WIT Life #52: Manifesto Woes
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter/Translator/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
The Manifesto is the imposing name of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)’s platform for its new government, one that promises to “put people’s lives first.” In order to accomplish this, its five pledges are the end of wasteful spending, childrearing and education, pension and medical care, regional sovereignty and employment and the economy. Although great in theory, new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is realizing that these goals are easier to state than actually carry out. Japanese ministries and agencies asked to spend a record 95.04 trillion yen ($1 trillion) next fiscal year, risking expansion of the world’s largest public debt.
This creates the issue of whether the DPJ can fulfill its election pledges without worsening an already significant debt burden. In response to this, Fujisankai carried out Read More
JQ Magazine’s “Fall Classic Rock” Issue Now Available Online!
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JQ Editor Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02) has done it again. Another great issue of JQ:
Some Dreams Do Come True! JQ’s Fall 2009 Issue is Here!!
FALL 2009 ISSUE: click image below for our homepage
In our final issue of the year, we chat with the men of Anvil! The Story of Anvil, a film that may be on the road to the Oscars next year, and original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley about his memories of touring Nippon in three different decades. On the JETAANY front, read all about our end-of-summer softball tournament and the annual National Conference in Chicago, as well as a wedding announcement. Plus: the New York Anime Festival, Film reviews of Ponyo and The Cove, author interviews, theater, fab “translation tours”…all this and MORE in the new “Fall Classic Rock” issue of JQ!!
Page 3……..Letter From the Editor / Letter From the Treasurer
Page 4……..Nippon News Blotter / CJ’s Wedding
Page 5……..Comings & Goings / JETAA National Conference in Chicago
Page 6……..JETAANY Annual Softball Tournament
Page 7……..Working the Written Word by Alexei Esikoff
Page 8……..Nihonjin in New York – Featuring JETRO’s Maya Eiki-Law by Joe Marucheck
Page 8……..Actor Jun Kim Talks heavenly BENTO by Adren Hart
Page 9……..Americans on Fuji: Talking with Author Sara Backer by Veronika Ruff
Page 10……International Visitor Leadership Program Interpreting by Stacy Smith
Page 11……JQ&A with New York Anime Festival’s Peter Tatara by Justin Tedaldi
Page 13……Anvil with Sacha Gervasi: The JQ Interview: by Justin Tedaldi
Page 14……What We Did This Summer – Photos
Page 15……Theatre Review: A Recipe for heavenly BENTO by Adren Hart
Page 16……Film Review: Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo by Lyle Sylvander
Page 17……Book Corner: The China Lover by David Kowalsky
Page 18……Ace Frehley: Back in the New York Groove by Justin Tedaldi
Page 20……New York Anime Festival Photos
Page 21……Film Review: The Cove by Elizabeth Wanic
Page 21……Book Corner: Japanese Kitchen Knives / Food Carving by Yukari Sakamoto
Page 23……Top 12 List / Life After the B.O.E. / Sponsors Index
JETAA Northern California Newsletter: Summer 2009 Pacific Bridges now online
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Via Mark Frey (Kumamoto-ken, 2002-06), Editor of Pacific Bridges, the JETAA Northern California quarterly newsletter.
The 2009 Summer Issue of the official JETAA NC newsletter, Pacific Bridge, is now available here! Get caught up on all of your local alumni happenings! Read it online here: http://www.jetaanc.org/newsletter.html or in the “Files” area of our Yahoo Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jetaanc/files/
This issue’s theme is “Tradition.” Read about how alumni like you are keeping up various traditions near you, as well as other goings-on in the JET alumni world, including:
– Upcoming events like the Shobu Cup Dodgeball Match!
– Stories about local super-star alumni
– Taboos broached in SF Japanese discussion group
– New website for JET writers, interpreters, translators and job-seekers: JetWit.com
– JETAANC Scholarship Winner, Lukas Bonick, Three Years Later
– Natsu Matsuri Picnic Report
– JETAA National Conference report
– Oyaji’s advice column
– Top 10 List
– …and much more!
Please send any comments to [newsletter(at)jetaanc(dot) org]. Share your talents and build your portfolio by volunteering for the next issue (we seriously need more help)! Thanks to everyone who helped to produce yet another great issue.
Mark Frey (Kumamoto-ken, 2002-06)
Editor, Pacific Bridge
Roland Kelts column in Daily Yomiuri and appearances at the NY Anime Festival this weekend
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****************Here’s the latest Daily Yomiuri column from Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, from his “Soft Power, Hard Truths” series for the Daily Yomiuri. This one about the giant robot Gundam and AKB48 girl-power at this year’s New York Anime Festival, kicking off tomorrow:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/arts/20090925TDY13001.htm
Also, Roland will be at the New York Anime Festival at the Javits Center all weekend and says to JET alums, “Please swing by and say hello if you can.” Here’s his schedule for the weekend:
- Friday, 5:15 to 6:15 pm — Yoshiyuki Tomino (GUNDAM)
- Saturday, 12:15 to 1:15 pm — AKB48
- Sunday, 11:15 am to 12:15 pm — Yui Makino
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Bruce Rutledge hired as editor of new Ibuki Magazine, seeks ideas and stories from JETs in Pacific Northwest
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A nice update from JET alum Bruce Rutledge, the owner of Seattle-based publisher Chin Music Press via the JETAA Pacific Northwest yahoogroup:
Hi everyone, I wanted to let you all know about a new magazine about Japanese culture that was launched this summer. It’s called Ibuki.
