Every Day is “Global” at ICU.

Global ICU

Global Alumni

Lee Utsumi 
Owner of Lee's Bread
1986 B.A. in Arts and Sciences (humanities)

Learn values not influenced by any country

Ms. Utsumi came to Japan for the first time when She was eight, for her father's work, and She was attracted to Japan's charm. Though She got into an American university, the dream of studying in Japan prompted her to move to ICU's College of Liberal Arts, Division of Humanities (then). She studied Japanese art history and history among other subjects and did research on Edo era lacquer for her graduate thesis.


Ms. Utsumi joined a Japanese company after graduation. Along with doing market survey and other research she attended the night school of Le Cordon Bleu which teaches cooking, where she learned various cooking techniques. Then, she returned to the U.S. There she had a bread from a certain bakery, which was a bolt from the blue, and she decided that her work is to make breads. So, Ms. Utsumi came back to Japan again and devoted herself to making bread, and in June 2017 she opened Lee's Bread in Oiso, Naka-gun, Kanagawa prefecture.