Born of a French mother and Japanese father but raised in New York, Nathalie Leiko Ishizuka is of three cultures.  Today, due to the Japanese crisis, she desires to return to Japan and be with the Japanese people.  She, her husband, and her two young children (4 and 7) are hoping to make that possible as of September 2012.

(Update:  Leiko Ishizuka spent four profound and life changing years in Tokyo after March 11th where she worked with profound Japanese artists and a variety of individuals involved in societal change.  To experience a peek of her work with Japanese artists, please see the utube videos on the home page www.beyondourbest.com.  As of August 2016, she resides in Singapore and wishes to continue and expand her work with Japan as well as learn and work with individuals from China and India, two countries of which she knows little.)

Seishin Joshi Gakuin: A traditional Japan

At age 16, Leiko enrolled as the first high school student from the United States to attend the all-Japanese traditional girl school, Seishin Joshi Gakuin.  There in the most traditional of Japanese schools, Leiko was initiated to the Japanese language, Japanese mythology, and Japanese brush painting during a four month exchange.

Mitsubishi Communications:  A Peek at Office Life

A following short summer internship at Mitsubishi Communications, gave her a peek into Japanese office life.  Like the Belgian author Amelie Nothomb in Stupeur and Tremblements Leiko Ishizuka served tea in the morning, arrived early, and spent much of her day asking how she might be of use.

Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution :  Original Research

At age 22, Leiko Ishizuka wrote a 240 page Summa Cum Laude thesis at Amherst College on Article 9 of the 1946 Japanese Constitution.  She received the Doshisha Asian Studies Award and written praise from Colonel Charles Kades, one of the Constitution’s founding fathers.  Ishizuka was fortunate to benefit from Kades’ guidance as well as input from Professor Ray Moore, Professor Donald Robinson, Jim Sutherland, and Terusuke Terada.

Keio University: A Struggle with Language

Leiko attended Keio for a six month exchange to better speak the language.

Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy: Psychology and International Affairs

While at the Fletcher School, Ishizuka wrote “Lessons from Preventive Health to Preventive Diplomacy,” winning an Eisaku Sato Memorial Essay Award.  Ishizuka was invited to the U.N. University in Tokyo.  During this time she also applied a hypothesis about how the affect fear influences economics and went to Berkeley for a year to work with Oliver Williamson (Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2009) to explore a paper she had presented at the Academy of Management.

Returning to Japan to be with the Japanese

Today at age 41, Leiko Ishizuka wishes to return to Japan in a sign of solidarity with the Japanese people.  She hopes to work with writers, thinkers, artists, deciders and those who hold the Japanese traditions and spirit dear.

While Leiko’s own father’s mentor, Dr. Taro Takemi, a long time President of the Japanese Medical Association, had once told her father, Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, “Not to return to Japan,” because the future was the West, Leiko Ishizuka believes this is no longer true.  She and Dr. Paul Briot, a Belgian essayist, see great hope in Japan.

They will share their optimism with their Japanese friends in an article they wish to publish in a Japanese newspaper in the next few months.

Dimitri (age 6) and Leiko (age 4) asked me what they could do for Japanese children after the terrible earthquake and tsunami.  I did not know what to respond.  And so they taught me something.

All of us can do something; something quite ordinary, but powerful.  To provide a moment of silence or better yet, music for Japan.  It is not so much in grandiose acts, but in ordinary everyday ones that we make a difference.  And so both Dimitri and Leiko played the piano on Saturday 9th April 2011 for 15 minutes.  Both played their best, they played with their heart, and with no audience.

The organization for Belgium raised 3066 euros and will be sending the money this Friday to Japan.  Dimitri and Leiko — thanks to their sponsors –together raised 250 euros for the Japanese and their children.  Donors also in the US on their behalf gave to Japanese organizations, including a project to help re-build a hospital in an area of devastation.

Many thanks to all of you who on that day contributed with donations or with your thoughts, prayers, or music of your own.  Through the arts, and music, we all speak the same language.  Through that language we can lift the spirit.  Shin’ichi Suzuki raised ours by helping countless children develop sensitivity, self discipline and a noble character.

Today, by raising our own spirit a bit higher, by envisioning what is most noble in the human spirit, we join him and countless Japanese emerge from crisis.

