Japan Fix: Request for submissions (plus a bit of perspective)
Japan Fix 
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This post brought to you by Gail Cetnar Meadows (Hiroshima-shi, 2007-10), co-founder of Hiroshima JET webzine the Wide Island View. In an effort to revive the “Japan Fix“ posts, I’d like to share a recent discovery to help you find a little piece of Japan close to home.
How do you get your Japan fix wherever you live? Write it down and send it to me at gail [at] jetwit.com for the entertainment and benefit of the JET alum community.
Having called Hiroshima home for three years, my husband and I knew we’d miss our old neighborhood haunts when we returned to the U.S., especially our favorite okonomiyaki joint. There, our weekly visits made us such familiar faces that the cooks greeted us by name when we walked in and we even had our own stools at the bar a la Norm from Cheers. I didn’t hold out any hope of finding an okonomiyaki-ya back in the sticks of Ohio, but now that we’ve relocated, the search is on.
Whether or not I find it, though, I at least know that there are a number of stores in our area that carry a decent selection of Japanese goods, which means I can always cook our favorite Japanese dishes at home. While searching for the local Japanese markets around our new town, I stumbled upon a blog post on my favorite Japanese cooking blog, JustHungry.com. The author of this blog had compiled a wonderful reader-contributed list of Japanese groceries and stores across the U.S. The list is categorized by state, so you can just scroll through to find something close to you. Thanks to her I’ve discovered a selection of Japanese food items in a grocery store just a short hop from my house, where I found my latest Japan fix: a shelf bearing at least half a dozen flavors of ラムネ. Ah, natsukashii!!
How do you get your Japan fix where you live? Send it to me at gail [at] jetwit.com and I’ll post it on JetWit!
Japan Group Looking to Ease Immigration Policy
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Andrew R. McCarthy (Akita-ken, 2005-08) is a law student at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law focusing on international trade, business, and tax. He currently runs the blog JETs with J.D.s, an information source for current JET alumni law students and prospective law students for career paths and approaches within the current legal market. For those considering law school and trying to comprehend the costs and the risks of such an endeavor, he also recommends The Law School Tuition Bubble.
Though still clearly in the concept stage, last week saw a report by a Japanese group of politicians, business leaders, and academics looking to ease immigration policy and bring in more foreigners. Combined with the efforts to send Japanese teachers to the U.S. to enhance their English, this marks a significant change in stance for Japan, assuming all of these great ideas turn into action.
Links to the source articles can be found here.
Job: Credit Reviewer and Marketing for a Japanese bank
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via Actus Consulting. Posted by Dipika Soni (Ishikawa-ken, 2003-06). Dipika currently works as an in-house translator for PFU (a Fujitsu company) in Kahoku-shi, Ishikawa-ken. She is also the vocalist for the Japanese hardcore punk band DEGRADE.
*Note: If you apply for this position, please let them know you learned of it from JetWit. Thanks.
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Job Position: Japanese bank seeks Credit Reviewer and Marketing employee starting February
Job duties will include:
1. Read and analyze financial statements to determine the eligibility for financing
2. Compose reports both in Japanese and English
Requirements:
Other details:
Business Hours: 8:45 am to 5pm with 1 hour paid lunch, Mon-Fri.
Full-time, Permanent Position
Salary: $37K- 40K + Bonus (Twice a year)
Location: Midtown, Manhattan, NY
Benefit: Health, Dental, and Life Insurance
How to apply:
Please forward your most recent resume and cover letter as an MS Word attachment to Sayaka Takeda at stakeda@actus-usa.com
Make sure to mention which position you are applying to and your desired salary in your cover letter.
We will contact qualified candidates to have a preliminary interview.
Actus is a Japanese staffing agency and currently searching for candidates for the above position at one of their client companies. Please make sure to mention that you heard about the Job listing on JetWit if you apply for the position.
Job: Attorneys needed for Japanese doc review project
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via Robert Half Legal. Posted by Dipika Soni (Ishikawa-ken, 2003-06). Dipika currently works as an in-house translator for PFU (a Fujitsu company) in Kahoku-shi, Ishikawa-ken. She is also the vocalist for the Japanese hardcore punk band DEGRADE.
*Note: If you apply for this position, please let them know you learned of it from JetWit. Thanks.
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Job Position: Attorneys needed for Japanese doc review project
Job Details:
Robert Half Legal is currently recruiting licensed attorneys who are barred in any jurisdiction and fluent in Japanese (reading and writing) for an upcoming document review project. The pay rate is extremely competitive and the duration of the project should last 6 months to one year.
How to apply:
If interested, please forward your resume to Robert Brown at Robert.Brown@roberthalflegal.com or call him at (877) 453-1625 immediately for consideration.
