BCCJ ACUMEN, September 2012

The Magazine of the British Chamber of

Commerce in Japan

September 2012 | ¥900

GREAT BRITISH BRANDS THE NAMAMUGI INCIDENTCREATING CLASSIC CUISINE MERGING MUSICDIVERSITY: WHAT’S THE POINT?

PLUSINDUSTRY & A-LIST: HR, Recruitment & Corporate TrainingBook reviews | Community | Arts events | And much more

Union Jack: much more than flavour of the month | 4

Flying the Flag for Fashion

VOLUME 3, ISSUE 9

September 2012

7 PUBLISHER… We Can Depend on YouSimon Farrell

8 MEDIAUK–Japan NewsMarketing “Made in Britain”

10 MEDIAWhat you missed in the Japanese press

12 BCCJ EVENTDiversity: What’s the Point?

14 STYLEFlying the Flag for FashionThe Union Jack is becoming increasingly popular on Japanese clothing

16 GREAT BRITISH BRANDSGlaxoSmithKline plcPharma firm driven by innovative research and development

EDUCATION22 Which MBA in Japan? Global business boosts demand for bilingual courses

26 New Approach to Testing English The British Council’s revolutionary language assessment service

27 HISTORYThe Namamugi IncidentYokohama man builds museum to mark samurai clash that strained UK-Japan ties

28 CREATIVEOn Safari with Urban SnappersGritty suburbs inspire photographer and his students

30 FOODCreating Classic CuisineNo tablecloths, fast service and real food

INDUSTRYHR , RECRUITMENT & CORPORATE TRAINING33 Fight or FlightThe effect of Japan’s ageing and declining population on recruitment strategies in multinationals

34 A-LIST

39 Globalisation through Gender Diversity

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BCCJ EVENTDiversity: What’s the Point?

COMMUNITYOut of the Blue

MUSICMerging Music

MEDIABrompton Bike’s Biggest Market

41 HRFuture of Japan’s Jobs MarketPeople are planning their careers differently these days

42 The Death of on-the-job TrainingLack of investment in people is driving down standards

43 SPORTMore to Rugby Than a Ruck“Game of equals” stands for bonding, charity . . . and beer

44 MUSIC Merging MusicViolin prodigy sets stage for next chapter in her colourful life

46 ARTS EVENTS Watercolours from The Whitworth Art Gallery, Sukita Masayoshi’s photography, A Dangerous Method, Peter Grimes opera, Léo Delibes’ ballet “Sylvia”, Richard III

48 COMMUNITYMusic, award, lecture, seminar, launch, concert, festival, culture, sport

50 BOOKSA History of the World in 100 Objects: From the handaxe to the credit card

COVER PHOTOS: ROB GILHOOLY

The British Chamber of Commerce in Japan

BCCJ MissionTo strengthen business ties between Britain and Japan, promote and support the business interests of all our Members, and actively encourage new business entrants into the Japanese market as well as Japanese investment into the UK.

LeadersPresident: Nick WaltersIndividual Member

Vice-president: Alison JambertEat Creative K.K.

Executive StaffExecutive Director: Lori Henderson

Operations Manager: Sanae Samata

Executive Committee Russell M Anderson | Jaguar Land Rover Japan Ltd.

Paul Atkinson | Individual Member

Graham Davis | The Economist Group

Ray Bremner | Unilever Japan

Hideya Komori | Individual Member

Vishal Sinha | British Airways

Richard Thornley | Rolls-Royce Japan Co., Ltd

James Weeks | Kreab Gavin Anderson K.K.

James Dodds | KPMG Tax Corporation

Philip T Gibb | Magellan Financial Planning K.K.

Reiko Sakimura | Clifford Chance Law Office

Yayoi Sogo | Individual Member

Ex Officio Sue Kinoshita British Embassy Tokyo

Jeff Streeter British Council Japan

BCCJ ACUMENEditor in ChiefSimon Farrell

British Chamber of Commerce in Japan12F Ark Mori Bldg.1-12-32 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-6012Tel: (03) 4360-8361Fax: (03) [email protected]

BCCJ ACUMEN is the magazine ofthe British Chamber of Commerce in Japan

SEPTEMBER 2012 | BCCJ ACUMEN | 5

www.bccjacumen.comProduced by Custom Media K.K.

PublisherSimon [email protected]

PresidentRobert [email protected]

Art DirectorCliff Cardona

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ContributionsBCCJ Members are welcome to submit ideas for content, which will be decided on merit by the Editor. [email protected]

© 2012 Custom Media K.K.

CONTRIBUTORS

Ian de Stains OBE is a former BBC producer and presenter who has been based in Japan since 1976, when he was seconded to NHK. From 1987 to 2011, he was BCCJ executive director. Aside from writing, Ian now focuses on consulting and coaching. He is author of Japan: The Business Traveller’s Handbook and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and convenor of its Japan [email protected]

Mark Schreiber is an author and translator who has been based in Tokyo since 1966. He was employed as a media analyst in market research before turning to freelance writing.

