The Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival Queen Program presented its 2025 queen candidates during its preview press conference March 5 over Zoom. The program, a highlight of the city’s annual cherry blossom festival, will take place April 6 at the Cowell Theatre in Fort Mason in San Francisco. The candidates are: Terra-Lynn Kumi Tokiwa, Nanami Sumimoto, Kristi Aiko Yamashita, Kinako Jacy Miyake, Kristi Satomi Ando and Risa Mori.

Terra-Lynn Kumi Tokiwa
Terra-Lynn Kumi Tokiwa, 25, is a biracial Yonsei on her father’s side from San Jose.

She attended the University of Southern California, receiving a bachelor’s degree in business administration. She works in executive risk insurance.

Tokiwa participated in the Nikkei Community Internship program in 2019. She also participated in the Kakehashi Program, a government-funded U.S.-Japan exchange initiative, and has joined the board of Kizuna in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. She said the connections she made with the Japanese American community supported her, as she moved out of state.

“And even when I was in Atlanta, Ga., I still have connections to my friends over here in SoCal or NorCal that were already deeply involved with community to help me still be in touch when I was away. So I’ve been involved in a variety of areas,” she said.

She said the most important quality a leader should have is compassion.

“I think everyone leads and works in a very different way, and it’s important to be compassionate towards those who may be neurodiverse or just work in a variety of different ways that maybe I don’t understand myself,” she said.

Tokiwa will play the piano and sing “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone for her creative expression. She is sponsored by the merchants of the Japan Center Malls.

Nanami Sumimoto
Nanami Sumimoto, 25, is a Shin-Issei from Funabashi, Japan in Chiba Prefecture. She attended the University of Toronto, receiving a honors bachelor’s degree in music and human biology. She is a research associate at the University of California, San Francisco studying infectious diseases.

Sumimoto moved to Cupertino, Calif. when she was 10 years old and attended college in Canada, but returned to California just before the COVID-19 shutdown.

The infectious disease researcher and musician studied in Canada. She decided to apply for the queen program at the behest of her friend and fellow court member, Tokiwa.

“I thought maybe I should just give it a try. And now I’m enjoying myself here, making lots of friends and having a great opportunity,” she said. “And so I think I should tell myself to do everything, try everything, and if it doesn’t go well, it’s OK.”

Sumimoto said music helped her get past the language barrier when she first moved to America. She will perform “Always With Me” from the movie “Spirited Away” on the flute for her creative expression. Sumimoto is sponsored by the Cupertino Toyokawa Sister-Cities.

Kristi Aiko Yamashita
Kristi Aiko Yamashita, 26, is a Yonsei on her father’s side and a Gosei on her mother’s side. She is from San Jose. She attended University of California, Irvine, receiving a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a minor in psychology. She works as a data scientist at Yum! Brands’ Collider Lab.

Yamashita was active in the Japanese American community growing up. She participated in the San Jose Community Youth Service and attended Suzume no Gakko and the Junior Young Buddhist Association. During college, she joined Tomo No Kai, her school’s Nikkei student union, which enable her to connect with her culture further.

“I went to UC Irvine, so it’s away from home, and I needed a community and friends while I was out there. And I heard about Tomo through some family friends that I know in the Japanese community here, and so I thought it would be a good opportunity to connect with some people who might be familiar,” she said. “… And it’s ultimately what led me here to the Queen program, because that’s where I met Maya Isaka from the 2023 court, and she told me about this program, and I’m so happy that I had the opportunity to be part of it now.”

Yamashita plans to perform ‘Ori Tahiti for her creative expression alongside members of her halau Ha’a Hula | Te Reva O Te Manu. She is sponsored by Takara Sake U.S.A. Incorporated.

Kinako Jacy Miyake
Kinako Jacy Miyake, 24, is a Shin-Nisei from San Mateo. She attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, receiving a bachelor’s degree in industrial design with a minor in sustainability. She works as a Japan lead project coordinator at an AI startup in San Francisco.

Miyake said her parents had initially only intended to stay in America for three years, but have remained here for the past 30 years. Thus, Miyake said she and her family learned about life in America together. She felt the importance of the Japanese American community and California’s Japantowns after going to New York for school.

“I didn’t find that kind of community in the East Coast. So coming back, I’ve been able to appreciate this even more, and it has allowed me to see myself in different ways and learn from others,” she said.

Miyake will present an art piece that combines her passion for both art and basketball for her creative expression.

“I’m still working on it right now, but I think it’s more of a little sense of my journey of how I combine my passions as an artist, designer and basketball,” she said. “I feel like they really, really taught me to see all kinds of things in different perspectives and lenses and I think I want to share that experience with you all in some sort of way.”

Miyake is sponsored by the Japanese American Museum of San Jose.

Kristi Satomi Ando
Kristi Satomi Ando, 21, is half Shin-Nisei, half third-generation Chinese American and from Fremont, Calif. She attended the University of California, Berkeley, receiving a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a minor in education. She currently works as an admissions and records assistant at Skyline College in San Bruno, Calif.

Ando hopes to uplift the next generation through higher education. She is interested in supporting systemically disadvantaged students. She said her views on education were shaped after attending DeAnza College before transferring to Berkeley.

“There are so many barriers to higher education that these students face, and I think it’s getting even harder if you’ve seen and been keeping up with the news,” she said.

“Advocating for these students and making sure that our processes don’t continue to push them down, but rather uplift them, has been really important to me.”

She will demonstrate kimono kitsuke (dressing) for her creative expression. Ando had been interested in kimono since her grandmother gave a kimono to her mother, but earnestly started learning how to wear them after purchasing a kimono while attending Anime Expo in 2019.

“Since then, it’s been really fun and joyous for me to share this with members of my family,” she said. “So it’s really wonderful to see how kimono can bring people together.”

Ando is sponsored by the Nikkei Lions.

Risa Mori
Risa Mori, 23, is a Shin-Issei from Kanagawa Prefecture who moved to America when she was a year old. She attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, receiving a bachelor’s degree in communications and Asian American studies. She works in partner success at a tech start-up.

Growing up as an immigrant and attending Japanese supplementary classes, Mori said she did not feel like she was an outsider until she started attending college. She sought out the Nikkei Student Union and met a wider scope of Japanese Americans there.

“At first, I think I didn’t feel like that label (Japanese American) represented me as much as some of the other folks that I interacted with, but I think that we are still connected by that shared respect for our heritage and also that pride of how our family or our ancestors have established their lives here in America,” she said. “And so I think that, now, although I did say that I feel a little more American, I kind of feel that my identity is not so much a duality, but one single thing called Japanese American. And I think that, that’s something that I’ve been able to bond with, that sort of in-betweenness, or having that experience of being a minority, and navigating those different types of things.”

Mori will demonstrate traditional Japanese tea ceremony for her creative expression. She is sponsored by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Northern California.

Queen Program at Fort Mason
The annual program to select who will be queen will return to the Cowell Theatre in Fort Mason, located at 2 Marina Blvd. in San Francisco on April 6, a week before the official start of the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival. Doors will open at 5 p.m. and the program will begin at 6 p.m. Tickets are $40 general admission. For more information, visit https://www.nccbfqueenprogram.org/events.