{"id":320,"date":"2008-09-25T15:38:40","date_gmt":"2008-09-25T15:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=320"},"modified":"2008-09-28T13:16:34","modified_gmt":"2008-09-28T13:16:34","slug":"komura-noriko","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/library\/profiles\/komura-noriko\/","title":{"rendered":"Komura, Noriko"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAN YOU USE CHOPSTICKS?<\/strong><\/p>\n

An Interview with Chopsticks NY Editor Noriko Komura <\/strong><\/p>\n

By Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken 2000-03)<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps you’ve seen copies of Chopsticks New York<\/span><\/a> stacked at a Japanese bookstore or restaurant.\u00a0 Maybe you were curious, drawn in by the fascinating, intricate and colorful cover art.\u00a0 Whatever your impression, this magazine has made its presence known in NYC and quickly grabbed the helm as the English language resource for all things related to Japanese food, culture and entertainment in the city.\u00a0 Where did this fountain of useful information, seemingly custom-made for the NY area JET alum, come from?\u00a0 And who is making it tick behind the scenes?\u00a0 To answer these questions, the JETAA NY Newsletter spoke with Ms. Noriko Komura<\/span>, Editor-in-Chief of Chopsticks NY.<\/span><\/p>\n

JETAANY: What is the idea behind Chopsticks?\u00a0 How did it come about?<\/span><\/p>\n

Noriko Komura:<\/span> The main purpose of our magazine is to have our readers know more about Japan, and there are many kinds of information about Japan that can be provided.\u00a0 If you live in the NYC area, you have plenty of chances to come into contact with things that are Japanese, whether they are food, pop culture or art.\u00a0 However, we seek to provide insight into the current state of Japan, as well as traditional aspects of the country including things that are still a part of daily life over there.\u00a0 Thirdly, we hope to shed light on the Japan world that is in NYC that might not necessarily have been discovered by readers.\u00a0 As a free paper, we have a very wide range in terms of who we are trying to target.\u00a0 We know that our audience is comprised of several groups: those who know a lot about Japan and may have even lived there, those who are anywhere from casually to deeply interested in Japan through food, pop culture, etc. and those who have limited knowledge about Japan but are likely to be interested in learning more, and we seek to satisfy all of these categories.<\/p>\n

JETAANY: I have heard that you share a publisher with the Japanese free paper Japion. <\/span>
\n
NK:<\/span> We share the same publisher, Trend Pot<\/span>, and this company also produced the predecessor to Chopsticks, which was called Asian Food and Lifestyle<\/span>.\u00a0 It was a bimonthly free publication that was distributed for two years, starting in 2004.\u00a0 The problem with this effort was that in attempting to cover all things Asian, it spread itself too wide.\u00a0 Additionally, something we discovered with this magazine was that people had more interest in Japan beyond just the typical arenas of food, anime and J-pop than we thought, so we sought to create a publication that would answer these needs.\u00a0 Therefore, when we began Chopsticks in May of 2007, we not only had experience from publishing Japion but from the previous magazine as well, and I think that this works to our advantage.<\/p>\n

At Chopsticks we are a small staff of five, so we share office space with Japion although we are two separate entities.\u00a0 Besides my editing duties, I also supervise the editorial team of NY Japion<\/span>, but everyone else is clearly on one staff or the other.\u00a0 In order to handle all the stories we cover, we employ several freelance writers.\u00a0 We would like to have more permanent staff in the future, but our profits need to reach a certain level to be able to do that.\u00a0 I think of our business model like a staircase, and in approaching our one-year anniversary we are in a good place but would like to go up to the next step.\u00a0 Once we reach that point, we can make changes such as increasing staff and adding more articles to Chopsticks.<\/p>\n

Q: How do story ideas come about?\u00a0 Do you follow trends both here and at home?<\/span><\/p>\n

NK:<\/span> I have been in the States 13 years, so keeping up with current trends in Japan requires a lot of research.\u00a0 We watch these as closely as we watch trends in NYC.\u00a0 For example, our March issue features ramen and this was in response to the recent emergence of ramen restaurants here in the city.\u00a0 We saw Momofuku<\/span> and many places like that have great success, which is great, but at the same time we also wanted readers to know about real ramen.\u00a0 For the Japanese it is like our national food, and it can be said to be deeper than sushi as well as cheaper!\u00a0 We wanted to break the association that Japan = sushi and broaden the frame of reference Americans have in regard to Japan.\u00a0 So I would say that presenting the “real Japan” is a motivating force behind the articles selected for the magazine.<\/p>\n

Sometimes ideas for columns accidentally come about.\u00a0 In our February issue we had an extra page so we decided to devote it to explaining the Japanese holiday of Setsubun which is largely unknown in the States.\u00a0 However, the response to this addition was overwhelmingly positive!\u00a0 This surprised us and led us to think about putting similar content in future issues.\u00a0 For example, in May we are planning to profile Children’s Day.<\/p>\n

Q: What is your favorite thing about editing Chopsticks?<\/span><\/p>\n

NK:<\/span> I’d have to say it’s the chance to learn about many different things and what’s going on back home.\u00a0 If you live in Japan, you probably just go about your daily life without paying special attention to things, but from my position now I have to be much more observant.\u00a0 Things I wouldn’t realize by living in Japan I see now because I have to be aware of them, and this is more interesting.\u00a0 To give you an example, when I was in Japan I had little interest in anime but now I’m hooked on the Gundam SEED<\/span> series!\u00a0 Ironically, if I was living in Japan I don’t think I’d have been exposed to it at all.\u00a0 This is a job that allows me to make these kinds of discoveries, so I’m grateful for that.<\/p>\n

Through Chopsticks, I feel like I can easily experience aspects of Japan that would be less accessible back home.\u00a0 They might be available, but you wouldn’t necessarily go out of your way to do them.\u00a0 I can compare it to a department store, where all the best of the best has been picked and by just going through you can sample everything.\u00a0 In the same way, the Japanese world in NYC offers a taste of different aspects of Japanese culture and you can experience them in a very compact way that would not be possible in Japan itself.\u00a0 For example, going to see Noh at Japan Society is easier than going to see this kind of performance at home.<\/p>\n

Q: What lies ahead for Chopsticks?\u00a0 Are there any plans for expansion?<\/span><\/p>\n

NK:<\/span> Chopsticks NY has been successful, so we are thinking of expanding into other U.S. cities in the future.\u00a0 Of course, it would have to be places with high Japan awareness like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, etc.\u00a0 In addition, we would like to put more strength into our online version (www.chopsticksny.com<\/a>), which at the moment only reflects the magazine’s content.\u00a0 Going forward, we would like to possibly create original website content.\u00a0 This also ties into another idea of more reader involvement.\u00a0 We would like to increase our contact with our audience via events and special projects.\u00a0 One way we are implementing this is with the current cover artist contest.\u00a0 We want to make Chopsticks a more interactive media in the future!<\/p>\n

Can’t find a copy of Chopsticks New York?\u00a0 Read it online at www.chopsticksny.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Or check the list of distribution locations on their website.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAN YOU USE CHOPSTICKS? An Interview with Chopsticks NY Editor Noriko Komura By Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken 2000-03) Perhaps you’ve seen copies of Chopsticks New York stacked at a Japanese bookstore or restaurant.\u00a0 Maybe you were curious, drawn in by the fascinating, intricate and colorful cover art.\u00a0 Whatever your impression, this magazine has made its presence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":61,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-320","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PkZ7m-5a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":610,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/320\/revisions\/610"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/61"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}