Thomas J Nevins is author of several business books and founder and chief consultant of TMT Inc., the Japan Partner of executive search consultants Glasford International. www.tmt-aba.com

Thomas J Nevins is author of several business books and founder and chief consultant of TMT Inc., the Japan Partner of executive search consultants Glasford International. www.tmt-aba.com

Dr Greg Story is president of Dale Carnegie Training Japan.

David Swan is managing director of Robert Walters Japan & Korea.

Professor Barry O’Sullivan is senior advisor, English Language Assessment at the British Council. He advises international institutions around the world on aspects of assessment. Barry is honorary professor of Applied Linguistics at Roehampton University, London. He has written extensively on language testing and assessment and has presented his ideas at numerous international conferences.

Eamon Flanagan manages the Human Resource practice at Michael Page Japan, specialising in HR recruitment for all levels across commercial and financial industries.

Julian Ryall is Japan correspondent for The Daily Telegraph.

Joao Longo Pereira is a Brazilian photographer based in Tokyo specialising in nature, people, culture, events and cuisine.

Robert Gilhooly is a Tokyo-based photojournalist whose work has featured in The Guardian, The Times, Newsweek, as well as in documentaries and [email protected]

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ContributionsBCCJ Members are welcome to submit ideas for content, which

will be decided on merit by the Editor.

[email protected]

… We Can Depend on You

Simon FarrellCustom [email protected]

W hen I first came to Tokyo, in 1987, I thought: is this place obsessed with America or what? US flags and

other icons were ubiquitous. There was a love hotel built to look like the Statue of Liberty and daily I walked past something called American Boulevard, next to Seibu Shinjuku Station, selling what was considered cool US stuff.

However, British goods barely got a nod and I was gobsmacked when a local presumed that Detroit was home to luxury carmakers Rolls-Royce.

Who knows how temporary it is but, look up from the pavement—not sidewalk—in many popular Tokyo shopping and entertainment spots today and you are more likely to be greeted by the red, white and blue of a Union Jack (albeit often upside down) than a tired old Stars and Stripes flag.

Open your eyes (or turn to page 14) and you will see Union Jack-emblazoned

underwear, beach and club gear, fashionably ripped T-shirts along with accessories, gadgets and games.

The UK government’s GREAT campaign was perfectly poised to exploit the royal wedding, the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, thereby raising the UK’s global profile for business and pleasure. If Tokyo’s fickle fashionistas are any measure, the effort succeeded in style.

Food for thoughtThere must be a magic recipe behind a business that is still solid after more than 11 years, in a part of town where 36 months is said to be the average industry lifespan, and where a history measured in weeks is not unknown.

But, when it’s food and beverage and in Roppongi, there must be a story, too. Naturally, there’s also a British angle—the chef, founder and general manager (see page 30).

British Business AwardsA quick reminder that the BCCJ’s biggest annual event of the year will take place in less than two months. For further information on the British Business Awards, please see opposite page.

PUBLISHER

8 | BCCJ ACUMEN | SEPTEMBER 2012

LATEST UK–JAPAN REPORTS


Stamp of quality helps exporters sell niche products

Brompton Bike’s Biggest Market

Sausage skin-maker Devro has seen a 6% rise in profits due to a high demand in Japan, Glasgow Wired reported on 31 July.

The Scottish firm recorded sales grossing £20mn during the first half of the current fiscal year, with revenues up more than 7% to £115mn.

The Moodiesburn-based group is expecting growth to continue, helped along by demand for its premium Select range.

Scots Report Sausage Sales Rise

A huge demand for mohair socks in Japan has helped a small Northumberland firm to increase its profits, The Journal reported on 25 July.

Based near Newcastle, Capricorn Mohair Socks received their largest order ever, worth £11,500, for more than 2,500 pairs of socks from a Japanese firm that had seen

Fashion for Mohair Socks

Historic confectionery brand Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls has broken into the Japanese market, the Manchester Evening News reported on 10 August.

Established in 1898, William Santus & Co achieved sales equivalent to £70,000 in only a few weeks and they hope to target the rest of Asia.

The Wigan-based firm exhibited its popular product at a London trade show when it was approached by a Japanese couple who wanted to purchase the sweets for their wedding.

Proving popular with guests, the newlyweds set up their own food distribution business to sell the mint balls in Japan.

Sweets Firm Tastes Sales Success

their products at the Scottish Trade Fair in January.

The Japanese enthusiasm for UK-made products has helped Capricorn’s annual sales exceed £100,000.

The firm sources local mohair from angora goats. It is then spun into yarn, knitted and dyed.

Brompton Bicycle Ltd’s Jubilee bike

Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls product range

Capricorn Mohair Socks are sourced from Northumberland.

