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OAKLAND — Ozumo, which opened in downtown Oakland on Dec. 4, provides an East Bay counterpart to the award-winning contemporary Japanese cuisine hotspot in San Francisco.

The opening event included a blessing by Rev. Masato Kawahatsu of Konko Church of San Francisco and a demonstration by national and world champion sumo wrestlers.

Jeremy Umland, Ozumo founder, managing partner and long-time Japan resident/professional baseball player turned entrepreneur, is joined at Ozumo Oakland by Jennifer Nguyen, executive chef, and Christian Geideman, chef de cuisine.

SAN MATEO — Hiroshi Kashiwagi, author of “Shoe Box Plays,” will be participating in a poetry event sponsored by the Asian American Curriculum Project on Saturday, Jan. 17, at 1 p.m. at the San Mateo Main Library, 55 W, 3rd Ave.

He will be reading from his next book, a collection of his poems, old and new.

A native of Sacramento, Kashiwagi is a retired librarian of the San Francisco Public Library. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Screen Actors Guild. He and his wife, Sadako, are parents of three sons. He has been a resident of the Bay Area since 1952.

NAGOYA (Kyodo) — Toyota Motor Corp. will further trim its production by suspending operations for an additional 11 days at all of its 12 Japanese factories between February and March to combat plummeting auto sales due to the global economic downturn, company officials said on Jan. 6.

Industry observers said the expansion of the rare output reduction by Japan’s top automaker is likely to have a further detrimental impact on employment conditions at its subcontracting firms like auto parts suppliers.

WASHINGTON — The National Japanese American Memorial Foundation (NJAMF) is announced on Jan. 5 that John J. Kornacki is its new executive director.

Kornacki is the fifth executive director of the foundation. He takes over his position from Gerald Yamada, who will continue to assist the NJAMF.