Dimitri and Leiko would like to thank all of you.  Together with their parents they would like to tell the Japanese that it is through beauty, spirit and a desire to elevate ourselves that we are making a difference.  Shin’ichi Suzuki knew this truth, and we must live it with our Japanese neighbors, friends and loved ones.  And so it is us, who thank Japan and the Japanese for inspiring us with their calm, endurance and noble spirit.

with love, Dimitri and Leiko

An understanding of healthy individuals and a psychology of health is needed to understand how individuals influence organizations, nations and international affairs.

List of Literature and Presentations on Psychology and International Affairs:

Dr. Yukio Ishizuka has applied the model on individual human personality to the Japanese, Japanese Organizations, Japan as a Nation State and Japan’s role in International Affairs.

He has appeared as an expert on television, radio, the press and has also given numerous lectures.

His book, Self-Actualization, Publisher Kodansha (Tokyo, 1982), sold over 45,000 copies in Japan.  The book was reprinted nine times.

Selected Readings, Lectures, Presentations, and TV Appearences by Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, a Japan Expert

Ishizuka, Y., Self-Actualization, (Book in Japanese) Kodansha: Tokyo, 1982.

Ishizuka, Y., “Japan’s Place in the World,” Zaikai-Koron, a Japanese business monthly, 1976. Among those interviewed by Dr. Ishizuka were Mr. David Rockefeller, Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, Mr. George Ball, former Secretary of State, Mr. Joseph Fravin, CEO of Singer & C., Professor Henry de Bettignies, Director of the Asian Center of INSEAD, and Professor Hugh T. Patrick of Yale University.

Ishizuka, Y., “Breakdown of a Japanese Businessman: a Trap for Business Elites,” Voice Magazine, January 1984.

Ishizuka, Y., “The Pitfall for Business Elites,” Nikkei Business, the leading Japanese Business Magazine, September 1986.

Ishizuka, Y. and ed. Ishizuka N., “Special Report, How to Help Executives under Stress,” Nikkei Business, September 1992.

Berger, M., “A Japanese Psychiatrist’s Answer to Executive Stress,” International Management, McGraw-Hill, March 1987. An interview with Dr. Yukio Ishizuka introducing Life-Track.

“First Encounters,” Business Tokyo, January 1992. Dr. Ishizuka quoted as expert for American businessmen in Japan.

Greene, Donna. “U.S. and Japan: A Marriage Born of Need,” The New York Times, Sunday March 29,1992. Interview with Dr. Ishizuka.

“International Front, Japanese Middle Management under Stress,” The New York Times, Sunday March 29,1992. Interview with Dr. Ishizuka.

“Japanese Executives Under Stress,” Yomiuri Shinbun, January 12,1986.

“Japan: The Price of Success,” Reader’s Digest, December 1986. Quotes Dr. Yukio Ishizuka.

Kishi, N., “A Man Who Dares: A Psychiatrist who Quantifies the Human Mind,” Bushu Weekly, November 4,1993. Interview with Dr. Ishizuka.

Shiroyama, S., Getting Stronger, Overcoming Setbacks. Nippon Keizai Shimbun: Tokyo, 1983. Shiroyama is one of the most prominent authors in Japan. Quotes Dr. Ishizuka extensively.

Shiroyama, S., “Intellectual Toughness,” Shukan Gendai, October, 1990. Interview with Dr. Ishizuka for a Japanese weekly.

Shiroyama, S., The Conditions for Survival. Kodansha: Tokyo, 1991. The book consists of in-depth interviews with eleven individuals from diverse fields. Dr. Ishizuka was interviewed along with the economist Milton Friedman, Andrew Night, editor-in-chief of The Economist, and golfer Jack Nicolas.

Shiroyama, S., “Fear of Closeness as the Key Concept to Understanding the U.S-Japan Relationship and Marital Problems of the Japanese,” Shukkan-Gendai, 1990.

“Stress is Your Friend,” Asahi Shinbun International, August 27,1992. A feature interview with Dr. Ishizuka.

Takeda, K., “A Scholar of Two Countries” Chishiki (Knowledge), November 1985. Interview with Dr. Ishizuka.

Yogata, M., “Personal Setback and Growth,” Marubeni, December 1985. A personal account documenting the depression and recovery of one of Dr. Ishizuka’s former patients while on assignment in New York. The article celebrates Yogata’s promotion to Director of leading Japanese corporation.

Ishizuka, N., “Constitutional Cover? Collective Security: U.N. Obligations vs. Japanese Constitutional Restraints,” Amherst College, Bachelors Thesis, summa cum laude, 1992. Copy requested for U.N. Library.