MARKETING “MADE IN BRITAIN”

A folding bicycle manufacturer’s biggest export market is Japan, The Daily Telegraph reported on 21 August.

Brompton Bicycle Ltd believes their success in Japan is largely due to the firm’s “Made in Britain” stamp and its Queen’s Award for Export. The Japanese love the firm’s royal seal of approval that comes with the prestigious award, bestowed on UK businesses and organisations that excel at international trade, innovation or sustainable development.

Although the firm sells its products in 38 markets worldwide, the brand is little known in the UK outside the M25 motorway which rings London.

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A Japanese pharmaceutical firm has opened its European headquarters in London, the Financial Times reported on 15 August.

The UK’s strict drug safety and pricing standards were a decisive factor in the Shionogi & Co., Ltd. decision to locate an operations centre in the UK capital. Also attractive was the UK’s traditional strength in medical research. The firm sees this as groundwork for further expansion abroad.

The Shionogi Limited office, that will initially only employ 15 staff, is seen as a symbolic victory for the UK, given the Europe-wide push to stimulate inward investment and employment by courting pharmaceutical makers with offers of tax breaks and other incentives.

Shionogi Opens Office in London

Panasonic will construct a new fuel cell product research and development facility at its Cardiff plant, according to a 6 August Wales Online report.

The Japanese firm’s £2mn centre is due to open this month and will develop and adapt fuel cell products for the UK and European markets, in order to provide the average home with a reduced carbon footprint.

This investment, which will add considerable value to Panasonic’s operations in Wales, is being backed with £450,000 in funding from the Welsh Government.

Wales to Get R&D Centre

One of Japan’s richest businessmen has opened a video games studio in London to help boost the UK technology start-up scene, the BBC reported on 2 August.

Head of Japanese Smartphone application maker, Gree International Inc, has opened a new studio in east London’s centre for technology and media firms. The Tokyo-based firm will develop titles for its social gaming platform at the site commonly known as “Tech City”.

App Maker Invests in Tech City Studio

The world’s most famous bell foundry in the UK is to manufacture bells for export to Japan, the London Press Service reported on 7 August.

Established in 1570, Whitechapel Bell Foundry Ltd manufactured the world’s largest harmonically tuned bell for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The UK’s oldest manufacturing firm also produced Big Ben, the bell in the clock tower of London’s Palace of Westminster.

Orders for the firm’s products have also been received from the US, Canada, Australia and Brazil.

Foundry to Export Bells

An organisation of London-based sake experts is trying to promote rice wine worldwide and reverse declining sales in Japan, The Japan Times reported on 29 August.

The Sake Sommelier Association (SSA) hopes that, by informing alcohol industry professionals worldwide about the beverage, they can encourage more establishments to stock it.

The European market for sake is growing, parallel with the expanding popularity of Japanese food. The higher alcohol content of rice wine, compared with that of other alcoholic beverages, is said to boost the flavour of food, including Japanese dishes.

In Japan, the older Japanese generally drink sake, while the younger ones tend to favour wine and beer. European sake lovers want to try to reverse the falling sales of sake and the closures of its breweries. They hope endorsements from a select group of wine experts in London may help boost sales of the product in Japan.

Experts Push Rice Wine in Europe

A UK private equity firm has bought Japan’s largest sushi chain, The Independent reported on 25 August.

Permira, owner of frozen food brand Birdseye, bought Akindo Sushiro from Japanese buyout outfit Unison Capital for £630mn.

The UK’s second-biggest buyout deal this year could cause barriers to collapse, thereby enabling UK financiers to conquer lucrative Asian markets.

Permira Buys Sushi Firm

The Japanese and UK governments are to hold their first bilateral meeting to exchange opinions on nuclear power, The Denki Shimbun reported on 10 August.

The decommissioning of Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc.’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station will be discussed at the October event, to be held in Tokyo.

Nuclear Power Talks to be Held

Japan international player Ryo Miyaichi has joined Wigan football team on a season-long loan, The Independent reported on 13 August.

The 19-year-old winger has previously played for both Bolton and Arsenal.

Footballer Joins Wigan

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When Diversity Upsets the WorkplaceIn the West, the term “diversity” generally has a positive and desirable meaning related to racial and ethnic tolerance, individuality and social progress. However, “daibashitii”, in its Japanese context, seems to be associated with the country’s movement from parochialism to globalism. In some organisations, this movement does not mesh comfortably with traditional work styles.

The Nikkan Gendai (31 July) singled out a specific type of diversity: the worker referred to as a “nomad” who, with a particular work style, “refuses to be tied down to the office”, and who “upsets the order of the workplace”.

The article gives numerous examples of this type of worker, including that of a programmer who had recently transferred to another firm from a job in the IT sector. The employee asked his supervisor why he hadn’t been given a desk that was partitioned off from the others. “I can’t concentrate like this”, he complained.

