Job: In-house Counsel (NY)
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An in-house counsel job (i.e., NY licensed attorneys only) that pays up to $250K. Contact Meg Seki Director, Japanese Bilingual Division
Access Staffing 360 Lexington Ave., 8th fl. New York, NY 10017 www.accessstaffing.com
Title: In House Counsel
Required Skills:
- Licensed Attorney (NY)
- Experience with a Japanese Company or Japanese Clients.
- Knowledge of Japanese culture
- Japanese skills are not required.
Job Description: Read More
JETAA Book Clubs: D.C. Re-born
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The JETAA book clubs continue to make a comeback. JETAA DC is the most recent chapter to revive its book club, following in the footsteps of New York, Northern California and Portland.
What is your chapter’s book club reading? And did I leave any chapters out? Let us know in the comments section of this post.
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First Meeting of the Reincarnated Book Club
Hi All,
I know it is rather short notice, but I finally ironed out the details for the first meeting of the Japan themed book club.
Book: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami– This is a collection of 24 short stories. Even if you only get chance to read a few of the stories, please join us. Read More
JETAA Chapter Beat 2.17.09
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Freelance writer/editor Jonathan Trace (Fukuoka-ken, 2005-08) takes us on a walk around the JET Alumni community…
- JETAANC vs. Japan Society Victory Cup Tournament! – Saturday, February 21st, 6:30 at Serra Bowl join in the first ever JETAANC vs. Japan Society of Northern California Victory Cup Tournament. The first event is bowling, so sign up and throw some rocks.
- March Book Club – Miyuki Miyabe’s All She was Worth is the topic of next month’s book club, so start reading and be ready to discuss. Date and time to be announced.
- Japanese Discussion Group – Saturday, February 21st, 3:00. The topic of this month’s lecture will be Organ Transplant/Brain Death by Yuka Yokota, chairman of the Japan Nursing Student Association. Come listen in and share your thoughts. Location to be announced.
- East Bay Nomikai Happy Hour! – Thursday, February 19th, 6:00 at Thalassa in Berkeley. It’s the third Thursday of the month and that means it’s time for some fun, drinks and friends.
JETAA Texoma
- Happy Hour! – Tuesday, February 24th, 6:30 at the Ragin Cajun Restaurant. Don’t miss this night of fun on the bayou! Bring the kids and catch up with old friends.
- Japan-A-Mania! – Saturday, February 28th. JETAA, Big Brothers Big Sisters of NY and NY de Volunteer is hosting a day of Japanese culture and activities for NYC kids. Help out and share your love of Japan with the kids.
- Happy Hour – Thursday, February 19th, 6:00 at The Snug. Relax and chat with friends old and new at this month’s happy hour.
- Japan Young Professional Group Lecture – Tuesday, February 17th. The topic will be “Overcoming Intercultural Challenges to Entrepreneurship” by Dr. Ryo Kubota, President and CEO of Acucela Inc. Don’t miss this fascinating discussion about working in both Japan and the U.S.
- International Trade Reception – Wednesday, February 25th, 5:30 at the Governor’s Mansion in Olympia. Meet Governor Christine Gregoire and members of the state legislature at this year’s International Trade Reception.
- ZEN: Japanese Film and Lecture Series – February 26th and February 28th at University of Washington and Seattle University(respectively). Come see the story of legendary Zen Master Dogen on screen and join the discussion of his life and the film.
- JETAA Oceania Logo Competition – JETAA Oceania is looking for logos. Help promote the JET Programme and embrace your creative side. Entries due by March 1st, 2009.
- Japanese Architecture Lecture
– Tuesday, February 24th, 5:30 at the James O Fairfax Theatre at the National Gallery of Australia. Paul Noritaka Tange of the Tange Institute is giving a lecture on the work of his father, noted architect Kenzo Tange and his influence on modern Japanese Architecture. - O-Shaberikai – Wednesday, February 25th, 5:30 at the Holy Grail in Civic. Join in and meet Japanese people living in Canberra and other locals interested in Japan.
- Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership(CAPAL) Happy Hour – Wednesday, February 18, 6:00 at Gazuza. Join in and make some professional contacts or just some new friends at CAPAL.
- Karaoke Night Out – Friday, February 20th, 9:30 at Cafe Japone. Sing and laugh with your friends at JETAA DC.
What happened at your chapter’s event? If you attend(ed) any of these exciting events, JetWit would love to hear about them. Just email Jonathan Trace with any info, stories or comments.
Job: Director of Randolph College Abroad (England)
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Via the Chronicle of Higher Ed international programs job listings:
2/12/2009
- Randolph College (England) : Director of Randolph College Abroad: The World in Britain study program
Traveling Tastebuds: Rice Spoon: An Alternate Use For Those Who Don’t Have Mixers
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Devon Brown (Tokyo-to, 2002-04) is a freelance writer with a focus on food. You can read more of her writing at TravelingTastebuds.blogspot.com.
Call me jealous because I am. I do not have a mixer. I have neither the counter space nor an extra $300 for one of those beautiful KitchenAid mixers that comes in so many lovely shades. The only good thing about being mixer-less, is that I get to be really self-righteous when it comes recipes that call for mixers, but could easily be done by hand. For those of you who suffer from this same affliction, there is a nice consolation prize.
Living in Japan I baked a lot…
*Click here for the rest of the story and a great cookie recipe.*
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.
Today’s news profiled companies that are not only surviving this tough economic climate but prospering in it. The first was McDonald’s, who in America was also one of the retailers along with Walmart that reported positive gains last year. In Japan its success 
is attributed to the revamping of the coffee served there dubbed McCafe. Its taste was reformed last February, and 2008 sales saw great improvement over the previous year (for hot coffee growth of 40 million cups, for cold 20 million cups). It goes for 120 yen, and a survey of customers during the peak 7:45-8 a.m. 15-minute period found that 50 out of 63 customers purchased coffee. One of those 50 asked about its taste responded with a satisfied smile, “It tastes just like can coffee.” Keeping stores open 24 hours and expanding the 100 yen menu McDonald’s also contributed to the store’s success.
Japanese convenience stores have also been seeing their sales grow. This is directly related to the introduction of the Taspo last May. This is a smart card from the Tobacco Institute of Japan issued to adults (20 or older) so that they can use the age verification tobacco vending machines. A recent survey indicated that only Read More
There’s a good discussion on the Honyaku Google Group about why J->E translators seem to be very busy despite the bad economy. I’ve attempted to summarize some of them below, but you can find the full discussion by signing up for the group at http://groups.google.com/group/honyaku/. Definitely worth signing up if you work in (or want to work in) the Japanese-English translation field.
Suggested theories for why Japanese-English translation work has increased:
- Companies are cutting costs by outsourcing work to the market that used to be done in house
- A variant on the outsourcing theory: Many jobs were already budgeted and need to get done, but with layoffs there are fewer in-house workers so more is going to the translators. i.e., It’s a short-terms windfall.
- A variant on the short-term windfall: With more layoffs and fewer in-house employees, using a cheaper translator actually becomes more expensive because it requires more work by in-house employees to fix it up. Therefore, it makes more sense to give the work to higher quality translators who will be more accurate the first time around. (Note: I’m paraphrasing but probably could have worded this better.)
- Patent translation tends to be longer term work and is unaffected
- If you’re a good translator, you’ll continue to get work regardless
- As March approaches, departments in Japanese companies need to use up their budgets so that they don’t get shrunk the next time around
- Spring is just usually the busiest season for translation
- More translation work from U.S. (and less from Japan) because yen is stronger than the dollar and this makes U.S.-based translators relatively cheap labor
- Downturn has forced part-time and less-experienced translators out of the business leaving more work for more established translators
- For finance/investor relations work, there’s a short-term increase because the economic crisis has forced companies to disseminate press releases and other communications to all of their investors/consumers.
