The US-Japan Alliance: A new report by JET alum Michael Auslin
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A new report is out by JET alum Michael Auslin and Christopher Griffin entitled The US-Japan Alliance in a New Era.
Michael Auslin is a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and former professor of Japanese history at Yale. Christopher Griffen is the security policy advisor to Sen. Joe Lieberman (who seems to held on to his chair in the Senate). The two will be speaking together on a panel at an AEI event on November 20.
You can read the executive summary and you can also download the PDF of the full report.
JetWit in Japan-US Business News
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Yvonne Burton (an independent business consultant who has both US and Japanese clients), has a nice entry about JetWit.com and finding opportunities in a tought economy today on her unique and interesting website Japan-US Business News (www.japanusbusinessnews.com).
JetWit will be paying close attention to Yvonne’s site going forward as she has a lot of experience working with small and mid-sized businesses and a reputation for coming up with creative approaches to cross-cultural business issues. Definitely a good resource for many JET alums.
(Side note: Just want to mention I was able to get to know Yvonne thanks to JET alum writer/interpreter/translator Stacy Smith, who has written and done translation work for Yvonne at different points.)
My name is Rick Ambrosio (Ibaraki-ken, 2006-08). And whether readjusting to post-JET life is something you’re facing now, will deal with in the future or if you just enjoy reconnecting with that awkwardly uncertain feeling you had when you got back from Japan, come along with me as I look for a new job, a new apartment, and yes, mow the lawn of my parent’s house. Tadaima!
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“Zannen…. Motainai“…..She repeated it again as she circled the computer skills on my resume. This was the third woman I had talked to today from this recruiting company.
It was 3:42pm in Manhattan and I had to decide if I was going to stay to see some people for drinks later tonight or take a train on the LIRR back home to my parent’s house – where I live now. Three months ago it was sayonara parties and teary goodbyes. Now it was recruiting companies and resume dos-and-don’ts.
Yuki (not her real name) was clearly disappointed. Even though we had been speaking Japanese most of the time I met her, she still felt it was not good enough for a Japanese business environment. She then explained Read More
Bankruptcy Bill – Strip #4: Headhunters
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Bankruptcy Bill is a cartoon created by Steven Horowitz (Aichi-ken, 1992-94) and Gideon Kendall. To see more strips as well as bankruptcy haiku, go to bankruptcybill.wordpress.com.
Writing Opportunities: JETAA NY Upcoming Newsletter Issue
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Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02), Editor of the JETAA NY Quarterly newsletter has announced that the theme for the next issue (slated for Jan. 2009) is The “New” Issue. New year, new JETAA editor, new U.S. president, and maybe some other things by the time we go to press.
- Contact Justin at: newsletter /atto/ jetaany /dotto/ org
- URL: http://jetaany.org/quarterly-newsletter-latest-edition/
“New” Ancedotes”: Justin is seeking anecdotes from JET alums that deal with anything new you learned or experienced during your time on JET or just in Japan. Prizes to the most interesting submissions. So the next time you’re on the subway and the train hits a red signal, think back to a time where everything was new, and send me something. If you need any inspiration, check out the political anecdotes from our last issue, which covered a wide spectrum of JET life. Next…
PART I: NEW FEATURES
-Nippon News Blotter: This aims to be a recap of the most interesting news stories of what’s happened in Japan since the last newsletter was published. Political, economic, entertainment, crime, scandals, whatever’s ripped from the headlines that can give our readers more of a sense of what’s going on in Japan. Easy to get by doing a Google News search or checking out an online English-language newspaper like the Japan Times online. So if you’re a Japanese news junkie and you come across a story that grabs you, forward the link to me and I’ll earmark it for inclusion in the next issue.
-East Meets West: The idea is to pose a question each issue to a handful of both Japanese people and JETs, with their answers printed underneath their photos. The Japanese can be friends of JETs, or people you meet in your daily life or even out on the street. I’m curious to see if the Japanese opinions would be the same, close, or totally different from what Americans would say. An example question would be something like “What problem do you want President Obama to handle first when he takes office?”, but the topic is open to suggestions and volunteers to both answer the questions and snap some photos.
