Founder and Director
Hakuba International School Foundation

Japan Hub | ASIA

After graduating from University of Tokyo with a BA in Economics, Tomoko started her career at Morgan Stanley in the Investment Banking Division. She gained her MBA from UC Berkeley, and joined Goldman Sachs originally in the HK office, then worked in their Tokyo office and NY headquarters in the Private Equity division. She left the finance industry when she had her first child and is now a mother of three.

Inspired by the natural beauty, Tomoko and her husband moved to Hakuba, a small village in the heart of the Japanese Alps where the 1998 Nagano Olympics were hosted, to raise their family in 2009.  She aims to build a world-class international boarding school in Hakuba to be opened in 2022. The planned school will cater to students aged 12 to 18, have a strong focus on sustainability in its curriculum, and aim to be an IB school. She hopes to have all the teachers, staff, and students at her school to be immersed in Compassionate Systems Framework.

Tomoko is also highly interested in sustainability and climate change. She participated in the Climate Reality Project workshop hosted by the former US Vice President Al Gore twice. She founded Hakuba SDGs Lab, a community group aiming to promote sustainability in Hakuba, as a co-founder in April 2019, and hosted many workshops, lectures and symposiums.

Tomoko serves several committees related to education, SDGs, and renewable energy in Hakuba and surrounding areas.