Another example mentioned in the article was that of a former systems engineer

BY MARK SCHREIBER

WHAT YOU MISSED IN THE JAPANESE PRESS

MEDIA

who had been assigned to the accounting department of a manufacturing firm.

While working overtime, the employee had begun tapping noisily on his calculator, annoying colleagues. He, however, couldn’t hear the noise he was making because he was wearing headphones.

In the Japanese lexicon, the term “diversity management” is also being used to cover relatively new adaptations in the workplace, such as extended maternity leave and the employment of increasingly more females in management positions.

Certainly, diversity may boost workers’ motivation and help retain talented human resources who might otherwise resign out of frustration with the job. But diversity can also be blamed for chipping away at workplace harmony.

The article cites a recent survey of 930 staff at the human resources departments of firms with 50 or more employees. Among the respondents, 38.2% said that “the maximum effort had not been made

Who Gives the Best—and Worst—Service?The Nikkei Business (30 July) published the results of its annual survey of Japan’s best providers of after-sales service. The 16,809 respondents to its satisfaction survey had an average age of 49.2 years. Of the total respondents, 77% were male and 22.2% female (the gender of 0.8% is not known). The Kanto, Kansai and Chubu districts were represented as 50.8%, 18.2% and 11.6%, respectively.

Together with satisfaction ranking, the results include the number of respondents for each named brand and give the likelihood, in terms of percent, of the respondent becoming a return customer.

Broken down into service sectors and products, the winners in each category are (losers given in parentheses):

• Digital cameras: Nikon, (Fuji Film)• Personal computers: Epson Direct

(Japan Acer)• Air conditioners: Sharp (Toshiba)• Appliance mass retailers: K’s Holdings

(Yamada Denki)

Best after-sales service for cameras: Nikon

to familiarise workers with the concept of diversity”. Another 37.8% agreed that workers at their firm had low levels of awareness and understanding of what diversity entails.

In another example, a salesman at an office automation sales firm, who had been leaving the office early to work on his reports at home, was obliged to halt this practice. His younger subordinates had issued complaints behind his back to the firm’s human resources department, claiming his early departure was “not conducive to their efficient functioning on the job”.

“If the data indicates job performance isn’t improving despite giving staff leeway to do things their own way, then changes are warranted”, said labour and social security attorney Yukiko Takita. She added that resentment aimed at the “nomads” would most likely be among younger staff members who are conditioned to work in a more conventional corporate culture.

• Internet supermarkets: Ito Yokado (Oisix)

• Internet sales: Joshin Web (Rakuten Books)

• Cars: Lexus (BMW)• Non-car accident insurance: Sompo

Japan Insurance Inc. (JA Kyosai)• Banks: Sony Bank (Rakuten Bank)


MEDIA

Konbini Wired for SalesJapan’s convenience stores (konbini) have found that their customers are increasingly connected online via smart phones, and are currently boosting their e-marketing activities to promote sales, the Nikkei Marketing Journal (25 July) reports.

A survey of 29 convenience chains found that eight firms are currently engaging in sales via the internet, with another four at the planning stage.

Lawson, Inc., one of the convenience store firms, projects such sales will increase to ¥300bn by 2015—a six fold increase over last year’s figure. Until recently, sales had mainly focused on music CDs and DVDs but, from October last year, the firm was including home deliveries of foodstuffs.

The parent chain of 7-Eleven Japan Co., Ltd. shops, Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd. has forecast a threefold rise in its current e-business revenue to ¥500bn by 2014.

Six firms, including 7-Eleven and Ministop Co., Ltd., have indicated they are currently promoting their business activities via the social media site Facebook. Another six firms have similar projects underway.

Other efforts to promote business include: providing in-store Wi-Fi hot-spots (currently offered by Lawson and six other convenience store chains); new applications for smart phones and tablet computers (five chains); transmitting to users content that can be

Items Sold Abroad OnlineOnline firm jGrab Inc. (j-Grab.com) is developing an interface with domestic e-retailers Rakuten and Yahoo! Japan to sell Japanese products to international customers via the internet.

The Nikkei Marketing Journal (15 August), reports that the firm will first target US customers.

Based in the Tokyo suburb of Shibuya, the firm uses lively graphics-driven displays to introduce shoppers to product categories, including apparel, electronics and miscellaneous accessories.

Schoolchildren provide marketing ideas.

obtained only while on the store premises (three); and dissemination of an email magazine (nine).

Meanwhile, the Sankei Shimbun (2 September) reports that the FamilyMart Co., Ltd. chain of konbini announced an expansion of its links with regional high schools to develop products for limited local distribution.

This year, arrangements have been made for students from some 20 schools to provide marketing input on items such as bento (boxed meals) and desserts. It is hoped the youngsters will generate original ideas for local products.

Students at participating schools will take part in biweekly sessions over the three- to four-month school term. At these sessions, the students will offer suggestions and ideas for the produce that will include packaging and product naming. Some students will also visit shops and take part in promotional

activities, such as offering test samples of new products to customers.

