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JET Return on Investment (ROI) is a new category on JetWit intended to highlight the various economic and diplomatic benefits to Japan resulting from its investment in the JET Program. This first post by Jim Gannon (Ehime-ken, 1992-94) lays out the context and background regarding the serious challenges now faced by the JET Program and JET Alumni Association in connection with current economic problems and political shifts in Japan. Email jetwit@jetwit.com with ideas or submissions for additional JET ROI posts.
“JET Program on the Chopping Block”
Jim Gannon (Ehime-ken, 1992-94), Executive Director for the Japan Center for International Exchange
Jim Gannon (Ehime-ken, 1992-94) has served as the Executive Director of the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE/USA) (www.jcie.or.jp) in New York since 2002, the US affiliate of one of the leading nongovernmental institutions in the field of international affairs in Japan. JCIE brings together key figures from around the world for programs of exchange, research, and dialogue designed to build international cooperation on pressing regional and global challenges. Before joining JCIE in 2001, Jim conducted research with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and taught English in rural Japanese middle schools as part of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme. He received a BA from the University of Notre Dame, conducted graduate research at Ehime University in Japan, and has a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Mr. Gannon is also a fellow with the US-Japan Network for the Future, operated by the Mike and Maureen Mansfield Foundation, and his recent publications include “East Asia at a Crossroads” in East Asia at a Crossroads and “Promoting the Study of the United States in Japan” in Philanthropy and Reconciliation: Rebuilding Postwar US-Japan Relations.
As part of Japan’s efforts to grapple with its massive public debt, the JET Program may be cut. Soon after coming into power, the new DPJ government launched a high profile effort to expose and cut wasteful government spending. This has featured jigyo shiwake–budget review panels that were tasked with reviewing government programs and recommending whether they should be continued or cut. (See Stacy Smith’s (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03) May 21 WITLife post that explains jigyou shiwake and touches on the threat to the JET Program.)
In May 2010, the JET Program and CLAIR came up for review, and during the course of an hourlong hearing, the 11-member panel criticized the JET scheme, ruling unanimously that a comprehensive examination should be undertaken to see if it should be pared back or eliminated altogether.When the jigyo shiwake panels were launched in November 2009, the intent was to weed out bloated spending and a wide range of government programs were put under review, from government-affiliated think tanks to host nation support for US military bases. Bureaucrats involved with each program were directed to submit a brief report on program activities and testify before panels consisting of a handful of Diet members and roughly a dozen private citizens from different walks of life. The defenders of each program were given five minutes to explain why the program is worthwhile, the finance ministry then laid out the rationale for cutting it, and then the panel held a 40 minute debate before issuing a recommendation whether the program should live or die.
Diet member Renho
This extraordinary spectacle made for great theater, becoming wildly popular with voters disenchanted with a lack of government transparency and critical of recurring bureaucratic scandals. In November 2009, the first round of jigyo shiwake panels dominated the newspapers’ front pages and the hearings were streamed live by various online news sites. The process even gave rise to a new set of stars, most notably Renho, a 42 year-old Taiwanese-Japanese announcer turned Diet member who relentlessly attacked the bureaucrats who appeared before the panels.
Despite this initial success, a backlash eventually began to brew against the jigyo shiwake panels, with detractors labeling them as mindless populism, arguing that panel members without any special expertise were unqualified to evaluate the programs and ridiculing the attempt to pass judgment on complex, long-standing projects with such a cursory review. In one noteworthy development, a group of Japanese Nobel laureates publicly rebuked the Hatoyama Goverment for jigyo shiwake recommendations to gut government funding for basic scientific research. Renho herself met with ridicule for arguing in one budget hearing, “What’s wrong with being the world’s number two?”
On May 21, a diverse set of programs including the JET Program were lumped together in one hourlong session and, during the course of the proceedings, the JET Program was criticized as being ineffective in raising the level of Japan’s English education. One of the more publicized comments called for the elimination of the Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) portion of JET. The general sense was that the JET Program was being evaluated as an educational program with the exchange component being given short shrift, since its impact is difficult to quantify and assess. (Click here for the ruling on the JET Program in Japanese in PDF format.)