-View From Japan: Are you a JET who’s currently living in Japan, or an alum who knows somebody with a JET relationship currently working in Japan? If so, Justin is looking to add more features from those in Japan today, which can give past JETs a clearer picture of what it’s like to work on the program here in the late ’00s. And commentary or a human interest story about something happening in Japan also plays up our international angle nicely.
-Celebrity Interviews: Does anybody know somebody who can get us in touch for an interview with a “big” name? Reason: even if they aren’t Japanese or haven’t lived there, they might have visited the country or have a big fan base there. So just asking a few questions about Japan could make an interesting spot of reading that would make JETAA NY stand out. Of course, if they are Japanese and have lived in Japan, even better. At the very least, run a wishlist by me or recommend a site for publicists or agents if you know one.
-Our New Name: We toyed with this idea earlier in the year, but it didn’t take. If anyone has any proposals to re-name the newsletter, send in your suggestions. Having a new name in time for the “new” issue would be timely, but it has to be something special!
PART II: BULLETIN BOARD
–Sukiyaki Western Django film review: Anyone want to review a recent movie where the mostly-Japanese cast speaks every line of dialogue in English? With a supporting role by Quentin Tarantino, this action/Western directed by Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer) premiered at Japan Society early this summer and followed with a short arthouse theatrical run. And if your Netflix queue has you swamped through the next decade, I may be able to arrange a screener from the production company. Check out some clips at its Amazon.com page:
-333 Club at Japan Society: One of Justin’s contacts at Japan Society runs the 333 Club, which invloves the following according to their homepage: Japan Society Members who are between the ages of 21 and 40 at the $500 Sponsor level or above to become a part of the 333 Club. Programs for our younger Members include meet-the-artist receptions, roundtable discussions with special guests and various other networking opportunities.
- Yakitori demonstration and tasting at Tori Shin restaurant
- Meet-the-Artist Reception with Basil Twist
- Summer Party/Miwa Yanagi Exhibition at Chelsea Art Museum
- Special Workshop and Reception at New York City Ballet
- Gallery Walk and Brunch with Making a Home Curator Eric Shiner
- Meet-the-Artist Reception with Yoshi Oida and David Stern
- Hands-on Pottery Workshop at Tougeikyoshitsu
- Meet-the-Artist Reception with B-saku Sato and Mitsuru Hirata
- Foreign Policy Roundtable with Dr. Tomohito Shinoda
- Meet-the-Artist Reception with rock shamisen artist Hiromitsu Agatsuma
- Artisanal Tea Tasting Dinner at Cha-an Teahouse
- Japanese Architecture Tour of New York
- Night at Yankees Stadium
If anyone’s interested in doing a piece on this, Justin will put you touch with someone. They likely already have a more detailed press release for this club, so the writer will just need to get a few quotes and wrap up with the club’s future plans and upcoming activities. Simple enough, right? Who’s in?
http://www.japansociety.org/333_club
–SwirlySwirlDates.com: SwirlySwirl is run by one Charmane Tsang, an enterprising young New Yorker who’s taken speed dating international under the slogan of Meet, Chat, Swirl, Go Interracial. Each week SwirlySwirl has speed dating and networking events for people of different backgrounds (including matching Japanese with others in NYC). While the subject isn’t a JET alum, Charmane provides a service that might be useful to many JET alums out there, and I get you in touch with her for a possible feature story about the jungle-like world that is NYC dating.
http://www.swirlyswirldates.com
-Restaurant Reviews: Another kind of story that we haven’t included for a few years now. Anyone been to a Japanese restaurant that you find yourself recommending to your friends over and over again? Might be worth spotlighing one in each issue, which is also good for our international community and opens the door for future gift certificate sponsors.
Writing Opportunity: Japanese Film Reviews
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JetWit is seeking reviews of Japanese films (recent or old) from any JET alums or Friends of JET who want to write one. No deadline. If you want to write one at any point, just send it in to stevenwaseda /atto/ jetwit /dotto/ com.
JET alum Michael Auslin (Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and former Professor of Japanese History at Yale University) will be speaking on the future of the U.S.-Japanese Alliance together with Christopher Griffin, defense policy adviser to Sen. Joseph Lieberman, on November 20 at the American Enterprise Institute.
