On Friday (August 19), Emi Yoshikawa, Ripple’s VP of Corporate Strategy and Operations, reported a meeting with the mayor of Fakuoka City and his team at Ripple’s headquarters.
Fukuoka is the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan. It is also Japan’s sixth-largest city with a population of around 1.6 million (as of June 2021).
On Friday, Yoshikawa, who has been working at Ripple for nearly six years, tweeted about a visit by Mayor Soichiro Takashima and his team to Ripple’s headquarters (in San Francisco). The rough English translation of the Japanese portion of her tweet reads:
“We welcomed Fukuoka City Mayor Soichiro Takashima and his team at Ripple HQ today! Fukuoka is a leading city in #Web3 initiatives in Japan. Today, Mayor Takashima of Fukuoka City and people from the international department visited Ripple’s headquarters! I have high hopes for Fukuoka City, which is actively working on Web3.“
On 23 March 2022, Ripple published a blog post in which it mentioned that in December 2021 Yoshikawa “was featured in ‘Forbes Japan’ alongside a group of these trailblazing women to discuss their shared experiences in the blockchain space.” It went on to say this about Yoshikawa:
“After witnessing the 2008 financial crisis from Wall Street, Emi chose to pivot by attending Harvard Business School to further her education. She saw potential in the crypto industry to fill the cracks in the existing financial system — a system she saw crash just a few years earlier — and has worked at Ripple since 2016.
“Even with six years of blockchain experience and a Harvard degree under her belt, Emi still has moments of self-doubt. But instead of letting imposter syndrome win, she seizes opportunities like speaking engagements and op-eds to position herself as a thought leader in the industry.“
Yoshikawa, who is an Adjunct professor at Kyoto University, as well as a founding core member of Kyoto University’s Blockchain Research Center, made a post on LinkedIn that stated:
“I recently sat down with Ripple’s strategic partner SBI’s Tomohiko Kondo to discuss the state of crypto markets in the US and Japan as well as various emerging #Web3 use cases, which was published as a two series article on Forbes Japan.“
Here are the links to parts one and two of the aforementioned article in Forbes Japan: “part 1” and “part 2“.
On Tuesday (August 16), Ripple tweeted about its partnership with SBI Remit, which is the largest money transfer provider in Japan; this partnership powers” instant remittances between Japan and Thailand.”
Back in May, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse took advantage of his visit to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos (Switzerland) to meet Irakli Garibashvili, the Prime Minister of Georgia.
According to a report by news outlet Georgia Online, at this meeting, which took place on May 23, “the Prime Minister offered the CEO of Ripple to open a corporate service centre in Georgia and noted that Georgia has a favourable investment environment and the country has a stable location.”
The report went on to say:
“According to the Prime Minister, the Georgian market is favourable in terms of the development of digital assets and is developing rapidly. It was noted that with young, experienced and competitive human capital, Georgia is becoming a global and regional multifunctional hub for financial services and technical and innovative industries. Thanks to its reputation and friendly business environment, Georgia has become a global leader in terms of ease of doing business. The country in the developed markets is in the same league as the United States, Singapore, Denmark, Norway and the United Kingdom.
“It was noted that the country successfully uses blockchain technology, and Georgia is the first country in the world to introduce blockchain technology in public services, in particular in the land registry process, which has made it possible to reduce operating costs by about 30%.
“The conversation also touched on the visit of FTX Crypto Derivatives and Digital Markets Association representatives in Georgia. The Prime Minister noted that it is planned to establish a regional office of FTX in Georgia, which is being negotiated with the company. Opening a regional office will create a conducive environment for the market for digital financial assets of the future.“
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