JANE NAKAGAWA AMONG 100 LEADING INDUSTRY WOMEN
LA Car’s first interviewee from the 1990s goes from Interface In Design, to InterTrend, to Honda R&D Americas and Automotive News’ 2025 list of the 100 Leading Women in the the North American Auto Industry.
When LA Car was just getting off the ground—an executive vice president at Nissan agreed to be interviewed by this upstart internet publication. The word “blog” hadn’t even been coined yet at that time.
By Roy Nakano
Thu, May 22, 2025 01:00 AM PST
Featured Image Above: American Honda’s Jane Nakagawa is named by Automotive News as one of the 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry (InterTrend Communications photograph).
Interface In Design
Back in the late 1990s, I was having lunch with my friend, Kurtis. Our discussion turned to this burgeoning effort for an online automotive magazine. “You know, I have a cousin that’s involved in product development at Nissan...” offered Kurtis. This led to LA Car’s first full-length interview.
The cousin was Jane Nakagawa, who was then Executive Vice President with Nissan's Interface In Design (IID) department. IID was involved in advanced design consumer testing from clay models, computer graphic photographs and sketches.
InterTrend Communications
A desire to use her talents in the community led Nakagawa to join InterTrend Communications as a Vice President of Strategic Planning in 2009, and later led its sister firm, Portia Consulting InterTrend was the subject of an LA Car interview back in 2019 (see Ami Pascual Spear's Common Denominators in Uncommon Disciplines: An Interview with Julia Huang, CEO of InterTrend Communications).
InterTrend, whose clientele includes Toyota Motor Corporation, and has included Chase, the Walt Disney Company, Nestle, Kikkoman, AT & T, State Farm Insurance, Universal and JC Penney, continues to keep its figurative fingers on the pulse of emerging and evolving American communities. Through InterTrend, Nakagawa joined the boards of the Autry National Center in LA and Asian Americans Advancing Justice in Washington, D.C.
Honda R&D Americas
In 2016, Nakagawa returned to the corporate world, joining Honda R&D Americas, LLC (HRA) as division director of Advanced Product Planning. She rose through the ranks of Honda, as its director of the Future Mobility & Solutions Division of HRA in 2019, as Assistant VP in 2021, and since 2023, as Vice President of the R&D Business Unit.
In Honda’s news release about the Automotive News ranking, Nakagawa’s current position has her overseeing multiple divisions responsible for the design and development of Honda and Acura products and user experiences. In addition, she oversees business innovation focused on new products and services, including new mobility solutions like the all-electric Honda Motocompacto e-scooter. She is based in Torrance, California,
Congratulations, Jane!
About The Author
Roy Nakano gave birth to LACar in the late '90s, having previously delivered LA Audio File back in the '80s. Aside from the occasional review, Roy likes to stray off the beaten automotive path: "Six Degrees of Reparations" reflected on the regretful ethical paths taken by car companies throughout history. "Traveling Through the Past and Present of the Green Book" looked at businesses that took a stand against racism and the man that wrote the book on where to find them. "Best Cars to Drive in Rush Hour Traffic" was an LACar guide published in the pre-GPS era. "In Search of the First Datsun 510 Tuner" looked at one of the milestones in the origin of import tuners.