To date, the successful products include milk pudding and cream puffs, both of which contain zenzai (sweetened azuki beans and glutinous rice). Introduced in 2011, the desserts were sold by Family Mart in all prefectures except Okinawa.

jGrab hopes to offer selected items from among the approximately 75mn sold via Rakuten Ichiba, the 25mn products sold via Yahoo! Auction and the many made available through other channels. The online firm will apply additional handling charges to the total cost.

The venture has been approved by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which is also pushing Ekkyo EC, the Cross-border EC Support Portal (http://www.cbec.go.jp/) as one of its strategies for encouraging growth among Japan’s small and medium-size enterprises.

Based in the Tokyo suburb of Shibuya, the firm uses lively graphics-driven displays to introduce shoppers to product categories.

A survey of 29 convenience chains found that eight firms are currently engaging in sales via the internet.


Diversity: What's the Point?

By Julian Ryall

• Many advantages to diversity• Poll: Norway 1st, UK 24th, Japan 46th• Govt should help women, working mums

T he concept of diversity—from gender, age and sexual orientation, to cultural background, education and handicap—is largely embraced

and actively encouraged today by Western firms.

Winning acceptance for women in the boardroom or physically challenged people on the shop floor might have met resistance many years ago, but is now an entrenched and accepted fact of business life.

However, such diversity is less apparent in Japanese firms and organisations.

Barbara Adachi, managing director of the Human Capital division of Deloitte Consulting LLP in the US, hopes the Diversity Week event that her firm staged in Japan in early September will help address the issues that need to be dealt with in this market, and bring a far broader spectrum of people into the workplace.

Japanese firms are missing out on a vast pool of educated, talented and hard-working employees by under-utilising women, Adachi pointed out.

“I joined Deloitte in 1990 and led the Women’s Initiative for four years from 2007 until earlier this year”, Adachi told attendees at the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan’s “Diversity: What’s the Point” event, in Tokyo on 6 September.

Although the firm was committed to hiring 50% female staff, a mere 7% of the key positions (partners and directors) were occupied by women at that time.

“The assumption was that they were having families and staying home”, she said. “But they weren’t: they were going somewhere else to work.

“This was a big issue for our firm because our biggest asset is our people”, she added. “And if in the future we do not have enough women on our staff, then we are not serving our clients”.

Some 23% of the top posts at Deloitte are now held by women, many of whom are working mothers, she revealed.

According to studies assessing the impact of bringing together a wider range of people with a broader range of experiences, skills and outlooks—the advantages are clear.

Diversity can drive innovation and add value to firms. It can also respond better to the needs of diverse customers and attract additional diverse talent. Maximising individuals’ uniqueness increases creativity and enhances feelings of fulfilment and pride. Flexibility in the workplace makes for happier staff and empowers employees by encouraging them to participate. This can only help firms move forward.

There are very few downsides to a corporation encouraging diversity. Yet that message has not percolated all the way through some organisations.

According to a 2012 study issued by Forbes, Inc. on diversity and inclusion, Norway is the most progressive nation in terms of the role of women in society. Fully 36% of Norwegian corporations’ board members are women—the highest ratio in the world.

The country also scored high marks for the number of women in parliament and the total number of women in the workforce.

The UK ranked 24th on the Forbes list, behind the US, Australia and Germany.

Japan was in a rather dismal 46th spot, well behind China in 28th position, and South Korea in 42nd.

Although Japan has until recently been considered Asia’s economic powerhouse and an advanced society, the nation fares badly when it comes to the issue of diversity.

A study by the Bank of America Corporation revealed that Japan has the second-lowest percentage of women in management positions in the top six Asian economies.

“I read a study that said by 2020, the Japanese workforce will have shrunk by 8.5mn. This is as well as the added problem of our ageing society”, said Haruno Yoshida, president of BT Japan Corporation. She is widely considered a role model for the advancement of women in Japanese businesses.

“This means that we are soon going to see a direct impact on business here”, Yoshida said. “It is a must for any chief executive to have the right worker resources, and there are a couple of ways for us to make the most of what are underutilised resources.

“All analyses show that female workers in Japan are well educated and very capable, but they are massively underutilised compared with [those in] other developed countries”, she said.

BCCJ EVENT

From left: Moderator Suzanne Price and speakers Barbara Adachi and Haruno Yoshida


Working mothers need support from the government, and women need to be able to have a work-life balance, she added.

“Another thing to remember is that the British government in the 1980s opened up the country and called for more immigrant workers”, she said. “We should do the same in Japan because foreigners account for less than 2% of our

total population. There should be more diversity in immigration”.

Japan’s shrinking population is “a wake-up call” and corporate Japan has no choice but to change, according to Adachi.

