JET alum seeks to create “Japan Town” in Sydney
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I saw a post about this on the JETAA New South Wales Facebook page and thought this was worth sharing with the JET alum community since it’s a JET alum seeking to literally spread Japanese culture. Here’s the full description of the project being pursued by JET alum Joshua Flannery at http://www.pozible.com/project/21447:
Sydney already has a China Town, a “little Italy” (Leichardt/Haberfield), a Korea Town (Eastwood/City) and many more pockets of ethnic-flavoured deliciousness.
This pozible project aims to create a permanent “Little Japan” somewhere in Sydney (actually I prefer the name “Little Kyoto as it is less common than Little Tokyo or Little Osaka a la San Francisco).
Sure, we have the Japanese supermarket and a bit of a community in Northbridge but its not exactly an equivalent to China Town. We also have a little pocket of restaurants and a Japanese bookshop in Artarmon but to be honest, you could walk right through it and not realise it was there.
More than just a collection of restaurants in the same area, this will include an onsen (Japanese traditional baths), a geisha house, quaint little Japanese bars, street vendors/markets selling chicken kara age (Japanese fried chicken) and takoyaki (fried octopus ball) stands.
There would be a manga cafe and maybe even a maid cafe.
Japanese art and craft would be on display and on sale with J-Pop, Enka and Japanese hip-hop heard throughout the area.
There would be regular events and performances and busking in the area would be permitted for Japanese and Japan related artists.
A Business with Japan zone would also be created with an area to network with local business people with Japanese products and services or business visitors from Japan. To see a Japanese salary man roaming from the zone to a restaurant to a bar just like the backstreets of Tokyo would not be unusual.
For those wanting to study Japanese or keep up their language skills, there will be “Japanese language zones” where only Japanese language will be spoken. The will also give an effect as if one were over in Japan. Further to the language learning, there will be classes to make Japanese food, art and martial arts training available in a dojo space.
Sydney’s Little Japan will be an experiential, educational and delicious zone of Japan flavored food, art, culture and people.
Outside of Japan, this space will be the most extensive Japan flavored space in the world and people will actually visit it as a tourist attraction too.
What do I have and why me?
· Japanese food and culture addict
* 6 years living and working in Japan
· A network of Japanese business community
· A network of Japanese people living in Sydney (including my Japanese wife)
· Experience as the only non-Japanese staff in Sydney’s first sushi train restaurant
· Strong links into Japans business and hospitality industry (I’m a Certified Sake Professional)
– My day job now is working with start-ups, entrepreneurs, investors and everyone else in the innovation ecosystem. I know what it takes to plan and execute a project :
What do I need?
In order to do this properly, I need some funding to do the research for the project. I’d like to conduct interviews with current players in Sydney (read Japanese restaurant owners, importers, dojo managers, the Japan Foundation, the Japan External Trade Organisation, Japanese schools and the Japanese expat community).
Depending on how much is pledged, I would also look at 1 trip to Japan to meet with potential partners based in Japan who may support the project (read government officials, businesses and others with interested in spreading “Japan” further into Sydney). It would be cool to bring something new that doesn’t exist in Australia over.
The goal will be to create a detailed report, which will give a clearer idea of:
1) who wants to be a part of this
2) what the real size of this Japan Town will be (a multilevel building or an area around a train station in the suburbs or?)
3) how much money it will cost to make this happen
Upon the completion of the project, I will send those who donate a copy so they can see what this project has found.
The document will also act as the basis to start the second, much larger project of beginning to actually make this Japan Town become a reality – and another reason for people to love Sydney.
Here’s the link to pledge to the cause: https://www.pozible.com/fund/support/21447/0/-1
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