Producer Nobuko Saito Cleary
Nobuko Saito Cleary is the Founder and President of Cross Cultural Communications, an international firm established in 1985 to help develop U.S.-Japan business relationships. Before coming to the United States to study at Northeastern University, she was a singer and talk show hostess for Japanese TV/Radio in Japan.
Nobuko became the first Japanese native to earn a bachelor’s degree in English from the university. She was the inaugural donor to NU’s Asian American Center and previously served on the Corporation of Northeastern University. She was awarded an MA In Linguistics from SJSU. She advanced her skills at Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
She currently serves on the Executive Boards of Directors for the Japan Society of Northern California (JSNC) and Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF). She is a Board Member and also the Chairman of Tateuchi Hall for the Community School of Music and Arts, where she continues to introduce Japanese Classical Arts and Music. She is involved with various other non-profits organizations. She has received numerous awards for her community service towards U.S. -Japan relations, such as the Foreign Minister’s Award granted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan in 2015.
She has produced two movies. One is the acclaimed “Paper Lanterns”, a film about Mr. Mori, a historian who spent decades finding the families of 12 American POWs who perished in the Hiroshima atomic bomb blast. She was honored to speak at the United Nations, when the film was screened there with Mr. Mori in attendance.
The other movie is “Challenged”, which documented stories of people with intellectual disabilities who were introduced to music. They became a famous taiko group, included in society, and the movie illustrates their path to becoming a symbol of the possibilities of anyone with challenges. The film was selected with the International Award at the Silicon Valley Asian Pacific Film Festival.
She has been working for many decades, since she left Northeastern, to bridge relations between the U.S. and Japan by bringing cultural and exchange programs that lead to better understanding. She believes film is an effective medium for education and understanding of different cultures.