US media coverage of Japan’s economy overly negative?
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There’s an excellent letter in the New York Times from Yasuhisa Kawamura of the Consulate General of Japan in New York in which he makes the case that U.S. media coverage of Japan’s economy has been overly negative. The gist of it is, Sure, times are tough in Japan. But they’re also tough in the U.S. and elsewhere. Nonetheless, there’s still a vibrant economy and significant innovation and other activity going on in Japan.
If any JETs or JET alums or Friends of JET would like to weigh in on this, it would be nice to hear some first-hand perspectives from people who are currently living in Japan or travel back and forth frequently.
Here’s a link to the letter: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/opinion/lweb03japan.html?scp=1&sq=kawamura&st=cse
And here’s the full text of the letter:
To the Editor:
By oversimplifying and exaggerating certain socioeconomic aspects at the expense of the broader picture, “Japan Goes From Dynamic to Disheartened” (“The Great Deflation” series, front page, Oct. 17) depicts some interesting “trees” but misses the “forest” that is Japan today.
Unfortunately, the story’s few anecdotal views do not accurately reflect a diverse nation of 120 million people and one of the world’s largest economies. During these times of severe economic challenges around the globe, similarly pessimistic views about the future could surely be found in almost any Group of 8 country.
Far from being an “afterthought” weary of its global role, Japan remains committed to active leadership in the world. This international outlook is best reflected in Japan’s policies and the vibrancy of its young people. Take Afghanistan, where a $5 billion aid commitment supports 96,000 local policemen, has built 650 schools and has provided polio and other essential vaccines to 47 million children.
Additionally, Japanese youngsters, supported by the affluence of the past decades, enjoy diverse career choices, and, according to recent surveys, the most desirable job for Japanese university graduates remains working in the field of international trade.
Yasuhisa Kawamura
Director, Japan Information Center
Consulate General of Japan
New York, Oct. 29, 2010
Justin’s Japan: Interview with ‘Hiroshima in the Morning’ Author Rahna Reiko Rizzuto
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- ‘Hiroshima in the Morning’ author Rahna Reiko Rizzuto. (John Searcy)
By JQ magazine’s Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02) for Examiner.com. Visit his NY Japanese Culture page here to subscribe for free alerts on newly published stories.
In June 2001, award-winning Japanese American author Rahna Reiko Rizzuto went to Hiroshima on a six-month fellowship to interview the hibakusha, or remaining survivors of the atomic bomb. Three months later, the September 11 attacks on the U.S. changed everything, from the recollections of the survivors to Rizzuto’s own relationship with her family back in America, including her husband and two young sons in New York.
The result was Hiroshima in the Morning, a memoir released last fall in which the author weaves these threads into a deeply personal story of awakening about how we choose our identities, how we view history, and how we use memory as a story we tell ourselves to explain who we are. I caught up with Rizzuto to discuss her emotional journey and impressions of Japan.
What was the most interesting thing about talking with the atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima?
I went to Hiroshima initially because I knew so little—almost nothing—about the atomic bomb and its effects. I arrived more than 55 years after the bombing, so I expected memories to be a little hazy. When I first arrived, I met people who were very committed to telling their stories in the interest of peace. They wanted to testify about the power of the atomic bomb and the devastation of war in general in hopes that there would be no more war. That would make their sacrifices worth it.
I was there to write a novel, though, not a factual piece, so what I was looking for was textures and details about what it was like to live in those times, and how one survived war. So what I was getting was not exactly what I was looking for. Their stories were very complete and rehearsed. What happened then, though, was after three months of listening to these testimonies, the September 11th attacks happened within sight of my Brooklyn home. The world changed. And so did their stories.
In hindsight, how different did the interview project turn out because of 9/11?
I don’t think anyone can underestimate the effects of those attacks. They reverberated immediately, all the way to Japan, and we all suddenly felt the world was not safe. We were not safe. And if we weren’t safe, there was no peace, and if there was no peace, the hibakusha realized, then their sacrifice was for nothing.
Almost immediately, this destabilization affected their stories. They began to feel more, and to remember more. Moments and people they had blocked out came back to them. They remembered heat, and color and sound. And they remembered what it felt like to go back to their homes and find their mothers’ bones.
Which of the testimonials affected you the most? Why?
The most unbearable stories were often about children. Children who died; children who tried to save their brothers or parents; children who cremated their parents, at age six, because that was what their parents would have wanted. In the months after 9/11, though, something happened which was very moving and powerful. A number of people came to me to tell their stories. Before then, I had been finding my own interviewees with the help of my translators, but after September 11th, I found out that many people actually knew I was there, listening, and they sought me out because they needed a witness. They needed a safe place to relive, and purge, their memories. And then, it wasn’t just the sad moments. It was also the happy memories of life before, and their family members before. They needed to share those, too, and they gave them to me so their loved ones would not fade away.
