Jun 9

JQ Magazine: From JET to the U.S. Department of State, Alumni Share Their Stories

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By Sheila Burt (Toyama-ken, 2010-12) for JQ magazine. Sheila is a scientific writer at the Center for Bionic Medicine, a research group located within the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. She blogs about urban issues and Japan at www.sheilaburt.com, and writes the column “Letters from Japan” for Gapers Block. Follow her on Twitter @smburt.

Many of those who apply to the JET Program, and for several other teaching or translation positions in Japan, have a strong interest in international relations and diplomacy. But how does one transition from being eigo no sensei to a government career in the Foreign Service?

Via email, JQ reached out to three former ALTs who now work overseas for the U.S. Department of State to learn more about how they successfully made the big jump, and how their time in Japan influenced their respective careers.

Katrina Barnas, Consular Officer in Ecuador

Katrina Barnas (Chiba-ken, 2001-02) holds a BS in journalism from Northwestern University and a Master’s in Public Administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. After working for nine years in higher education administration at Columbia, she joined the Foreign Service in 2013 and recently started her first tour as a Consular Officer in Ecuador, where she assists American citizens in Ecuador and interviews other nationalities interested in traveling to the U.S. for tourism, study and work. She has also been an active member of the JETAA community, serving as vice president of the JET Alumni Association of New York (JETAANY) from 2005 to 2007, and then as a founding member of its board of directors from 2006 to 2011. Here, Barnas discusses how she applied to the JET Program on a whim—and how that decision ultimately shaped her future career path.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after college. I had studied journalism but in my senior year, I was no longer sure that was the path I wanted to pursue. I liked traveling and children, so when some of my friends applied for JET I decided to apply as well. It is interesting to look back on it now since at the time I did not have a strong interest in Japan, but now I can’t imagine my life without a Japanese influence.

JET helped make my choice of joining the Foreign Service less daunting because I knew that I had done this before and succeeded. Through JET, I had experienced working in another country—getting beyond just a visit and belonging someplace very different from my hometown, and I knew that although it was going to be different that I could do it.

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Jun 8

JQ Magazine: Book Review—‘Cinema of Actuality’

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“Artists often make great sociological commentators, and Furuhata’s book sheds new light on the insights of these filmmakers.” (Duke University Press)

By Lyle Sylvander (Yokohama-shi, 2001-02) for JQ magazine. Lyle has completed a master’s program at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and has been writing for the JET Alumni Association of New York since 2004. He is also the goalkeeper for FC Japan, a New York City-based soccer team.

Yuriko Furuhata’s Cinema of Actuality: Japanese Avant-Garde Filmmaking in the Season of Image Politics examines a turbulent and disruptive period in Japanese history. As in other areas of the world, Japan in the late 1960s-early 1970s marked an era of youthful rebellion against the establishment, in both its public and private spheres. Furuhata’s analysis examines this period through the alternative Japanese film movements going on at the time, from New Wave figures like Masahiro Shinoda, Yasuzo Masumura and Hiroshi Teshigahara, to avant-garde filmmakers like Toshio Matsumoto and Kiyoteru Hanada. However, most of the films studied in the book are by Nagisa Oshima, largely considered to be the father of the Japanese New Wave and the “Jean-Luc Godard of Japan.” By eschewing the more traditional tendencies of the directors from Japan’s Golden Age such as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu, these directors incorporated such formalist experiments as jump cuts, disjointed angles, shaky handheld camerawork, pop music and, most importantly, the inclusion of television news footage. 

Since many of these directors were relatively young, they shared the political sensitivities of the student protesters, who sanguinely staged media events to garner attention. The “season of politics” era was prominently displayed in nightly television newscasts, which covered a wide spectrum of politically disruptive events, from hijackings to hostage crises to mass student rallies and protests. The aesthetics of this new generation of film appropriated this contemporary media coverage in attempt to both reflect and critique it. By converging with other media cultures, these filmmakers engaged in a theory-filled dialog with the nature of representation itself, in effect becoming simultaneously media practitioners as well as theorists/critics. By making this powerful argument, Furuhata—an Assistant Professor of McGill University’s Department of East Asian Studies and World Cinema Program—forcefully disputes film scholar Noël Burch’s often-quoted notion that Japan was a cinema culture devoid of theory and serious study.