Feel free to post more theories and other comments for the benefit of the JET/JET Alum/Friend of JET/JetWit community in the comments section of this post.
JetWit Blog Beat: Fresh blogs added to the Alum Blogroll!
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JetWit Blog Beat by Crystal Wong (Iwate-ken, 2002-04) is a recurring item featuring posts from the blogs of various JET alumni. Crystal is a former English-language writer for Kyodo News. She now works as a media planner in Chelsea and sorely misses all her favorite midtown ramen joints.
Happy Presidents’ Day, everyone! When you have a moment, stop by and say hi to the two JET bloggers just added to the JetWit blogroll:
Rose Symotiuk (Hokkaido, 2003-2005) works in publishing in New York and and is the author of Rose Reviews here on JetWit. You can find her musings and adventures at Rose in New York.
Jody Godoy is a current JET and freelance journalist who found out about JetWit in the AJET monthly bulletin. Visit her website to learn more about her work.
Check back often for highlights from these and other great alum blogs.
Writing Opportunities: Sushi and Sake; JETAA Chicago
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Two writing opportunities: One for LA-based Sushi & Sake Magazine and the other for the JETAA Chicago Newsletter.
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Dear JET Alumni,
Greetings from the JETAA Southern California Media Coordinator (Toyama-ken, 1995-98). I act as the liason with Sushi & Sake Magazine, a monthly publication that features a JET alumni column in each of its publications. Sushi & Sake’s primary goal is “to introduce Japanese culture to the non-Japanese residents of Southern California with particular emphasis on cuisine, language, its business community, and geographic regions…” I am seeking JET alumni who would like to share stories about the JET experiences (in 450-500 words or less) and be featured in Sushi & Sake. This is a great way to impart one of your unique memories about your time in Japan with a broad readership. You don’t have to be a professional writer…just willing to put some words down on paper and send them to me. Please contact me with any questions and dozo yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth White, JETAASC Media Coordinator
slo_white /atto/ msn /dotto/ com
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My name is Elizabeth Friedman and I am the new editor of the JETAA Chicago’s newsletter. I would like to invite all JET alums to submit articles for the spring edition. I have listed some ideas for submissions, but feel free to send in whatever you feel would be appropriate to include in a JETAA newsletter.
The deadline for submissions is March, 20th.
Please send your articles to me at jetaachinewsletter /atto/ gmail /dotto/ com.
Submissions can include:
–Comic strips
–Restaurant reviews
–Japanese cultural activities in Chicago (music, movies, theater, art exhibits, etc…) reviews or thoughts on
–Announcements about JET alumni (marriages, graduations, jobs, etc…)
–Short stories (maybe a series–one page per issue), poetry, visual art, etc… done by JET alums that was inspired by Japanese culture
–Reflections on returning home from your JET experience
Feel free to contact me at jetaachinewsletter /atto/ gmail /dotto/ com if you have any questions.
Rose Symotiuk was a JET in Akan, Hokkaido from 2003-2005. She works in publishing in New York City. You can follow her blog at http://roseinnewyork.wordpress.com/.
Repeat After Me is the first fiction book by Rachel DeWoskin. DeWoskin went to Beijing in 1994 to work as a public-relations consultant and was quickly recruited to star in a Chinese nighttime soap opera, titled Foreign Babes in Beijing, which was watched by approximately 600 million viewers. At the time, she was one of the few foreign actresses working in mainland China and was considered a sex symbol. You can pick up her popular book about her experiences, titled Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China, here.
Repeat After Me follows the lead character, Aysha, a young New Yorker, after a mental breakdown causes her to drop out of Columbia and start teaching at an English school. There she meets Da Ge, a young Chinese man with his own problems. The story starts somewhere in the middle and unfolds in wonderous ways: from Aysha’s parents’ divorce, to her life in Beijing years later with a stunning surprise, always returning to her tragic, vivid romance with Da Ge.
Splashed across this story in bright color is China, in mouth watering Read More
NPR’s Studio360 Features Bankruptcy Haiku by Steven Horowitz
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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 original bankruptcy haiku, go to bankruptcybill.wordpress.com.