You can find it on the Web here: http://ibukimagazine.com/
The publisher has hired me to edit the magazine and has said she would love to hear ideas for stories from former JETs in the Pacific Northwest. The magazine is beginning as a quarterly centered on Seattle, but, the economy willing, it will expand both its focus and its readership in 2010. If you’re coming to Aki Matsuri this weekend, you’ll find publisher Misa Cartier there at the Ibuki table (and you’ll find me at the Chin Music Press table).
Please stop either one of us and say hi if you’re interested in contributing.
Cheers,
Bruce
For more information about Bruce Rutledge and Chin Music Press just go to http://chinmusicpress.com
WIT Life #49: Regime Change
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter/Translator/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Since my last post there has been a huge shakeup in Japanese politics, with the Democratic Party winning in a landslide election and its leader Yukio Hatoyama poised to become the next Prime Minister. His wife, Miyuki, has even been getting lots of press for her claim to have been abducted by aliens and taken to Venus when she was younger. She is already fodder for late-night comedians, as this week she was the subject of a David Letterman Top-Ten list entitled “Signs the Japanese First Lady is Nuts.”
Analysts expect the Democrats to focus at least initially on their ambitious domestic agenda. The party has pledged to change the postwar paradigm, promising to ease growing social inequality by handing more money and social benefits directly to residents rather than to industry or other interest groups. It has promised to strengthen the social safety net and raise the low birthrate by giving families cash handouts of $270 per month per child and by charging lower gasoline taxes. Such policies could bring about the start of recovery by lifting Japan’s flagging consumer spending. Hatoyama has expressed a desire to move away from American-style capitalism.
The party has said it will rein in the powerful central ministries in Tokyo which have run postwar Japan on the Liberal Democrats’ behalf. It plans to wrest away power from ministerial bureaucrats to ensure that spending more closely reflects public needs. However, party’s leaders have not had much to say about how to address productivity, or Japan’s continuing battle with deflation or the overhang of a huge public debt. Due to this, some people have not embraced its platform with much enthusiasm and are not optimistic about the Democrats’ ability to solve looming problems like the growing government debt and a rapidly aging population. Read More
Roland Kelts reviews “Tears in the Darkness” for BOOKFORUM
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Just found out that Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, has a review of “Tears in the Darkness,” a capacious, brilliantly narrated account of the Bataan Death March in World War II, featuring interviews with Japanese, American and Filipino veterans/survivors — in this month’s issue of BOOKFORUM. Inhumanity, with novelistic intimacy…
Read the review here: http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/016_03/4339
Roland Kelts column in Daily Yomiuri: Miyazaki, Horibuchi and the virtues of change
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http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/arts/20090828TDY13003.htm
Related JetWit Posts:
- Roland Kelts interview with Hayao Miyazaki
- Transcript of Roland Kelts full interview with Hayao Miyazaki (via GhibliWorld)
Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99) backstage with Hayao Miyazaki at Berkeley event
Roland Kelts article in Adbusters: “Japanese Simplicity”
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Check out the latest article by Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, in AdBusters magazine, titled “Japanese Simplicity: The only way to leave a smaller footprint would be to die.”
Also stay tuned for Roland’s forthcoming novel titled “Access.”
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From the Summer 2009 “1/4 Cheap Trick” Issue of JQ (JETAA NY Quarterly) Magazine:
Like Japanese Girls? Then You Need This Book
By Rick Ambrosio (Ibaraki-ken, 2006-08)
There I was again, outside my apartment, in the car with Hitomi. Again, at this awkward moment where we both fidget and she puts the Toni Braxton CD in. This is of course, about 10 months ago now, back in Japan. Even after living in Japan for a year and a half, I still had moments like this; social impasses as I liked to call them. We both didn’t know what to say, what to do. Well, in reality, I didn’t know what to say or do. This was before I understood what “nan demo ii” really meant, before I could fully understand all the silent cues. This was before I read David Radtke’s Understanding Japanese Women.
I know I know, you’re thinking, “oh no, not another pick-up line book. Not another cheesy how-to.” It’s what I feared before I started reading it, too. However, I was delightfully surprised that Read More
WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter/Translator/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
As we get further into August, the weather is not the only thing heating up in Japan. People are greatly anticipating the national elections to be held at the end
of the month, as many expect that at this time Prime Minister Taro Aso’s Liberal Democratic Party will lose its grip on power for only the second time in over half a century. Voter surveys show that the Democratic Party is favored to beat the LDP. This largest opposition party vows to put more money in the hands of consumers, and support has soared for them and their ambitious election platform which includes Read More
Adbusters: “The Soul of Japan” by Roland Kelts
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Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, has an article in the August issue of Adbusters magazine addressing the long lineage of Japanese artists’ resistance to the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty and subsequent interdependence. With the elections looming on August 30th, perhaps this additional context will be of interest JET alum.
