Toshizo Watanabe ’73
Doctor of Business Administration
Toshizo Watanabe ’73, who majored in politics at Brandeis as a Wien International Scholar, is dedicated to strengthening educational and cultural ties between Japan and the United States.
To extend his philanthropic reach, he established the Toshizo Watanabe Foundation in 2008. He supports scholarships bestowed through the U.S.-Japan Council and the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies at Stanford, and opened the Toshizo Watanabe Culinary Cultural Center at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center in Los Angeles.
In 2018, Watanabe gave Brandeis $10 million to establish the Toshizo Watanabe International Scholarship Program, the largest single gift from an international graduate to the university. The undergraduate and graduate students who come to Brandeis as Watanabe Scholars each year are selected from those who have studied or are studying at top-tier Japanese universities.
Watanabe, who grew up in Zushi, Japan, is former president/CEO of Nikken Global, a wellness products company. He credits his Brandeis education and the support he received through the Wien scholarship program with making his career successes possible.
He has received many honors, including Iceland’s Order of the Falcon, Japan’s Foreign Minister’s Commendation and the Japanese American National Museum’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2019, he was presented with the Brandeis Alumni Achievement Award, the highest recognition given solely to the university’s graduates.