Ayano Hirose is an alumna of the 2022–2023 U.S.-Japan Council Toshizo Watanabe Study Abroad Scholarship Program, through which she studied at the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently an intern at the TOMODACHI Initiative. In high school, she received the award in the Stanford e-Japan Program for a paper on intercultural education. As an undergraduate, she hosted a program for one year on the audio platform “Voicy”, where she introduced articles from The New York Times. Her strong interest in U.S.-Japan relations has been consistent since high school. While studying in the U.S., a visit to the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles—part of her scholarship program—deepened her interest in the history of Japanese Americans. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in North American Area Studies at the University of Tokyo. In the future, she aspires to become a researcher who contributes to the inheritance of Japanese American history and serves as a bridge to promote mutual understanding and exchange between Japan and the United States.