Click here for the rest of the interview.
JETAA Northern California Newsletter needs articles
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Via JETAA Northern California:
The Fall issue of Pacific Bridge, JETAANC’s quarterly newsletter, is now in production and we NEED YOUR HELP!
There’s a list of short articles that still need to be written and edited. E-mail communications@jetaanc.org if you could potentially help out.
The issues’ theme is “Japan in NorCal and Nevada,” so suggestions for articles related to Japan in our neighborhood are also welcome.
You don’t have to be Hemingway and you will get a byline–so turn your creative side loose and add a line to your resume!
Thanks in advance!
Researcher needs JET alum help with interesting survey
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I recently had an interesting conversation with Justin Kraemer, a PhD student at Rutgers University, who is conducting research on how Japanese and local employees in the U.S. build trust within Japanese companies. Justin needs more respondents, so if there are any JET alums out there who work for Japanese companies in the U.S., please get in touch with him. It’s a very worthy research topic, and it would also reflect nicely on the JET alumni community to play a helpful role.
Japanese-American Research with JET Alumni in Mind
Trustful relationships at work are the foundation on which performance is achieved. However, building such relationships may be particularly complex when employees come from different national cultures. To better understand intercultural relationship-building and to highlight Japan in the conversation about East and West, cross-cultural researchers from the Business School at Rutgers University are studying how Japanese and local employees build trust within Japanese companies in the USA. JetWit is enthusiastic about this partnership as the work of these researchers has been endorsed by the Honjo International Scholarship Foundation, the Japanese-American Association of New York and the Japanese-American Association of Kentucky (JASK).
These researchers are now seeking Japanese firms in the USA to supplement the number of Japanese firms which have already agreed to participate. Though certain things must be included in this Japanese-local “matched-set” survey, this would be a great opportunity to better understand the opinions of employees in your Japanese firm. As it stands, the survey takes about 15 minutes to complete. Though a traditional paper-and-pencil deployment would be preferred, online deployment can be arranged. In any case, there will be no direct costs for participation as all expenses related to the research will be paid by the researchers.
With at least a handful of individual participants, each participating firm will receive anonymous data from its own employees as well as select aggregated data from all participating companies. An in-person presentation of results can also be organized. We look forward to discussing how this research project can benefit your company.
Please direct inquiries to:
Primary Researcher: Justin Kraemer
Email: jkraemer@andromeda.rutgers.edu
James Kennedy reviews “Pluto killer” book for Wall Street Journal
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James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06), author of the acclaimed young adult novel The Order of Odd-Fish, has a great review in the Wall Street Journal of a sugoku omoshiroi book titled, How I Killed Pluto, And Why It Had It Coming by professor of astronomy Mike Brown.
Here’s the link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704243904575630683559145518.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
Write for Ibuki Magazine? Book ideas for Chin Music Press?
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After running a “Culture Spreaders” post on MEF Bruce Rutledge a couple weeks ago, Bruce sent the following response:
“Wow. This was a pleasant surprise. Thanks for the accolades!
I encourage anyone interested in writing about Japan to get in touch. We’re looking for contributors to Ibuki (stories should have a Pacific Northwest hook) and book ideas for Chin Music.
You can reach us at speak [at] chinmusicpress.com. JET alums Jessica Sattell and Joshua Powell are on our staff.”
Tom Baker wrties about a slew of movies, manga and a video game
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Tom Baker (Chiba-ken, 1989-91) is a staff writer for The Daily Yomiuri. As another example of JET ROI, he is one of at least four former JETs to have been on the newspaper’s staff in recent years. He usually writes for DYWeekend, the arts and leisure section. You can follow Tom’s blog at tokyotombaker.wordpress.com.
His articles in the past two months include interviews with movie director Breck Eisner and video game producer Rich Rosado, plus a slew of reviews. Click on the titles in these thumbnail summaries to find the articles:
In 1973, legendary horror director George Romero make a low-budget movie called “The Crazies,” in which the accidental release of a biological weapon turns many of the people of a small town into homicidal maniacs. Present-day director Breck Eisner has remade that movie with a much bigger budget, and he discusses the changes he made in the interview.
“Red Dead Redemption” is a video game that lets you shoot a lot of people and then makes you feel guilty about it. Rich Rosado, one of the producers for Rockstar Games (a company better known for its “Grand Theft Auto” series) says that’s intentional in the interview.
“Black Butler” is a manga in which a rich orphan seeks revenge for the death of his parents with the help of a supernatural butler.
“Fairy Tail” is a manga follows the friendships and rivalries among a guild of young, good-looking wizards.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1” is a movie that needs no introduction.