“And unless firms here start planning for this now, they will be behind the rest of the world”, she emphasised. “There is already a talent shortage around the world, and we must remember that we all have to compete globally now”.

Although it is likely to be a challenge to convince middle and senior management at Japanese corporations that they need to act immediately, an effective tactic is to present the decision-makers with clear and indisputable evidence that a problem is looming, Adachi explained.

“They will have no sense of urgency if they believe that everything is okay”, she added. “You need to confront them with hard, independent facts.

“It has got to be about what will happen to the company if it is not growing because it is not diverse in its workforce; about having women in key positions and employing people from other countries”, she said.

Another problem is that Japanese firms do not want to be the first to promote diversity programmes. They prefer to wait for another corporation to take the lead.

Conversely, Yoshida said, once the Japanese government introduces legislation with which firms are required to comply, they invariably do.

Firms in other countries have resisted setting quotas on women in management positions as they believe it can reduce the women to merely a symbolic presence, used simply to comply with the requirement. However, it is felt by many that imposing quotas on Japanese firms might be the most effective way of achieving the all-important initial breakthrough for minorities.

In addition, the need for a system of sponsorship by senior members of a firm for workers from diverse backgrounds was emphasised by both speakers. It is also necessary for women to take it upon themselves to take up that role and assist other women at every opportunity.

The speakers were asked to describe the type of woman who would make the ideal role model and sponsor for a new generation of working women. Adachi ticked off a series or ideal attributes: “Somebody who is willing to take risks and who is willing to speak up, although not in an aggressive way”, she said. “Someone who is courageous, who has the ability to communicate well and articulate ideas. And it is important to have passion”.

Winning acceptance for women in the boardroom or physically challenged people on the shop floor might have met resistance many years ago, but is now an entrenched and accepted fact of business life.

BCCJ EVENT


By Julian RyallPhotos: Rob Gilhooly

T he unmistakable red, white and blue of the UK’s Union Jack flag has become de rigueur in Japanese fashion circles, usurping the Stars and

Stripes of the US as the design in which to be seen.

The flag has been integrated into numerous corporate logos over the years, including those of sports brand Reebok and clothing shop Next. In recent months, the distinctive design has exploded onto the streets of Japan.

From bags, bras, flip-flops, T-shirts and socks, to stationery, mobile phone covers and even kitchen utensils, the Union Jack is big in Japan.

“The Union Jack is a readily acceptable fashion look and has been put to use for longer than just before the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games”, said Roy Larke, professor of international marketing and Japanese business at Tokyo’s Rikkyo University.

“But I would say that the current interest we have seen in Britain from around the world has certainly pushed it along”.

It has been a big year for the UK with the celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II and the success of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

According to airlines flying between the two countries, more Japanese have visited the UK so far this year than in 2011. Historically, there has been a mutual interest in, and respect for, the history and culture of the two nations.

As a result of Shinji Kagawa recently having joined Manchester United, students who would never before have turned up at Larke’s lectures in football shirts have suddenly emerged wearing the team’s colour: red.

In recent years, Britons have not been ones for waving their flag at every opportunity. However, it’s good to see the Japanese doing it on their behalf, especially as they used to consider the US flag a fashion statement.

STYLE


Flying the Flag for

FASHIONThe Union Jack is becoming increasingly popular on Japanese clothing


STYLE


GlaxoSmithKline plcPharma firm driven by innovative research and development

By Julian Ryall

• New partnership with McLaren cars• Helped make Olympics the fairest ever• Group turnover of £27.4bn in 2011• Soon to celebrate 300th anniversary

I nnovation is the bedrock on which GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) plc. is built. Nearly 300 years after the founding of the pharmacy from which the modern firm has evolved, GSK remains

committed to exploring directions that others in the sector choose to ignore.

It all feeds into the firm’s philosophy of “Do more, feel better, live longer”.

“Innovation is the engine of our business”, emphasised Philippe Fauchet, president and representative director of GSK Japan. “We have built one of the strongest development pipelines of potential new medicines and vaccines in the industry.

“We have refocused our R&D organisation on the best science, which led us to break up the traditional hierarchical R&D business model into smaller units, to create an entrepreneurial environment in discovery and medicine development, with open approaches to external discovery”, he added. “This has led to more product launches, increased participation of patients in clinical trials, and maintaining the late-stage pipeline without a significant increase in R&D expenses”.

The firm’s recent partnership with racing car developer McLaren Group will initially focus on GSK Manufacturing, R&D and Consumer Healthcare and is one example of “thinking outside the box” in the search for innovation, Fauchet pointed out. “The partnership brings together two UK companies focused on innovation and high-tech research”, he said.

“Under the agreement, the McLaren Group will share its widely acknowledged leading capabilities in engineering, technology, analytics and strategy modelling—which it has developed over many years in its core business of Formula 1 motor sport—to help deliver world-class performance across GSK’s global businesses”.