A few Japanese intellectual and foreign policy leaders have begun to push back against the attacks on the JET Program, noting how important it is in terms of public diplomacy and in Japan’s engagement with a range of countries. In its June meeting in Washington, D.C., the US-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Exchange (CULCON), a joint US-Japan “wisemen’s commission” scathingly criticized the shortsightedness of any move to cut the JET Program, issuing a statement that
“CULCON strongly endorses the JET Program, especially against the background of negative assessment expressed by some panelists of the screening process.”
For its part, the US State Department also seems to be taking the position that the JET Program makes valuable contributions to the long-term underpinnings of US-Japan relations and cutting it will be harmful. Meanwhile, a handful of articles have also started to appear in the Japanese press defending the JET Program, although there have been only limited contributions to the debate so far by current and former JET participants.
The number of JET participants has already been cut back by almost 30 percent from the peak in 2002, but this is the most direct threat to its survival that the program has faced in its 23-year history. The pattern that has emerged with the previous round of jigyo shiwake has been that programs receiving this type of verdict will be scaled back significantly, absent any public outcry or political maneuvering by important figures.
It appears that the next few months will be decisive in whether and how the JET Program continues.
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Additional reading on this topic:
- “The JET Program is a Successful Example of US-Japan Exchange” – Sankei Shimbun, June 26, 2010 – http://sankei.jp.msn.com/world/america/100626/amr1006260751000-n1.htm (in Japanese)
- “Second round of state spending reviews begins” – Japan Times, April 24, 2010 – http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100424a3.html
- “Japanese scientists rally against government cuts: Packed meeting hears a chorus of lament from Nobelists” – Nature News, November 26, 2009 – http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091126/full/news.2009.1108.html
- Ruling on JET (PDF) (In Japanese) – http://www.cao.go.jp/sasshin/data/shiwake/result/B-36.pdf (Feel free to provide English translation of relevant parts in the comments section of this JetWit post.)
Have a good idea for a JET ROI post? Please contact Steven Horowitz (Aichi-ken, 1992-94) at jetwit@jetwit.com.
Job: ESL Instructor for TESOL/TEFL Teacher Training, Oxford Seminars (Nevada)
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Job posting by Lauren Sethney (Niigata-shi CIR, 2000-2003). Lauren serves as the Program Director at the Japan-America Society in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Via Oxford Seminars
Oxford Seminars is looking for dynamic and experienced ESL instructors to deliver TESOL/TEFL teacher training courses in Salt Lake City. Adapting our curriculum to complement your strengths, you will teach periodically on a part time, weekend basis (i.e. three consecutive weekends from 9 am to 6 pm, up to 6 courses per year, dependent on student registrations).
We believe in student-centered teaching and bringing both creativity and professionalism to the classroom. Our ideal candidates are excited to share their overseas experiences. In addition, they are eager to demonstrate creative and interactive teaching methods, such as Multiple Intelligence Theory and the Communicative Method, with a class of aspiring and motivated individuals.
Instructors prepare and facilitate 60-hour TESOL/TEFL teacher training certification courses using curriculum developed by Oxford Seminars, but tailored to suit your strengths. http://www.oxfordseminars.com/Pages/Teach/teach_outline.php
Major Responsibilities:
•Deliver material in an engaging and highly interactive manner by sharing ESL teaching experiences
•Facilitate the learning environment by fostering dynamic class discussions
•Enhance students’ mastery of subject matter and enrich their learning experiences
•Spark and develop interest in learning about other cultures
Major Requirements:
•College or university graduate
•B.Ed, M.Ed, MA TESOL would be an asset
•2+ years of overseas ESL teaching experience
•1+ years of local ESL teaching experience
•Ability to relate to students on a personal level
•Ability to share practical teaching experiences and examples
•Energetic, dynamic, motivational and professional
•Committed to enriching students’ lives
Wage: $30 per hour
To Apply: Email resume and cover letter to teachtesol@oxfordseminars.com quoting “JTWT” in the subject line by
July 15, 2010 @ 4 pm.
