07/19/2025
Our 2025 Vision Award winner, Austin Fujii!
Austin Fujii, a San Jose JACL youth member, is an incoming second-year honors scholar at Foothill College in the Bay Area—studying sociology and economics. Austin joined the JACL in 2022, mentored by former Congressman Michael Honda during the reintroduction of the Neighbors Not Enemies Act. In the San Jose JACL, he has helped design new marketing panels, additionally creating a “social justice walking tour” of San Jose Japantown with his fellow interns—an updated tour coordinating print brochures and digital Google Earth QR-codes to promote local small businesses and uncover the depth of Japantown’s history.
Outside of the JACL, playing taiko has always been a large part of Austin’s life. During high school, he played in San Jose Taiko’s Junior Taiko Performing Ensemble for four years and is now an active member of Taiko SOBA—a local semi-professional adult group.
