chair of the New Year's Party Committee
Former President of JCCC Atsushi Nakao (ANA), Chair of the New Year's Party Committee, prayed for the victims of the Noto Peninsula and called for cooperation in the JCCC's ongoing fundraising campaign for the victims. Donation guidelines can be found on the JCCC website at https://www.jccc-chi.org.
Nakao commented that although this year's event was held on a smaller scale than usual for various reasons, the 530 participants got together despite the extreme cold weather and enjoyed rakugo performances by Yanagiya Tozaburo in a close setting.
He also thanked the sponsors of the New Year's party and the 23 members who volunteered to serve on the committee. "The Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Chicago has committed to serving those who have ties to Japan in the Chicago area for over half a century. We look forward to having your continued support in the future," he concluded his closing remarks.