Visit www.oxfordseminars.com/careers/tesol.php for more information about our TESOL Instructor position and www.oxfordseminars.com for more information about our TESOL/TEFL teacher training certification and teaching ESL overseas.
Job: Internship, Nippon TV (New York)
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Job posting by Lauren Sethney (Niigata-shi CIR, 2000-2003). Lauren serves as the Program Director at the Japan-America Society in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Via Nippon TV (NTV)
Nippon TV (NTV), Japan’s oldest TV network has openings for enthusiastic news interns at New York News Bureau. The responsibility for the position is to assist our reporters in creating daily news stories, breaking news and longer feature stories to our Japanese audience. The ideal candidate would be fluent English speaker (Native/business level) and conversational in Japanese, have great interest in news and be able to work long-term (more than 3 months). Visa support is not available. Interested candidates should send their English and Japanese resume to contact@ntvic.com.
Law School: You Get What You Put into It…Sort of
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Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules. He operates his own blog, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States. He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill.
Law school isn’t always a bad option. If you bring more than a bachelors (of arts!) degree to the table, you have a better chance of coming out ahead after graduating. For those of you whose eyes are bleeding from memorizing kanji for the JLPT 一級, take a break and read this post. Don’t worry, it’s in English.
Job: Japanese-speaking Counselor (Connecticut)
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Job posting by Lauren Sethney (Niigata-shi CIR, 2000-2003). Lauren serves as the Program Director at the Japan-America Society in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Via Nicole Bongiorno (JETAANY)
An overnight summer ballet program, located on a campus of a prestigious private school in Connecticut, is looking for a mature, responsible, outgoing individual to be a counselor and to be responsible for a group of 10 non-English speaking Japanese students age 12-14. Counselors will be responsible for supervising the children, translating English/Japanese, as well as planning and running some extracurricular activities (all ballet instruction will be done by professional staff).
Dates: July 17 – August 7, 2010
Pay: $300 per week for the duration of the job +housing and meals
Required Qualifications:
Fluency in Japanese and English,
Experience in organizing and implementing fun and safe activities
Strong organizational skills
Sensitivity to/appreciation of other cultures and foreign students
For a complete job listing and information on application procedures, click here.
Job: Bilingual Content Coordinator, Volt Technical & Creative Communication (Washington State)
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Job posting by Lauren Sethney (Niigata-shi CIR, 2000-2003). Lauren serves as the Program Director at the Japan-America Society in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Volt Technical & Creative Communication has a long-term contract position available for a Content Coordinator who is Bilingual in Japanese AND English. The Content Coordinator will be working with the Tech Support group, so the content will be more technical in nature.
Select Duties and Responsibilities:
1. Quality Content Creation
-Use style guide and content creation guidelines to create quality content.
-Maintain style guide and update SharePoint site as necessary.
2. Operational Management
-Monitor the daily bugs and Change Management process.
-Identify Process Improvement areas and discuss with Operational Program Manager.
-Create new/updated Content Report and send to Stakeholders by end-of-business each day.
3. Project KM Collaboration
-Perform project collaboration with Release and Run Program Managers.
-Participate in project meetings as a Representative.
-Identify and collaborate with the necessary stakeholders for feedback and buy-in for each process designed.
For a complete job description and information on application procedures, click here.
Job: Project Leader and Technician (Northeast U.S.)
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Job posting by Lauren Sethney (Niigata-shi CIR, 2000-2003). Lauren serves as the Program Director at the Japan-America Society in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Via Helen Godfrey (JET Participant, 1996-1998)
Job Summary: Formulate, blend and test lubricant additives in greases and oils used in automotive and industrial applications. Make technical presentations and attend meetings of industry organizations, particularly targeting the Asia Pacific region.
Job Responsibilities:
• Act as Project Leader for new product development.