Listen to one of Bankruptcy Bill’s haiku read on the “Haiku-ing It To The Man” feature on NPR’s Studio360. (Starts with about 1:31 left in the feature.)
Here’s the story lead from the Studio360 website:
Haiku-ing It to the Man
A few weeks ago we asked listeners to submit original haiku inspired by the state of the economy. Dozens poured in: our own unscientific proof that the financial crisis is a boon for creativity. Here are some of our favorites. (http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2009/02/13)
NY Times article on Japan Society appointment of Ambassador Sakurai to head post
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The February 6 NY Times article “Japan Society Names a New President” offers some additional perspectives on Japan Society and the challenges that Sakurai-san will face as well as some of the tools and uique perspectives he’ll bring to the job. (See the original JetWit post with Japan Society press release here.)
JetWit BlogBeat: Winter Tomatoes and Blasts from the Past
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JetWit Blog Beat by Crystal Wong (Iwate-ken, 2002-04) is a recurring item featuring posts from the blogs of various JET alumni. Crystal is a former English-language writer for Kyodo News. She now works as a media planner in Chelsea and sorely misses all her favorite midtown ramen joints.
Devon Brown (Tokyo-to, 2002-04) shares her thoughts on making do without quality tomatoes during the winter season (although the jarringly springlike weather this past week would seem to indicate that summer might not be as far off as we think).
James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06), author of The Order of Odd-Fish, shares his charmingly illustrated experience of visiting an old friend while meeting some new fans.
JETAA Southeast (South Carolina Subchapter) Shinnenkai Recap
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Via the JETAA Southeast e-mail newsletter:#
JETAA/SE South Carolina Chapter Shinnenkai Recap
South Carolina Sub-Chapter holds first event
By Daniel Stone
Saturday, January 24th, 2009
Clemson, SC– With several small and informal gatherings with alums meeting separately, JET alums residing in South Carolina finally met everyone under the same roof.
Clemson University’s Roderick International House was the site of this year’s Shinnenkai. Four South Carolina JETs and one Georgia JET were joined by ten other “Friends of JET”. This group ranged from a Japanese expatriate from Kyoto working in Greenville as a sushi chef, a German businessman who works in Greer, a Japanese grad school student from Fukui, a TESOL instructor from Seneca, a Japanese translator working for a textile company in Gaffney, a Personal & Business Coach from Greenville, and several undergraduate Clemson students that were interested in learning more about the JET Program.
“Back in 2007, Lee Ferrell and his wife, Cheryl, met me Greenville. We ate at a Korean restaurant on Woodruff Rd. The meeting was very Read More
The JetWit Business Model?
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“What is the JetWit business model?” some of you may have wondered.
Shoujiki ni itte, JetWit isn’t earning any income as of yet per se at the moment technically speaking (with the exception from a one-time paid ad placed by Interac).
But that doesn’t mean that JetWit doesn’t want to, or can’t, earn any income. The site and community is certainly providing value in various ways, including helping a number of people to find work opportunities. It has access to terrific writing and translating talent. And given that JET alumni chapters are primarily focused on their own regions, JetWit is essentially the only channel for reaching JET alumni (i.e., a targeted audience of educated, Japan-savvy types) all across the U.S. as well as abroad.
With so much going for it, it seems like one would have to be a baka to not have JetWit generating dollars (or yen). Since that’s exactly the case, however, there is some comfort in realizing that much larger entities struggle with the same issue of trying to earn income while giving away something for free. At least according to my brother Greg who has over 10 years of online marketing experience.
In his post on The Digitalists titled Free* (or, how to give away the store without giving away the store), Greg comments on Wired editor Chris Anderson’s new book Free and a possible direction the traditional model of content provider-advertiser-consumer may be shifting.
The short post is well worth a read for everyone trying to figure out how to navigate the shifting business world (which I think includes most recent JET returnees as well as numerous alums).
