Makoto's Blog

October 30- November 5

Sun, 02 Oct 2016 04:41:01 +0900

I did not work anymore.

October 23- October 29

Sun, 02 Oct 2016 04:40:23 +0900

I did not work anymore.

October 16- October 22

Sun, 02 Oct 2016 04:39:44 +0900

I did not work anymore.

October 9- October 15

Sun, 02 Oct 2016 04:39:08 +0900

I did not work anymore.

October 3- October 8

Sun, 02 Oct 2016 04:38:01 +0900

I did not work anymore.

September 26-30

Sun, 02 Oct 2016 04:22:30 +0900

Torap-up the internship at the Consular Office of Japan in Portland in this summerand fall, I prepared letters and gifts for my supervisor and other staffs. As amid-term evaluation, my supervisor gave me comments via e-mail that the Hanjinshipping article was good because this is a “hot topic” for us, too. He finallynever told me bad things at all. I respect that. That is the common way ofinteracting with people in my country. Avoidance is the best way. Especially ina working environment, people try avoiding conflicts as much as they can. I wastold that that is the “maturity.” Being patient, ignoring, and having acomfortable distance from what you do not like are the ways which I was taughtin schools. However, sometimes, people explore one day. I would like to suggestthat why don’t we talk about our uncomfortableness before the explosion? Whatwe have to learn is to separate how people behave from who they are. Japanesetend to judge people only by what they did. If someone did something to makeyou uncomfortable once, you would probably judge him or her as one of thepeople who you do not want to interact anymore. You will probably start havingan adequate distance from the person. Nobody is perfect. It is natural to feeluncomfortableness even for your best friend. How can we overcome the avoidance?I have not had the answer, yet. Besides learning about the wheat trading and translation,I have kept thinking about the Japanese style of the Conflict and DisputeResolution.

September 22

Sun, 02 Oct 2016 04:08:44 +0900

Ivisited the Consular Office of Japan in Portland. When I told that I was goingto teach the Japanese 101 for undergraduate students at the University of Oregon,my supervisor gave me many magazines (which are called “Niponika”) ofintroducing Japanese cultures. The magazines are written in both English andJapanese. Let me know if you are interested in them.

The thing which I felt interesting was that the Japanese government mademany brochures about the Senkaku islands dispute, Takeshima dispute, andRachi-Mondai (Kidnappings Japanese people by North Korea). However, theConsular Office did not display them in public because it is difficult to answerquestions if somebody wants to know more about these issues. On the other hand,some countries are assertively insisting their opinions in public. I think thatall of countries have a freedom to insist their opinions in some degree. (Ofcourse, we have to respect each other.) The Consular’s decision is really “Japanese,”and I respect that decision, too.

September 15 and 16

Sun, 02 Oct 2016 03:56:32 +0900

I translated The Oregonian’s article about the Oregon’s economy and theHanjin’s bankruptcy and wrote their summaries. Through the U.S. as a whole, theeconomy does not do well, but a job market in Oregon is growing. Some peoplehave an optimistic view of the Oregon’s economic, but some people carefullyanalyze that we should plan a budget to prepare a near future when the economicgrowth stops. The Governor also made a statement about the Oregon’s economy ina conservative way. As I always mention, the economic situation in the U.S.influences on Japan, so we carefully observe the situation in the U.S. However,as many economic analysts say, it is hard to predict the influence on thesociety as a whole. The economics is not my filed, but whatever I study, theperspective of the economics is essential because people are usually motivatedby financial benefits. I want to understand more about the world economics.

September 6

Sun, 02 Oct 2016 03:47:55 +0900

I translated The Oregonian about the bankruptcy of the Hanjin shipping companyin South Korea and the forage fish protection in Oregon and wrote theirsummaries. The Hanjin shipping company was one of the main companies to ship inthe Portland port. However, due to the union strike, it had to stop thebusiness in the Portland for few years ago. Eventually, the company filed the bankruptcyin South Korea. The topic was discussed in the Consular Office of Japan, too.Nobody said that the reason why the Hanjin shipping company bankrupted becauseof the withdrawal from the Portland port, but I am wondering if it had somerelationship with this incident. (I hope not.) For most of the company, it isinevitable to take it a consideration of how a globalization affects their business.The world is connected. We need a global perspective to understand how economyand politics work

August 29 and 30

Sun, 02 Oct 2016 03:36:43 +0900

Itranslated The Oregonian about Amazon Lockers and Wapato jail and wrote theirsummaries. The Amazon Lockers are new services in Portland that people canreceive packages from Amazon at convenience stores. For busy people, it washard to get the packages at home during service hours. The service would makepeople's life more convenient. The Wapato jail is the prison which is not usednow. The controversy is whether or not the city should open it for homelesspeople. Some people strongly support the idea of converting the jail to thehomeless shelter, but some people question if the city can financially supportthe shelter.

Tolearn the city where the Consular locates is one of the important dairy jobsfor diplomats. Therefore, my supervisor asked me to continue the translation. Iam so fascinating how the city will resolve the homeless issue in the U.S.Japan has homeless, too, but how we approach is different from here. Let’s learnfrom each other!