Securing Freedom: A Report on the Future of the U.S.-Japanese Alliance
You can find this online at: http://www.aei.org/event1840
“In a new report entitled Securing Freedom: The U.S.-Japanese Alliance in a New Era, AEI’s Michael Auslin and Christopher Griffin, defense policy adviser to Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-D-Conn.), demonstrate that the United States and Japan should reorient their alliance to support political and economic liberalization. These reforms would in turn create bulwarks against authoritarian expansion and ensure that democracy, free markets, and transparent security policies become the animating principles of politics in Asia.” Read More
Julie Matysik (Yamanashi-ken, 2006-07) is a freelance copy editor and aspiring in-house editor who recently moved to NYC with her husband (also a JET alum). She is seeking an internship or entry level position in editing/publishing/writing. Editorial Pursuits will chronicle her job hunting efforts, experiences and lessons learned.
Here’s one thing I’ve learned about job hunting: Always follow up with contacts because you never know where they might lead. Even if you don’t get the job, or even an interview, you might find that something completely unexpected evolves from the relationship.
What do I mean by these somewhat cryptic “words of wisdom”? Here’s what happened to me.
Last year I worked as a Teacher Assistant at a Madison preschool. No, this has nothing to do with my editorial pursuits, but it was a job that paid the bills and a great place to work for a limited period. I am still in contact with some of the parents of children in my after-school class, and they know all about my job search woes.
One of the parents remembered having a contact at Macmillan Publishers, and he graciously introduced me to his friend who expressed great interest in getting extra attention for my resume.
I was tickled pink at all the possibilities this could mean for me, and I even started dreaming about walking into the Flatiron Building every day for work at a major book publishing company.
Meanwhile, in addition to going to bat for me, she also invited me to her house to meet her and her two-year-old son! How fantastic! She wanted to meet me face to face! Read More
2008 Japanese Ex-pat Election Survey (from JETAA NY Fall 2008 Newsletter)
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Who says Japanese people don’t voice their political opinions? Read on to see what some of our ex-pat friends think about the U.S. presidential candidates.
Voter Turnout LiftUp Bra
The process: An e-mail was sent out to JET alums to ask their Japanese friends and colleagues to tell them for whom they would vote in the upcoming U.S. election and for what reason. Here are their responses:
MCCAIN
Good for Japan’s economy and good for US’s Business.
RON PAUL
I vote neither Obama nor McCain. I think I would vote for Ron Paul. From my understanding, he has specific plans and interesting background (Is he used to be a republic but now a third party?).
OBAMA
I still want Hillary to be the next president but it is not happening, so I would vote for
Obama. The reasons is that I am strong anti-gun and pro-abortion (freedom of choice). So, I don’t Read More
JETAA NY Newsletter: JET Alumni 2008 Election Survey
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Welcome to the second-ever JET Alumni Election Survey! Forty-five people from around the U.S. and representing over 30 prefectures responded to “vote” and share their thoughts.
The survey was conducted anonymously using SurveyMonkey, all responses were received between 9/10 and 10/6 (i.e., before the economy started imploding) and an effort was made to make the survey available to as many chapters as possible. In other words, it’s completely un-scientific. That said, it’s still fun to do, so see the results below.
VOTE TOTALS
- McCain – 3
- Obama – 37
- Ron Paul – 1
- Undecided – 4
COMMENTS
Ron Paul
***Ron Paul…real change. My experiences in Japan have provided me with a much different perspective since “return,” made me more receptive to initially intimidating political and economic ideas. I left the American Matrix for a while, and now there is no falling back to sleep.
Undecided
***I’m torn on the issue. At this point I could see myself voting for either party. Originally I planned on voting for Obama, but recently I do not like how his camp has been handling the issue of McCain choosing Palin as VP. I really could see the Republicans winning again. Since I live in California the state will go Democrat, so either way I guess it doesn’t matter all that much. Read More
Job: Translator – Patent Business – Tokyo-to, Tama-shi
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Translator Wanted (in Patent Business) (Tamasi)
Reply to: job-917144987@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-11-13, 6:18PM JT
Memoirs of Japan – A new blog by Simon Gouldman (Niigata-ken, 1998-2000)
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JetWit is pleased to introduce a new blog just started by Simon Gouldman (Niigata-ken, Nagaoka-shi, 1998-2000) entitled Memoirs of Japan: The Story of a Young British Teacher Living in Japan. See a short excerpt below. To see more, go to memoirsofjapan.com, or grab the RSS feed.
