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| Newsletter
No.82 |
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March
2006
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Ambassador's Lecture Series No.10
Bulgaria, Present and Future by H.E. Mr. B.H. Sendov
This year's first ambassador's lecture took place on Thursday 23 February at The Japan Press Club with 40 members and their guests in attendance. The ecturer of the evening was Bulgarian Ambassador to Japan, H. E. Sendov, who is a renowned mathematician with the post of president of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. At the same time, Mr. Sendov has held office in many important governmental positions. Projecting many photos and figures onto a big screen using PowerPoint, Mr. Sendov explained about Bulgaria, its history, politics, economics, and culture. Located at the southern end of the Balkan peninsula with its Eastern coast facing the Black Sea, Bulgaria has a land mass about 1/3 that of Japan and a population of about 8 million people. The main religion is Orthodox. The national flag has three colours: the top band is white representing peace, the middle band green signifying agriculture, and the bottom red meaning a battle. In war time, the red band comes top. From the 11th century, Bulgaria was under the power of the Byzantine Empire and from the 15th century under the Ottoman Turks. In 19th century, Russia freed Bulgaria after fighting against Turkey, thus creating close friendly ties between the two nations. (In the Second World War, Bulgaria declared war against the UK and the USA but not against the USSR.) After the war, Bulgaria, as a member of the Socialist nations, was one of the top runners with such countries as East Germany and Czech, enjoying a very high market share especially in the field of the electronic industry. However, after the collapse of socialistic economics Bulgaria lost its competitive power, and is now struggling for recovery. One historical event that Bulgaria is proud of is that in the 11th century two saints in Bulgaria translated the Bible into Bulgarian. This is the fourth language of the Bible after Hebrew, Greek and Latin. The Ambassador's talk went on to cover topics such as Kotooshu, yoghurt, the rose and the Valley of Roses and a special wine by the name of Mavrud. The whole audience fully enjoyed the talk.
ESUJ Takuwakai Luncheon "Current Topics in USA": talk by Mr. Shunji Yanai
The always well-received Takuwakai Luncheon for interesting talk and superb dishes gathered on Friday, 17 February, at Ark Hills Club, with about 30 supporting members in attendance. Our guest speaker Mr. Yanai, ex-Ambassador to USA, talked about various problems of the USA under the current Bush regime, including the energy environment issue, Japan-US relations and other global issues. A memory of tough negotiations with Mr. Glen Fukushima (who attended the luncheon) on the trade friction, Gary Cooper's "High Noon" episode at the first Koizumi/Bush meeting (then interpreter Mr. Ken Yokota was also present at this luncheon) and many other interesting subjects were revealed. In order to join such a precious opportunity as this, we invite members to be supporting members.
English Club
English club held its monthly meeting on Tuesday, February 21, in the 3rd Floor Conference Room of Nikkei Newspaper Marketing. This time, two members of the audience, Mr Kodaka and Mr Fukazawa, gave two-minute speeches in English, on the themes of "Modesty" and "Mystery on Fifth Avenue". Both speeches were well-received. This time, our principal speaker was Mr. Tsunekazu Matsudaira, a former Managing Director of KDDI. Mr Matsudaira spoke, in impeccable English, on the subject of "The Essence of Business Negotiation in English". The room was packed to hear the well-planned, easy to understand talk on this very useful topic. Some of Mr. Matsudaira's main points were: 1.) the basic protocol of an international meeting 2.) speak up and be heard 3.) think strategically 4.) lobbying, 5) You must be willing to compromise. 6.) At a dinner, don't talk about business until the coffee is served, and be prepared to discuss Japanese current affairs in English. A very lively Q & A session followed this stimulating and highly informative talk.
The next meeting of English Club will take place at 6:30 on Thursday, March 23 (Note change of day to Thursday), at the Japan National Press Club (9th Floor, Conference Room). Our speaker will be Mr. Sukeyoshi Yamamoto OBE, NSK Ltd.
English Volunteer Registration
The ESUJ office is sometimes asked to help with English translation or simple business interpretation etc. We don't accept these requests as our normal activity but some cases could be good opportunities for our members. So we would like to start "English volunteer registration" for just in case. Please email the following items to the ESUJ office if you are interested:
Title: English Volunteer Registration
Mail contents: 1.name, 2.E-mail address and phone (mobile is preferable) 3. Speciality
Coming Events!
April 26 (Wed) ESUJ Lecture by Mr. Taketo Furuhata
"Come Ｃome Babies, Go Go Babies"
18:30-20:00 at Japan National Press Club (9th floor)
May 22 (Mon.) May Evening Gala (Pre-Notice)
18:30-20:30 at Meiji Kinenkan Lounge Kinkei
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For
further informaiton contact!
E-MAIL:esuj@esuj.gr.jp
Fujikage-Building
9th Floor, Motoakasaka 1-1-5
MInato-ku, Tokyo 107-0051
TEL: 03-3423-0970 FAX: 03-3423-0971
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