The Soul of Japan: Japan’s crisis is not political, but psychological
© hideaki kawashima | soak, 2004 | courtesy tomio koyama gallery, tokyo
https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/84/soul-japan.html
Isshoni London: Top 5 Picks for Summer in Japanese London
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Great article from the Isshoni London website run by JET alum Vanessa Villalobos (who is also the Communications Officer for JETAA UK).
There’s a welcome lull in frenetic London life over August… time to enjoy some of the finer things in life: food, music and the great outdoors.
If you, like I am, are counting down the days to the Japan Matsuri at Spitalfields this September 19th, you should indulge in a little Japanese cultural exploration over the summer!
1. EAT FOR FREE AT TOKYO CITY
I know! I couldn’t believe it either! Simply book your table in advance at Tokyo City Japanese Restaurant near Bank on any Tuesday in August, anytime from 11.30am to 10pm at night. A tasty offer too good to miss, you simply pay a £2.50 service charge and the cost of drinks you order.
City workers can feast for free on everything from handmade sushi and sashimi to bento boxes filled with Japanese classics, plus other traditional Japanese dishes, and help Tokyo City celebrate their 10th birthday and the launch of their new August menu.
Tokyo City is at 46 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7AY
Call 020 7726 0308 and quote the Tokyo City offer when you book.
2. DISCOVER CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE MUSIC
You’ll be pleased to hear Tsuru Sushi plays host to new Japanese music the last Wednesday of every month! Their 100% Genki events showcase Japanese musical and performance talent.
The events have been running for one year on the last Wednesday of each month, and attract a diverse crowd from the Japanese and local communities. Performers are also diverse, ranging from Wataru Kousaka, a sanshin player, to contemporary electronic composer Anchorsong and many others.
CLICK HERE to read the rest of this article
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JetWit webmaster Lee-Sean Huang (Oita-ken, 2003-06) comments after the jump on The Cove, a new documentary about dolphin hunting in Japan. Please feel free to share your own thoughts regarding this controversial film in the comments section of this post.
JQ Magazine’s Summer 2009 “¼ Cheap Trick” Issue Is Out Now!
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SUMMER 2009 ISSUE – click image below to download PDF
The leader of a band that’s sold over 20 million records and brought the words “At Budokan” to the big time, the new Japanese ambassador to New York, a tour of Philadelphia that’s uncannily Zen, and chats with award-winning writers, French pastry operations managers and even a maid-outfitted cosplay superstar complete with bunny ears. All this and more in the new summer issue of JETAANY’s JQ magazine.
THIS IS ALSO OUR LAST FREE PRINT ISSUE!
To preserve our budget for alumni events, and in an effort to be greener and save paper, JETAANY will begin charging for print copies of JQ Magazine. The cost is $12 for 4 issues and you will only have the opportunity to sign up once a year – annual subscriptions will occur each fall. Please note that the magazine, in its entirety, is also available online. If you would like to sign up to receive a paper copy by mail, please follow the PayPal link below (Add to Cart) or e-mail magazinesubscriptions@jetaany.org for more information. Remember you must put “JQ subscription” and your desired mailing address in the Paypal comments box.
Editor: Justin Tedaldi – magazine@jetaany.org
Page 3…Letter From the Editor / Professional Outreach & Development Rep
Page 4…Nippon News Blotter
Page 5…Comings & Goings
Page 6…An Interview with Ambassador Shinichi Nishimiya by Anne Koller
Page 7…JET Alum Author Cristy Burne Wins Award by Gregory Anderson
Page 8…Philadelphia Loves Japan! by Therese Stephen
Page 9…JETAA in the Big Apple and Beyond by Megan Miller
Page 10.Japan Day @ Central Park Recap by Stacy Smith
Page 10.JETlog featuring Yukari Sakamoto (Chiba-ken, 1989-1990)
Page 11.Nihonjin in NY – Featuring Beard Papa’s Masashi Wada by Janice Chow
Page 12.Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen: The JQ Interview by Justin Tedaldi
Page 13.U.S. FrontLine’s Ken Haraguchi on Japanese Newspapers by Junko Ishikawa
Page 14.JETAActivity Photos
Page 15.JET Farewell Reception at the Ambassador’s Residence
Page 16.Maid in America: Q&A with Cosplay Singer Reni by Adren Hart
Page 17.JETAANY Webmaster Lee-Sean Huang by Shree Kurlekar
Page 17.Understanding Japanese Women with David J. Radtke by Rick Ambrosio
Page 18.Theatre Review: Samurai Takamine Jokichi by Anne Koller
Page 19.Film Review: Tokyo! by David Kowalsky
Page 20.Book Corner: Sony: The Private Life by Lyle Sylvander
Page 21.KRAZY! Exhibition at Japan Society by Anton Phung
Page 22.Pop Rock: Q&A with Marshall Crenshaw by Justin Tedaldi
Page 23.Jy? Q! with JET Alum Poet James Shea by Liz Wanic