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Jun 5

Internship for Japanese Speaker at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Work from Home)

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Jun 5

Job: Asia Programs Director at Univeristy of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC)

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Overview: 

This position establishes, manages, and promotes all study abroad programs in Asia. It requires close collaboration within the Study Abroad Office with those responsible for advising, finance and operations, and outside the Study Abroad Office with academic units that sponsor and support each study abroad program. The successful management of programs entails ensuring that each is financially viable and articulates closely with the on-campus academic curriculum, and regular and effective communication with foreign partner universities, institutions and service providers. The position is also responsible for: putting in place administrative and logistical arrangements for proprietary UNC-CH study abroad programs in Asia, managing the donor-funded SE Asia Summer Program and managing the office’s sole joint degree program (with the National University of Singapore). Program management also requires availability to deal with emergencies on a 24 7 basis Read More

Jun 5

Job: 2 Positions at Emergency Assistance Japan (USA) Inc. [Richmond, VA]

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Human Resources Generalist Overview: 

The HR Generalist is primarily responsible for administering policies relating to all phases of human resources activity.

• Maintains knowledge of legal requirements and government reporting regulations affecting human resources functions and ensures policies, procedures, and reporting are in compliance.
• Recruits, interviews, tests, and selects employees to fill vacant positions.
• Plans and conducts new employee orientation to foster positive attitude toward company goals.
• Keeps records of benefits plans participation such as insurance and pension plan, personnel transactions such as hires, promotions, transfers, performance reviews, and terminations, and employee statistics for government reporting.
• Trains management in interviewing, hiring, terminations, promotions, performance review, safety, and sexual harassment.
• Advises management in appropriate resolution of employee relations issues.
• Responds to inquiries regarding policies, procedures, and programs.
• Administers performance review program to ensure effectiveness, compliance, and equity within organization.
• Administers salary administration program to ensure compliance and equity within organization.
• Administers benefits programs such as life, health, dental and disability insurances, pension plans, vacation, sick leave, leave of absence, and employee assistance.
• Investigates accidents and prepares reports for insurance carrier.
• Conducts wage surveys within labor market to determine competitive wage rate.
• Prepares employee separation notices and related documentation, and conducts exit interviews to determine reasons behind separations.

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Jun 5

Job: Local Coordinator for Japanese Exchange Students at Laurasian Institute (Seattle)

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Help bring Japanese high school students to your community

The Laurasian Institution (TLI) is looking for outgoing, warm-hearted JET alumni to join our team of Local Coordinators for exchange students from Japan. Our students come to the U.S. to attend an American public high school for one year and live with a volunteer American host family. As a Local Coordinator, you will have a key role in creating positive impressions of America, breaking stereotypes, and fostering mutual understanding between Japan and the U.S. Read More

Jun 5

Life After JET: Breaking Up with Japan

LifeAfterJET commdao, discussions with dao, japan, jon dao, podcast, the low dao Add Comment (1)

Some people have issues, and for me, I had Japan issues. When I came back from Japan, I went through a wicked case of reverse culture shock. I lost all sense of identity returning home. In my mind, I’d built myself up as the “international” guy in my circle of friends. So when I was back in Arkansas, despite having the best groups of friends and family one could ask for, I felt like I had nothing. Read More

Jun 3

Job: Ambassador to Japan at Riot Games (Santa Monica and Tokyo)

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Overview: 

As Ambassador for Japan, you’ll represent Japan’s interests in Santa Monica and own the relationship between regional Rioters in Tokyo and the central teams. While focusing on leveling up Riot’s global communication, the players will remain at the front of your mind. You’ll gain an in-depth understanding of players and cultural differences in the region that’ll help you champion projects and initiatives that deliver an awesome experience to players in Japan. Read More

Jun 3

Job: English Speaking Electrical Engineer at JESCO Holdings (Tokyo)

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Jun 3

Job: Native Eng Speaker w Fluent Japanese for International Center Team (Tokyo University)

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Jun 3

Job: Office Assistant/Receptionist at Japan Foundation (LA)

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May 31

JETwit Job Hunter Support Project

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Autumn Widdoes (Okinawa-ken 2010-2014), a writer with a focus on performance and film, will soon return to the job market.  She’d like to put her four years of experience in Japan to good use in future employment.