Ten years have now passed since I first landed in Narita airport. I’ll never forget the strange smells, sounds and sights that confronted me on that Shinkansen (bullet train) journey to my new home. Although Japan is a world away from my life now it will always remain in my heart. Some memories are distant and some have faded, yet when I cast my mind back to that time it is as clear as the rising sun.
Translators Challenge – Fall 2008 “Politics” Issue (JETAA NY Newsletter)
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Welcome to the second-ever JETAA NY Quarterly Translators Challenge, from the Fall 2008 “Politics” issue.
We once again invited JET alums and Friends of JET (i.e., anyone who wants) to take their best shot at translating a selected text. Why? Well, mostly to entertain, but also to give the greater JET alum community a chance to show their stuff as well as give the rest of us a fun way to study up on our nihongo.
The selected text for this edition of the Translators Challenge is an excerpt from “Political Science,” the satirical 1972 song by Randy Newman.
Prize: $25 gift certificate to BOOK OFF, the discount Japanese boookstore on 41st St. between Madison & 5th Aves.
Asia’s crowded and Europe’s too old
Africa is far too hot
And Canada’s too cold
And South America stole our name
Let’s drop the big one
There’ll be no one left to blame us
We’ll save Australia
Don’t wanna hurt no kangaroo
We’ll build an all-American
amusement park there
They got surfin’, too
Click here to see/hear “Political Science” on YouTube.
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THE WINNER!
Mia Simring
(CIR Aichi-ken, 2004-06)
Omedetou gozaimashita on
her second straight win!
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アジア込みすぎ、
ヨーロッパダサすぎ
アフリカなんて暑くて
カナダ － 寒すぎ
南アメリカ － 我が名を盗んだ
世界をぶっ潰そう
反対する人間を消しちまおう
カンガルー可愛いから
オーストラリアだけ助けよう
アメリカン遊園地
そこで作るぞ！
Ajia komisugi,
Yoroppa dasasugi
Afurika nante atsukute
Kanada – samusugi
Minami Amerika – wa ga na wo nusunda
Sekai wo buttsubusou
Hantai suru ningen wo keshichimaou
Kangaru – kawaii kara
Osutoraria dake tasukeyou
Amerikan yuenchi
Soko de tsukuru zo!
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COMMENTARY
Special thanks to professional translator Jamie Graves (Shizuoka-ken, 2002-03) for providing some commentary and insight.
Mia clearly put a lot of thought into changing the distinctly American rhythms and humor of a folk song into Japanese.
I was impressed at how Mia managed to avoid direct translation, instead finding uniquely Japanese ways of expressing the value judgements in the song. Instead of directly saying “old” in the line “Europe’s too old” she used ダサイ(dasai, “not with it, uncool”), which conveys the contempt a lot better.
She was also very good on keeping the translated text rhythmic and simple, replacing a potentially messy translation of “Don’t wanna hurt no kangaroo” with “カンガルー可愛いから” (kangaroo kawaii kara), which manages to keep the humor and simplicity of the original. She even managed to rhyme the last verse!
Editorial Pursuits #1 – Getting LinkedIn to Your Professional Profile on JetWit
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Julie Matysik (Yamanashi-ken, 2006-07) is a freelance copy editor and aspiring in-house editor who recently moved to NYC with her husband (also a JET alum). She is seeking an internship or entry level position in editing/publishing/writing. Editorial Pursuits will chronicle her job hunting efforts, experiences and lessons learned.
As a recent transplant to New York City from little ol’ Wisconsin, I’ve had a lot of new experiences thrown at me over the past two months.
I’ve learned to not take it personally when I smile at someone on the sidewalk and they give me a scowl; I’ve learned the exact speed to swipe the MetroCard so you don’t get bumped from behind when you have to re-swipe; I’ve learned that yes, New York pizza is super greasy but oh-so-alluring.
I’ve also learned that job searching in a city of millions of people is not a piece of cake and so, on the advice of a fellow JETAANY member, I decided to try my hand at creating a LinkedIn profile that I could link to in my JetWit Professional Profile.
I’m still getting comfortable with establishing an online presence for myself, but, to my pleasant surprise, Read More
JetWit on Facebook
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You can now join the JetWit.com group on Facebook! Just login to Facebook and search for “jetwit.”