• Evaluate commercial and experimental lubricant additives by Standard ASTM test methods.
• Develop additive formulations that meet customers’ specific requirements.
• Write reports in English and Japanese.
• Give technical presentations in English and Japanese.
• Attend industry organization meetings.
• Conduct all work in accordance with Petroleum Applications Laboratory ISO-9001 quality system procedures.
• Calibrate laboratory equipment and instruments in accordance with ISO-9001 protocol and procedures, including all equipment and instruments that require off-site calibration.
Job Qualifications:
• B.S. degree in a scientific discipline, preferably chemistry.
• 1-2 years experience.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience in lubricant formulating and lubricant testing a plus.
• Fluent in technical and conversational Japanese and English.
• Up to 20% travel required.
For more information, email Helen Godfrey (hgodfrey@Central.UH.EDU).
Japan Society kicks off annual JAPAN CUTS film fest
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By JQ Magazine’s Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02) for Examiner.com. Visit his NY Japanese Culture page here to subscribe for free alerts on newly published stories.
July is here, and that means hot dogs, fireworks, and a horde of Japanese films served up by New York’s Japan Society for their annual JAPAN CUTS contemporary Japanese cinema festival. Launched at the tail end of the New York Asian Film Festival, Japan Society and NYAFF have teamed to co-present a whopping 24 films from July 1-16.
“JAPAN CUTS presents the roughest, sharpest, and smoothest of today’s cutting-edge Japanese film scene,” notes Japan Society’s chief film curator Samuel Jamier. “This year the lineup includes psycho dramas, thrillers, period pieces, bizarre comedies, refined melodramas, artistically adventurous indies, j-horror, and even anime. But when the lineup came together, I realized a number of these great films were made by female directors or featured a large number of prominent women’s roles and powerful performances by women–a reflection of industry trends in the last ten years, and the impact women have been making in Japan’s film industry. Overall, I like to think this year’s festival is exemplary of where Japanese cinema is today.”
For this week’s list, see the full article here.
Some comic relief via Japanese game show
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From Gail Cetnar Meadows, current Hiroshima-ken JET:
Per Steven’s request, I am re-posting a comment I made on Facebook about the weirdest TV show I’ve seen in Japan yet. Admittedly, I don’t watch a ton of TV here, and maybe this is par for the course in Japan, but this game show still struck me as so bizarre. It went like this:
There were a bunch of guys sitting in a KFC, and they have to order the top 10 most popular dishes at the restaurant. And if they are correct guessing the 10 dishes, they win 1,000,000 yen. But if they order a wrong thing, they have to eat everything they order. And then order again, and just keep trying til they get all 10. So they are sitting around for hours gorging on KFC. And one of the dudes sitting at the table is humongously fat and he’s dressed like a woman. (Why is there always a cross dressed guy on Japanese TV?) One of the guys ate so much he was trying not to barf on the table. And the show is doing close-ups of these KFC menu items like this is some sort of gourmet feast. Like the biggest commercial ever.
Samurai in New York Exhibition Opens in NYC
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By JQ Magazine’s Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02) for Examiner.com. Visit his NY Japanese Culture page here to subscribe for free alerts on newly published stories.
The year 2010 is an auspicious one for New York and Japan. Fifty years ago, Gotham became Tokyo’s first sister city, and 150 years ago this month, a samurai envoy paraded down Broadway after clinching diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Nippon.
To celebrate that distinguished day, tributary events here in New York have included the annual Japan Day @ Central Park on June 6 which recreated the original samurai procession, a special lighting of the Empire State Building on June 16 to commemorate the actual anniversary date, and now, the Museum of the City of New York’s exhibition Samurai in New York: The First Japanese Delegation, 1860, on view from June 25 through October 11, with a special gallery tour on Saturday, June 26 hosted by project director Kathleen Benson, Yuko Suzuki of the Consulate General of Japan and Eric Campbell of the consulate’s Japan Information Center.
Read the rest of the article here.
