Introducing the fantastic committee of ICEE 2021!

ICEE Founder: Kuryu (Michihiro) Matsumoto

Born in 1940, Kuryu Matsumoto is the founder of ICEE, now in its 34th year. He is an expert
English speaker who had never studied abroad, but he became an interpreter for the US Embassy.
He is the author of many books, including his latest, The Unafraid Onomatopoeia Dictionary
from Japanese to English by Sakura-sha. Formerly an advanced English conversation instructor
at NHK, he is the inventor of Hexagonal Debate, which fosters logic and emotion. He iscurrently the anchorperson of Musubi Channel online and President of Matsumoto Online
Academia. He is a proponent of the Way of English “Eigo-do” and promotes Japanese culture
overseas. He is Director of Kodokan and President of the International Debating Society.

ICEE Chief Judge: David K. Groff
A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, Mr. David K. Groff is an educator, writer, andtranslator, as well as a practitioner and researcher of traditional Japanese martial arts and culture.
In 2012, his new translations of the writings of 17th-century swordsman and strategist MiyamotoMusashi were published in London as The Five Rings: Miyamoto Musashi’s Art of Strategy byWatkins Press.
He is currently an associate professor in the School of Global Japanese Studies at Meiji
University, where he mainly teaches language and communication, and an adjunct professor at
Aoyama Gakuin University, where he teaches culture studies. Mr. Groff has been an ICEE judge
since 2013.

Secretary of the ICEE Steering Committee: Sachiko (Jasmy) Sekura

Ms. Sekura is ICEE’s 2011 Grand Champion. She has been Secretary of the ICEE Steering
Committee since 2012. She became a member of Kodokan and assistant to Mr. Michihiro
Matsumoto in 2010. She is a graduate of Waseda University where she studied Russian literature.
After graduation, she worked for a publishing company and then taught at a public junior highschool before moving to Paris with her family. After returning to Japan, she ran a Benesse
franchise school. Currently, Ms. Sekura runs BE studio Misawa School. She also teaches Englishat a private junior and senior high school. She supports Hunger Free World and has attended theInternational Conference in Ethiopia. She is committed to education for SDGs.

ICEE Administrative Support: Yoshie Takashima

Ms. Takashima is an ELT instructor at LACOMS and iCOM staff. She used to work as a juniorhigh school teacher at Tokyo Metropolitan for 18 years. She previously took part in theproduction of GLOBAL INSIDE, Mr. Matsumoto's internet program distributed by NONESCHANNEL.

ICEE Judge: Nafisa Minai
Educator, translator, editor, writer. Long term resident of Japan and proficient in Japanese.
Enamored of Japanese traditional arts and crafts and an avid student of the performing arts.
Years of experience teaching in public and private schools, as well as planning curriculum andcontent for junior and senior high school students. Currently researching pre-war education andtexts.
Involved with Matsumoto Sensei’s Kodokan and ICEE since time immemorial. As a judge forICEE, I have been privileged to meet and work with remarkable people who each bring a uniqueperspective to language learning and teaching.
Publications include Eigo de Yoji Jukugo and a Japanese translation of “Look Me in the Eye” by
Barbara McDonald and Cynthia Rich.

ICEE Judge: Neil Butler
Mr. Butler, 63, graduated from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia with a Bachelor ofBusiness degree. He first arrived in Japan in 1982. He has 40 years of experience in business inJapan and throughout Asia. He has held senior management positions for internationalorganizations for the past 38 years. He has experience in trade facilitation, branding,management, business development and international business. He implemented Australia's
largest single consumer marketing program in any overseas market; the now famous ‘Aussie
Beef’ brand in Japan.
Mr Butler returned to Australia in 2001 and worked as an advisor for the Australian Government
to assist over 250 companies gain export access to international markets. He re-branded andre-positioned Australia's largest regional university.
Mr. Butler returned to Japan in 2009 to run a media/marketing business. He is now President &CEO of Japan Partnership Holdings Inc. He has a strong desire to build bridges between Japanand the world by helping Japan improve its communication and connections.
ICEE MC and Judge: Namiko Tsuruta

Ms. Tsuruta is currently Program Director of Global Language Institute and Creative Director ofthetokyolife.jp. A Japanese returnee, she has taught in the States and Japan for 28 years. She isalso a bilingual teacher trainer with 18 years of experience working with ALTs and JTEs. Her
interests include primary and secondary school English education, oral communication, fluency,
learner identity and autonomy.