Selected Lectures on the Japanese and Japan

“Culture Shock” Conference of Cross Cultural Center, Wainwright House, Rye, New York, April 25,1985 (2 hours)

“The Breakdown of Elite Japanese Executives Abroad” Lecture for Keizai Doyu-kai meeting of 200 Japanese CEOs, 1986 (1.5 hours)

“Individual and Organizational Excellence and Well-Being” Lecture for Keizai Doyu-kai Nagoya Chapter meeting of 200 CEOs and senior executives, 1987 (1.5 hours)

“The Japanese Mind: Its Implications for Corporations and Nations” The Institute for Global Business Strategy, Distinguished Lecture Series, Pace University, New York, November 12,1991 (3 hours)

“The Japanese Mind: Its Implications for the U.S.-Japan Relationship” AT&T Global Business Symposium, with Mr. Clyde Prestowitz and others, Bedminster, NJ, December 12,1991 (1.5 hours)

“The U.S.-Japan Relationship from a Psychological Perspective” A panel on the U.S. – Japan Relationship, with Prof. Paul R. Krugman and others, Tufts University, Medford, MA (45 minutes)

“The Japanese Mind: Its Implications for the U.S.-Japan Relationship” AT&T Global Business Symposium, Phoenix, Arizona, March 26, 1992 (2.5 hours)

“Facing Structural Challenges: The U.S. and Japan.”  AT&T Global Business Symposium, Phoenix, Arizona, March 26, 1992 (2.5 hours)

“The Japanese Mind: Its Implications for the U.S. – Japan Relationship” Manhattanville College, New York, April 9, 1992 (1.5 hours)

“The Japanese Mind: Its Implications for the U.S.-Japan Relationship” Fletcher Schools of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, M.A. April 16, 1993 (2.5 hours)

“How To Overcome Stress at the Top” The Japanese Chemical Manufacturers Club  (50 C.E.O.’s of the Japanese chemical manufacturing companies) September 23, 1997 (1 hour)

“Breakthrough Intimacy – Treating Personality” Lecture for psychiatric residents at Keio Medical School, Tokyo Japan, April 2005

“Breakthrough Intimacy – Treating Personality” Lecture for psychiatric residents at Hokkaido University Medical School, Hokkaido, Japan, April 2005

“Breakthrough Intimacy – Treating Personality” Lectures for medical students at Keio Medical School, Tokyo Japan, April 2005

“Excellence and Wellbeing – How to Achieve and Grow Both” Annual Meeting of IFMSA-Japan (International Federation of Medical Student Association-Japan)

“Happiness and Success – How To Achieve and Grow Both” Nippon Club of New York, 2007

Dr. Yukio Ishizuka’s Television Appearances as Expert on Japan

Stress and Mental Health Issues: Series of Appearances (Fuji TV Morning, New York)

US-Japan Conflict: A Feature One Hour Interview by Helen Larson (Local Cable TV)

Trade War: Interviewed as an Expert (NBC program): April 12,1987

Japan in the World: Interviewed as an Expert (NHK TV): 1987

West Meets East (NJ Cable TV): September 1991

Interview by Ms. Nora for French TV on Japan (French TV): September 1991

Japanese Divorce: Increasing Divorce among Middle Aged Couples (Fuki-Television: Japanese National Network, New York – Japan): 1993

Japanese Fathers: Japanese Fatherhood in Crisis (Fuki-Television: Japanese National Network, New York – Japan): 1993

The US-Japan Relationship: Debate with Professor Warren Keegan (Rye Business Beat – Local Cable TV program): July 1994

French Prime Time News: Interview on the Japanese by Ms. Ockrent (Antenne 2)

Dozens of Radio Interviews

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

For More on a Psychology of Health and Applications to Organizations, Nations and International Behavior See:

• Organizations
• Nations
• Economics
• Negotiation
• Crisis Management & Diplomacy
• Economic Integration
• War, Crisis & Health
• Econometric Modeling
• Political Science

A Need for Models Based on Healthy Human Beings

Organizational and International behavior should be based on assumptions about healthy human beings.  Read section a Science of Health (life way), Criteria for Health Models (science of happiness), Happiness Defined? Quantified?  (cycle of life),  Happier? (fear of the unknown),  Why Positive Mental Health Works (objective subjective), and Insights (life purpose).

Visit http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com to understand individuals at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness.

Ready Made Descriptions to Link to Organizational and International Behavior:

Individual Health, Organizational Health, National Health
Applications about healthy human beings to economics, international affairs, nations, organizational behavior.  A new organizational behavior concept or simply a new field of international behavior based on healthy human beings?