WIT Life #164: More notable Nihonjin
Events, Film, Translating/Interpreting, Uncategorized, WIT Life, Writers 
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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.
Interesting article in the NYT today profiling the new head of the M.I.T Media Lab, a 44-year old Japanese venture capitalist named Joichi Ito. Ironically enough, Ito attended both Tufts and the University of Chicago in the past, but didn’t graduate from either as he didn’t like their learning styles. However, his accomplishments include serving on the board of the Internet governance organization Icann and the Mozilla Foundation, and along the course of his career he has invested in more than 12 start-ups such as Flickr and Twitter. In Japan, he helped establish the first commercial Internet service provider in 1994 (Ito grew up in both Tokyo and Silicon Valley). Personally he sounds intriguing as well, traveling almost 2/3 of the time last year and sharing his adventures on his website (one recent episode was a diving trip feeding sharks in the Caribbean).
Speaking of other 
prominent Japanese men, one of the documentaries being screened at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival is Jiro Dreams of Sushi. It tells the story of 85-year-old sushi chef Jiro Ono, owner of the 10-seat, three Michelin star, $300-a-plate Sukiyabashi Jiro restaurant in Tokyo. Besides highlighting the ways of this master, it also examines his relationship with his son who is heir to his restaurant. Another Japanese film being featured at the festival is Underwater Love (オンナノカッパ), a “soft-porn musical with heart” directed by Shinji Imaoka who is known as one of the “Seven Lucky Gods of Pink” for his work as a pink film director.
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