“Daybreakers” is a movie in which vampires have taken over the world – and not all of them are happy about it.
“ A Single Man” is a movie in which Colin Firth plays a gay man in America in 1963 who is devastated by the sudden death of his lover.
“Knight and Day” is a movie in which Cameron Diaz becomes a hostage/apprentice to secret agent Tom Cruise.
“The Expendables” is a movie in which Sylvester Stallone leads a merry band of morally mixed-up mercenaries.
Foxhound87: Diwali: A Festivals of Lights Part 2: Just Desserts
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Joshua Small is a First Year JET currently living in Ikaruga-cho, Nara-ken and has been chronicling his experience on his blog Snorlax87.
Since Diwali is the festival of lights, a couple JETs provided some cheap sparklers for us to light following dinner. We had to leave the hotel, so we moved the party to a courtyard in front of the Nara Visitor Center. Most people left to do other things. About 14 of us stuck around for the sparklers. Our merry group of foreigners lit sparklers and danced around. We were having a grand ol’ time until the fuzz showed up. Yes, between conducting traffic with light sabers and trolling the prefecture for a Mr. Dounut, the police took an interest in our festivities. Myself and one other JET tried to sneak away from the group, but were caught and asked to return. Damn. 2 others DID manage to sneak away. As they hobbled into the train station, I yelled (as only a true hypocrite can), “Cowards!” They got away, we didn’t…
CLICK HERE to read the rest of the post.
http://snorlax87.blogspot.com/
Foxhound87: Diwali: A Festival of Lights Part 1
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Joshua Small is a First Year JET currently living in Ikaruga-cho, Nara-ken and has been chronicling his experience on his blog Snorlax87.
The Nara JET community recently celebrated Diwali, the Indian “Festival of Lights.” We have one JET who was born in India and she wanted to share her culture with Nara ALTs. About 26 of us gathered in a rented kitchen at a hotel adjacent to JR Nara.
Side Story about the Kitchen: The kitchen in this hotel was originally built to provide an environment to improve relations between partners in relationships. Maybe the wife can show her husband how to cook and they can work together to make a meal. Does this sound ridiculous? It is. Nara AJET exploited this information and reserved the kitchen under the guise of improving relations between men and women. We had to make sure guys and girls were both cooking and cleaning just to keep up appearances. This is how we booked the kitchen for freeeeeeeeee.
Everyone was told to bring their own plates, cups, and silverware (unnecessarily, I might add). No one knew that the kitchen was already stocked with EVERYTHING…
CLICK HERE to read the rest of the post.
http://snorlax87.blogspot.com/
WIT Life #138: Kaikai and Kiki Thanksgiving Parade Debut
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! And for those of you are who are on the Japanese calender, I hope you had a relaxing 勤労感謝の日（kinrou kansha no hi or Labor Thanksgiving Day) this past Tuesday. Though there is no turkey or cranberry sauce on this Japanese holiday, it resembles our Thanksgiving in that it is an occasion to commemorate labor and production and give one another thanks.
This year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has a new addition from Japan, balloons of artist Takashi Murakami’s Kiki and Kaikai creations. They are following in the footsteps of Read More
INTERVIEW: Evans Revere on North Korea’s provocations
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John Ellis-Guardiola (Miyagi, 2002-04) is a NYC-based TV news producer who worked for the New York Bureau of Tokyo Broadcasting System and is now at the Reuters CCTV desk. At TBS he covered many topics, especially related to North Korea and the U.N. You can follow his blog at jelgua.wordpress.com.
Thanksgiving 2010 will be another U.S. holiday peppered with news from North Korea. This is a pattern – July 4, 2006, missiles; Memorial Day 2009, nuclear test. With the latest news about cross-border firing on the Korean Peninsula, I asked Evans Revere, a former senior U.S. diplomat, a Senior Director at the Albright Stonebridge Group, and Diplomat-in-Residence at the Woodrow Wilson School, for his insight. He kindly provided these answers via email.
Q: How do you interpret the most recent provocations on the Korean Peninsula and the revelation of centrifuges to Dr. Hecker? Some suggest this most recent round of belligerence is related to leadership succession issues. What is your take?
A: My own sense is that the leadership/succession issues have long since been decided. The course that North Korea is on has been set for some time, and the recent Korean Workers’ Party meeting that anointed Kim Jong Un as the next leader when his father passes brought to a conclusion a long, complicated, and secretive process that was set in motion when Kim Jong Il took ill in the summer of 2008. Now that the course has been set, the North Koreans are moving on several fronts. If anything, recent developments in the military and nuclear arenas probably have the blessing of both the older and the younger Kim. There are credible reports that the two visited… Click here to read more.
