Japan Society Presidents Elected

The Harvard-Radcliffe Japan Society last night elected Hiroyu Hatano '95 and Justin L. Massengale '96 as its new co-presidents on a platform calling for an "open forum" between Asian student associations on campus.

Although the new co-presidents said they will also emphasize social activities and culture in Japan, much of the discussion concerned the proposed forum. Hatano said this forum--whose structure is still undefined--would "stress equal footing for all Asian organizations."

"If we do agree, it's powerful to have a unified voice. If we don't agree, it's still a spokesman for all of the organizations," she said.

The two new co-presidents said they will try to decide whether they will support the creation of an umbrella organization per se, and if so whether that organization will be the Asian American Association (AAA) or the recently proposed Alliance of Asian Organizations (AAO).

The idea for a forum between all of the Asian groups was first proposed by outgoing co-presidents of the Japan Society, Amy E. Kadomatsu '94 and Kentaro K. Relnick '94, in the form of the AAO.

Other officers elected were Masanobu Horiyama '96, vice-president, Franklin S. Barreno '95, secretary and Jonathan N. Rezneck '96, treasurer.

The Japan Society, with 60 regular members, currently holds food festivals and films and hopes to bring back a Japanese language table. Twelve people attended last night's meeting. Massengale said, "We certainly want to make Japan's society more visible in a cultural sense."