Hi everyone!

We’re starting an innovative new feature on JETwit to help job-hunting JETs and JET alums with their job searches. We want to post stories and experiences of the post-JET job search in ways that can be helpful to both the profiled job-seeker and to JET/alum readers. If you’d like to have your profile considered, please submit the following information using the Google Form at this link:

FYI, here are the questions being asked on the Google Form:

1. What kind(s) of job(s) are you looking for, and where?
2. What have you do so far in terms of job searching?
3. What have been some of the challenges? What have you found that was positive?
4. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned along the way so far?
5. What would be most helpful for you at this point to help you get a job?
6. Optional:  Link(s) to your online resume/CV/LinkedIn profile and/or website/blog.

We’ll periodically post your stories and hopefully this will be helpful to readers and enable others in the JET alum community to help you.

If you have any questions or problems with the Google Form, please email Autumn Widdoes at jetwitjobhunter [at] gmail.com

よろしくお願いします。頑張りましょう。

May 30

Life After JET: Gabai Life!-Educational Journeys of an Ex-JET from Saga

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By Jose Ariel Ramos (Saga-ken, 1998-2001).  Jose recently moved to Central Texas where he now works as a recruiter for a charter school.

Gabai Life!-Educational Journeys of an Ex-JET from Saga

“To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.”

-Robert Louis Stevenson

I reach for my phone. I want to check my email. I’m pretty sure there is something important there-a job lead, a response from a recruiter, a rejection, an actual offer. I put it back on the table. I go back to re-writing my resume and looking on JETwit, on Idealist, on Linkedin, on many other websites where jobs are posted. Again. Again. Again. Maybe this time I’d get a yes.

This has been my life for the past eight months: re-writing my resume; re-arranging the cover letter; sending all required documents in; filling in another online form at another job application site. I’ve applied to teaching positions in Japan, Oman, Korea, Singapore, China. I’ve applied to be director for different university overseas programs. I’ve applied to grad school. I’ve probably applied for no less than two hundred or so jobs-I’d lost count a while ago. I’ve gotten about six interviews but no luck. “How did I get here?” I’d find myself asking.

I got on JET right after graduating university with a Music and French degree in 1998. With an open mind and plenty of optimism I went to Saga ken as an ALT to find out what Japan was like. At that time cellphones were just starting to be widely used, dial-up was the common way to connect on the net, and we were still making long distance telephone calls on landlines. Saga was a rural place that had it’s own unmistakable dialect-“Gabai oishika!” I would find myself saying after a meal (Really delicious!). I made plenty of mistakes but made plenty of friends, and I had incredible experiences. The first times I went snowboarding, white-water rafting, even bungee jumping were in Japan. Three years of adventure with other adventurous people. I decided back then that that was the kind of life I wanted to live-a life of voyage, excitement, freedom.

I came back home in 2001 right before 9/11, Read More

May 29

【RocketNews24】Who needs pre-furnished apartments when you can get one that comes with a cat?

Article/Journalism, Writers animal, cats, cool, housing, rent, RocketNews24 Comments Off on 【RocketNews24】Who needs pre-furnished apartments when you can get one that comes with a cat?

Posted by Michelle Lynn Dinh (Shimane-ken, Chibu-mura, 2010–13), editor and writer for RocketNews24. The following article was written by Casey Baseel, a writer and translator for RocketNews24, a Japan-based site dedicated to bringing fun and quirky news from Asia to English speaking audiences.

Some Japanese apartments are incredibly sparse. In the most extreme cases, your lease gets you four walls, a kitchen sink, bathroom, and that’s it. Oh, you want lighting fixtures, a stove, and air conditioning? Sorry, you’ll have to purchase all that on your own.

As a result, savvy apartment hunters are always on the lookout for properties that include some of these amenities. And while it’s incredibly convenient to find a place that already comes with ceiling lamps, it still can’t match the thrill some animal lovers in Japan experience when they find a new pad that comes with a cat.

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May 28

Job: Program Coordinator at Japan-Society Hawaii

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