GSK has played a critical role in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The firm provided facilities and equipment to enable expert anti-doping analysis, making the Games the fairest in history. They worked with King’s College London, one of the world’s leading research and teaching universities, and operated 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week to test 400 samples for some 240 banned substances.

The firm also participated in the Games in a very different way—three members of the GSK Japan women’s hockey team took part in the Olympic event as part of the national team of Japan.

GSK has come a very long way since 1715 when, in London, apothecary Silvanus Bevan opened the Plough Court Pharmacy, which eventually grew into pharmaceutical manufacturer Allen and Henbury’s Ltd.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the druggist John K. Smith opened his first pharmacy in Philadelphia in 1830. His brother joined him 11 years later and

formed pharmaceutical firm John K. Smith & Co. In 1842, chemist Thomas Beecham launched his Beecham’s Pills laxative business in the UK. Some 17 years later, Beecham opened the world’s first factory dedicated to making medicines in St Helen’s in the north of the country.

The seeds of the Glaxo firm were sown when Joseph Nathan established a firm in Wellington, New Zealand. Back in the US, Mahlon Kline joined the Smith brothers and, by 1875, had become so important to the organisation that it was renamed Smith, Kline and Company. Five years later, Burroughs Wellcome & Co. was established in London by American pharmacists Henry Wellcome and Silas Burroughs.

The individual pharmaceutical firms made great strides in their development at the turn of the century.

In 1902, the Wellcome Tropical Research Laboratories opened and hired Henry Dale. He discovered, among other things, histamine and how nerve impulses are transmitted.

The Glaxo department of Joseph Nathan and Co. was established in London in 1910, while Smith, Kline and French released the Blue Line, which included poison ivy lotion and lozenges.

In 1913, production of Beecham’s Pills laxatives reached 1mn per day and, in 1926, the firm launched their eponymous Beecham’s Powders cold remedy.

In 1935, new facilities for Glaxo Laboratories were constructed at Greenford, near London. In the following year, Sir Henry Wellcome left sole ownership of The Wellcome Foundation Ltd. to a medical research charity today

GREAT BRITISH BRANDS

Phillipe Fauchet, president and representative director of GSK Japan


known as the Wellcome Trust. Henry Dale was awarded the Nobel

Prize for Medicine, and Beecham continued to expand. The firm acquired the household brands of Macleans toothpaste and Brylcreem’s hair styling products, while their laboratories reported a series of pharmaceutical breakthroughs, including a treatment for TB.

The latter half of the 20th century was marked by the release of cutting-edge treatments, including the cold remedy Contac and Betnovate for skin complaints. In tandem with these discoveries, the firm increased their research and development capabilities and also acquired numerous smaller, specialist firms.

In 1989, SmithKline Beecham was created as the result of a merger, and two years later moved its global headquarters to the west London town of Brentford. Then, in 1995, Glaxo and Wellcome merged. The queen opened the new firm’s Medicines Research Centre in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.


The firm as it is known today is the result of a 2000 merger that formed GlaxoSmithKline—which has maintained the commitment to researching illnesses and developing cures.

“Our brand is extremely important to us because it represents who we are and what we do as a company”, Fauchet said. “In order to build trust with society, all employees are aligned with our company values of transparency, respect for people and integrity, and we are patient-focused in our internal and external engagement”.

Their formula seems to be working; the firm reported a group turnover of £27.4bn in 2011. Fully 68% of that amount came from GSK’s pharmaceuticals business, while vaccines contributed 13% and the consumer healthcare division the remaining 19%.

The firm is also justifiably proud of its £4bn reinvestment in research and development. It is this sort of investment that has led to the emergence of the RTS, S vaccine candidate for malaria. The positive results of the Phase III tests are

an incredibly significant development, and this vaccine has the potential to save millions of lives in Africa.

In February 2010, GSK established an independent global unit to tackle the development and delivery of cures for rare diseases. While other firms choose not to seek cures for such illnesses, because the financial returns will not cover development costs, GSK believes doing precisely that is its corporate duty.

In addition, the Japan-based division formed a Rare Diseases Medicine Development Centre in April 2010 to support the firm’s global activities, while GSK’s Tres Cantos Medicines Development Campus in Spain accepted its first external researchers in June 2011.

Eight scientists converged on the Spanish facility to take up “open lab” placements to seek new treatments for many of the diseases that affect

GSK headquarters in Brentford, west London


millions of people in some of the world’s poorest nations.

“By opening the centre to more alliances and collaborations, and by continuing to drive our ‘open innovation’ agenda, we can help to provide a critical mass of knowledge and a drive for the discovery and development of needed new medicines for a number of neglected diseases”, said Fauchet.

However, GSK’s corporate social responsibility activities are not only aimed at people in developing countries. The firm sprang into action in Japan in the immediate aftermath of the country’s devastating 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

Since then, the firm has provided medicines to medical institutions and associations worth a total of ¥270mn. In addition to its initial donation of ¥200mn to the Japanese Red Cross Society on 15 March, GSK’s staff donations have raised ¥23.25mn.