Tom Baker reviews “Crazy Heart” and “Brothers”
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Tom Baker (Chiba-ken, 1989-91) is a staff writer for The Daily Yomiuri. He usually writes for DYWeekend, the paper’s arts and leisure section. You can follow Tom’s blog at tokyotombaker.wordpress.com.
Recently he reviewed movies, “Crazy Heart” and “Brothers.” He found poetry in both of them. Here are some excerpts:
“Crazy Heart”
Country music singer-songwriter Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) smokes like a chimney, drinks like a fish, sweats like a pig, and urinates into a plastic jug while driving from town to town. As I watched him perform under hot lights at a variety of small and unglamorous venues in the movie Crazy Heart, I could almost smell him. He didn’t smell very nice.
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On the bright side, Bad’s personal problems are grist for the mill. One of his most popular songs looks back on a dissipated life with the refrain, “Funny how fallin’ feels like flyin’/for a little while.”
Anyone who doubts that country music is the primary home of modern American poetry should meditate on that line. “Funny how fallin’ feels like flyin'” is alliterative and catchy, but also trenchant. And Bad has flown and fallen quite a way…
Read the rest of the review here.
“Brothers”
In William Shakespeare’s play about his life, King Richard II is forced to surrender his crown to his usurper cousin Henry IV. In doing so, Richard compares himself and Henry to two buckets in a well: “The emptier ever dancing in the air,/The other down, unseen and full of water:/That bucket down and full of tears am I,/Drinking my griefs while you mount up on high.”
The title characters in Brothers, although they dwell in an American suburb rather than an English castle, are not unlike the tragic royal cousins.
Sam (Tobey Maguire) is an upstanding husband, father and U.S. marine who is about to be separated from his family for a tour of duty in Afghanistan. On the eve of Sam’s departure, his surly brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), a ne’er-do-well with a drinking problem, rejoins the extended family after a stint in prison…
Read the rest of the review here.
WIT Life #105: Samurai in New York
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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.
Last night I had the chance to preview the Samurai in New York: The First Japanese Delegation, 1860 exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. There was a reception to celebrate its opening hosted by Ambassador Shinichi Nishimiya and those affiliated with the museum. In his opening remarks, he detailed how descendants of members of the original 70-plus person delegation were in attendance. One was a woman who currently makes her home in New York, and another was a Buddhist monk who had traveled from Japan. It was a wonderful tribute to the original delegation to have these representatives present.
The exhibit itself, though limited in scope, contains some interesting artifacts. Evidently they had been Read More
A Half-Hearted Defense of the Legal Services Cartel
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Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules. He operates his own blog, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States. He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill.
Wait a second? Why would I defend the ABA when it fails to act on the tuition bubble? I have my reasons between labor cartel and attorney oversupply, and you can read them here.
An International List of Writing Organizations and Opportunities
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Laura Popp (Mie-ken, 2009-Present) is a current JET who writes fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults, and is an occasional playwright/film maker. Her short work includes a short story titled “In theShadow Realm” and a documentary she made in Malawi. To read about her amazing adventures all over Japan, go to her blog at laurajanepopp.blogspot.com.
Here is a practical list of organizations, market guides, and networking opportunities for jump starting your writing career. My apologies that it is heavy on the America and Speculative Fiction side, but that is who I am and what I write, so that is what I know best. But hopefully everyone can find something useful from this list:
WIT Life #104: Of sales tax and soccer
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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.
A hot issue in Japan right now is PM Naoto Kan’s proposal of doubling the current sales tax of 5% (Coverage from earlier this week in the WSJ can be found here). According to projections, an increase of this amount could lead to an additional 165,000 yen ($1829) from each household annually. Kan has emphasized that he anticipates this being implemented over the next two to three years, but his willingness to even touch this kind of financial reform differs greatly from his DPJ predecessor Yukio Hatoyama (who had promised not to alter the sales tax for four years).
Response to this announcement have been mixed. Surprisingly, a survey carried out by Yomiuri Shimbun found that Read More