A frequent ETJ and JALT presenter, Ms. Tsuruta has been the MC for ICEE since 2016. She
attended Choate Rosemary Hall and the University of Michigan, where she studied piano
performance at the School of Music, Theater and Dance and majored in psychology.

ICEE Judge Andrew Tinashe Soda

Mr. Soda was born in Zimbabwe and raised in Dallas, Texas. After spending the majority of hislife in the States, he relocated to Japan in 2011 and started gaining recognition as a singer. Mr.
Soda has been an ICEE judge and performed on stage for our participants for many years. His
unique narrative and his passion for singing, music and people warms our hearts every year.

He officially became Gospel Square's partner artist in 2011 and participated in a recording for a
JPOP cover album alongside other professional musicians. In 2012, he become a contestant forのど自慢 The World and represented Zimbabwe. In 2014, he sang backup vocals for Yoshi
Kazuya of the Yellow Monkeys at the Budokan.

In 2018, Mr. Soda started TISU, a NPO dedicated to helping disenfranchised children inZimbabwe. He is a guest speaker in schools, and collaborates with many musicians in live andlive-streamed performances 5 times a year. In June 2022, he will launch a debut EP featuring anarray of talented musicians.

ICEE Judge: Andrew T. Kamei-Dyche, Ph.D.
Dr. Kamei-Dyche is an associate professor in the School of Global Studies and Collaboration at
Aoyama Gakuin University. He has an M.A. (UBC) and Ph.D. (USC) in Japanese history, and hea scholar of Japanese book history and print culture, specializing in the history of reading andpublishing. He is particularly interested in studying networks among publishers and intellectuals,
and is also interested in the history of media and media culture in general. His publications

include articles on publishers, bookstores, and reading. He is currently working on one
monograph about reading spaces in modern Japan and another on the publisher Iwanami Shoten.

ICEE Judge: Matthew Ownby

Mr. Ownby is Tedx Speaker with 20 years of experience working at NASA, Cisco, etc., andhelping business people become better presenters in sales and training. He has conducted training
for hundreds in more than 10 countries across Asia and Europe. He is the former head of theJapan branch of Toastmaster International, an NPO for public speaking, and he was also involved
in helping social entrepreneurs improve their pitches while working with YY Contest, HultContest, etc.

Soon to publish in December, The Ultimate Guide to Speech Evaluations, a niche guide forcoaches, managers, etc. on how to give sound advice for any presentation and improve their own
evaluation skills.

ICEE Judge: Brian Shaw
Mr. Shaw is a graduate of Columbia University in New York. He worked as a systems developeron Wall Street, a project manager at a multinational corporation in New Jersey, and later as VP ofsoftware development at a startup in Silicon Valley.

Since 2012, Mr. Shaw has been managing two profitable businesses and a real estate portfolio
from his home in Osaka. He was Chief Judge for ICEE’s Youth Osaka in 2018 and 2019.

ICEE Judge: Noah “Lucky” Gesher
Between the ages of 3 and 9, Noah “Lucky” Gesher frequented a neighborhood Japaneserestaurant with his grandparents in California, and he learned his first kanji there. The hannya
mask on the wall, the smell of the tatami flooring, sitting in the horigotatsu and the backgroundmusic playing folk ballads all left a strong impression on his young mind.
From that time, he dreamt of coming to Japan, and ten years ago, he achieved his dream.
Frequenting various underground scenes of Kansai, he enjoys exploring the depths of Japaneseart, history, religion, literature, nature, and music.
ICEE Judge: Yuichiro Hori
Mr. Hori is a translator and an interpreter (Japanese to English, English to Japanese). He has
lived in the United States for more than 20 years and received an MBA from St. Mary’sUniversity.
Mr. Hori used to work at an international trading company. He is interested in topics related tocross-cultural communication in general. He also enjoys learning how to cook healthy and tasty
meals, and actually cooks for himself every day.