Steven Rogers (Daiwa Scholar 1997)

My official title is "Operations Director Japan", but that does not really say much about what exactly I do, so I will try to describe. I run a small factory of 27 people in Japan, and as far as they are concerned I am the "koujyouchou", which means factory manager. I am also responsible for all "toll" production in Japan, and regularly visit a number of factories not owned by my company, but who make product for us on a contract basis. Customer service, logistical planning, Manufacture, Quality control, are the main departments which have their manager reporting to me. For some reason I travel a fair bit. Since I joined the company 2 years ago I have traveled on business to China, Singapore, Australia, Thailand, Philippines etc, several times.

The job is interesting, and no doubt would be interesting even if it were back in the UK. However, the fact that all of the people working for me only communicate in Japanese, together with the opportunities I have when traveling on business in Japan to experience first hand the business culture of a very foreign land, makes it all the more rewarding.

All of my conversations at work and most of my E-mails, are done in Japanese. Contact with the outside world is of course done in English and that is one of the reasons that I can be useful.

I like to read; mainly novels but of course the newspaper and magazines etc, too. It is such a thrill to read novels by Japanese authors in the original. My strategy was to start with children’s novels and then work my way up to more challenging subjects. The trick is to choose novels which challenge your ability but are not so difficult that a dictionary is required every page. Setting challenging targets is important; I once set the target of reading all twelve of the "Dr Doolitle" series, but unfortunately I have to date only managed the first six. It is not that they are too difficult for me now, on the contrary, I am busy reading adult fiction by my new favorite author "Eguni Kaori", it is simply that unless you are nine years old, the subject matter gets too boring. One result of my "Dr Doolitle" past is that I have a huge animal vocabulary and can even read the Kanji for mouse! (believe me this is not normal)

Most of this reading is done on the train to work, from the sea side resort of Zushi (next to Kamakura, south of Tokyo), which is where I rent an apartment. It really is a nice place to live, with mountains and sea and the city all very close.

I am not sure as to where I will go from here or where I will end up. At the moment I am satisfied. I really wanted to learn a foreign language, understand and melt into a foreign culture, and to the extent that this is possible I have managed to. Some people say that it is not possible for a foreigner to really become part of Japanese society, but I don’t think so. Perhaps times have changed and Japanese society is more open. As part of our factories "involvement in the community programme" I regularly attend local community meetings (drinking and singing sessions) along with a whole range of people from the local area. I would say that I am pretty much accepted now as simply the "factory manager".

I know that I will eventually leave Japan, but the experience of living and working here has been terrific. A culture, which was so distant and unexplainable has become, or at least is becoming so very familiar. There are few places in the world were I could have had this kind of experience.

The Daiwa scholarship is a very rare and precious thing. I allows very different people and two cultures, which are at least perceived to be very different, to come together. It is not an exaggeration to say that my entire life has been changed by the Daiwa programme and also my life view. I wonder what it is like now to be in Britain? I hear that they have a really strange culture over there. Perhaps, one day I will return and try to figure it out for myself.

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