New Year's Lecture: Japan's Three Challenges
Lecture by Dr. Margarita Estévez-Abe
on January 15 at Japan Press Club

At a time of political change such as the recent birth of the Hatoyama Administration, it is easy to be mired in the daily headlines and lose sight of the underlying challenges and opportunities. Dr. Margarita Estévez-Abe, Associate Professor, Syracuse University, drew on her bicultural education at Keio and Harvard and her highly-acclaimed research on the comparative analysis of the political economies of Japan, the United States and Europe. She depicted Japan as a nation confronted with three major challenges. They are: (a) social and cultural rigidities such as aging, declining fertility, gender bias and xenophobia; (b) economic challenges such as weakening domestic demand, the inability to take advantage of global competition and the lack of investment opportunities, and (c) the inability of politics to deal effectively with these issues due to misallocation of resources to wasteful public works projects, bureaucratic delegation and, above all, the lack of leadership. She sounded the alarm against Japan being afflicted with the complacency of a “slow-cooked frog”.

Her sometimes trenchant comments highlighted the need for us to step back a little and take a cool, hard look at what is happening in Japan in terms of comparison with other countries like Italy, Scandinavia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, China and India. Though the Japan that she described may not be in keeping with the self-image of many Japanese, the audience was stimulated enough to feel that Japan could not afford to be a “frog at the bottom of the well”, but should be more actively engaged externally, making use of its cultural capital such as “Cool Japan” and letting foreigners come and live in Japan, as has been the case with the JET programme.

English Club met on January 20 (Wed.) at the Marunouchi Café. The theme of the first talk of 2010 was “Reading Aloud in English: Workshop in Reading Aloud”, given by NHK World's English Announcer and Producer Yuko Aotani. Aotani-san previously spoke to English Club in 2008 about NHK World and her news and other programs. This time she focused on her two-year NHK World Radio program of reading aloud various Japanese classic works in English and its usefulness in learning English. Five merits of reading aloud in English are: it's healthy, because you need good posture; you get a clear understanding of the text; it is good speech practice; you learn new vocabulary and expression; and you become more attractive and interesting person. She also explained what to be conscious of when reading aloud and gave nine tips and stratagems. Focusing on a scene from Akutagawa Ryunosuke's The Tangerines, she invited several members of the audience to have a go at reading aloud themselves after hearing a recording of her own reading. After a practical assessment of the readings, Aotani-san explained the effective use of a microphone before a concluding, lively Q&A session, for an enriching presentation that seemed to be over in almost no time. The audience were completely charmed by the ‘cool' Ms. Aotani, who spoke in beautiful “Queen's English”, showing her love of reading and desire to introduce Japan's classic cultural works to the rest of the world in a ‘heartful' and intelligent way.

With the cooperation of January English Club Speaker Yuko Aotani, ESUJ's “Roudoku Club: Reading Aloud in English Workshop” has been launched. The first meeting was on February 10, with many members participating and Aotani-san leading the session. The text was taken from a translation of the classic Japanese tale (February: Rashomon, by Akutagawa Ryunosuke) which is well-known and provides a good opportunity to refamiliarize oneself with Japanese literature. A report on how the first session went will be given next time.

Is Japan really projecting its view abroad?
--Ono Goro　　　February 10, 2010
Is Futenma really the litmus test for commitment to the alliance?
---WATANABE Tsuneo　　　January 27, 2010
The First Two Decades of the Showa Era and the Heisei Era
---NISHIKAWA Megumi　　　January 21, 2010

Roudoku Club (new program for ESUJ members)
Wednesday. March 10 12:15-13:15 at Kaplan Ginza Center
Reading: The Restaurant of Many Orders, by Miyazawa Kenji

English Club
Tuesday, March 16 19:00-20:30　at Marunouchi Cafe
Speaker: Ms. Kiyoko Ikegami, Director, UNFPA Tokyo Office

Haiku in English by Ms. Emiko Miyashita
Wed. February 24, 18:30-20:00 at Japan National Press Club

Dutch Ambassador's Lecture
Wed. March 31, 18:30-20:00 at Japan National Press Club