GSK has started a firm-wide campaign that encourages staff to reduce their use of electricity. The money saved through the campaign has been ploughed back into the area that most requires assistance and enabled a scholarship fund, worth approximately ¥65mn, to be set up. Scholarships will be offered to 30 students from the Tohoku region who want to study pharmacy at university.

And when it comes to volunteering, those who signed up for Team Orange—so named for the distinctive orange anoraks


that volunteers wear and the corporation’s colour—far outstripped the firm’s ability to get them to the Tohoku disaster zone to assist the victims.

“Innovation will continue to be our engine of growth alongside patient access to our medicines and vaccines”, said Fauchet. “We are actively seeking new ways of delivering health care and making our products more available and affordable to people who need them, wherever they live.

“We do this not because it is good for our business, but because society expects us to, and it is the right thing to do”.

GSK is the industry leader in adopting a flexible approach to pricing its medicines and products, based on a country’s wealth and ability to pay. This has resulted in

significant reductions in price, as well as increases in demand for GSK products in emerging economies—a positive outcome for patients, governments and the firm’s shareholders.

Similarly, in Western markets, the firm has developed new reimbursement approaches for medicines, according to which it reaches agreement on risk-sharing arrangements with payers.

“New medicines and healthcare products are needed by people across the globe to address the many illnesses that are still not well controlled or treated”, Fauchet explained. “At the same time, scientific research is continuously uncovering new understandings about disease processes and technologies.

“These two elements present us with the opportunity to investigate and develop new and improved treatments”, he said. “We create value by applying science and technology to discover, develop, produce and distribute medicines, vaccines and consumer healthcare products.

“We are very proud not only of the company being recognised as having the most pharmaceutical approvals [of any firm in the industry] in the past decade, but also of having the biggest and most promising pipeline development in both Japan and our industry, and bringing new and innovative cures to patients”.

Production of Beecham’s Pills reached 1mn per day in 1913.

Team Orange delivered supplies to temporary houses in Ishinomaki.


Diversity Survey Results 2012Poll reveals management-female employee perception disparity

By Christine WrightOperations Director, AsiaManaging Director, JapanHays Specialist Recruitment Japan KK

F or its recent diversity survey, Hays Specialist Recruitment Japan KK polled 1,000 hiring and line managers, as well as female candidates, all of whom, in

November and December 2011, had been placed in a new role, or who had been looking for a new position.

Conducted between 23 April and 7 May 2012, the survey reveals that 65% of the female respondents felt that, when it comes to the meaning of diversity, their management do not understand, or they are not sure whether they understand. This is despite the fact that 70% of hiring managers had claimed they have a diversity programme in place.

In addition, 63% of the female respondents said they believe their management is not taking steps to nurture a diverse workforce, while 69% of the hiring managers said they assess both male and female candidates in their recruitment process.

In addition, 67% of these managers acknowledged that women represent less than 20% of their management, while 66% admitted they do not have processes in place that encourage women to rise to management positions.

Concerning external support mechanisms, 72% of the female respondents felt the Japanese government’s legislation on discrimination does not encourage women to consider balancing a career and family.

Addressing the ageing and declining population in Japan, Hays actively encourages employers to take advantage of the local talent pool and, in particular, to utilise the skills of those who are currently underrepresented in the workforce.

Hays’ placements demonstrate its leadership in promoting diversity. For the period 1 July–31 December 2011, 78% of the firm’s candidates were aged between 30 and 50, and 40% were female.

The results of our survey clearly show the disjoint between what support employers think they need to offer female

employees, and what those employees actually want.

Nevertheless, Hays’ recent placements in Japan display both a social shift towards a growing acceptance of mid-career job change in Japan, and a trend to more fully incorporate women in the workforce.

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare recently announced that it will visit tens of thousands of firms across Japan by fiscal 2015, to ask them to employ more women and promote them to managerial posts.

We actively encourage this progress, and stress that embracing diversity offers a significant opportunity for Japan, in addressing its competition and macro challenges.

If you would like to receive the full Diversity Survey Results 2012 press release or discuss your next career move, please contact Hays Specialist Recruitment Japan:

Telephone: 03-3560-1188 Email: [email protected]

Hays suggests the following solutions to effectively promote diversity in the workplace.

Develop a thorough and well-communicated diversity strategy: If firms are serious about bridging the diversity divide and recruiting the best people, regardless of gender or age, a diversity strategy needs to be created and communicated.

Communicate to all members of staff the career paths that are available: Discuss these, as well as goals and development opportunities with each employee.

Provide female role models and help develop women in leadership positions: All managers should be trained in the value of a diverse workforce, and strategies to develop female staff to perform management roles should be provided. Female representation in the business should be measured, to ensure that the number of women in senior management reflects the total number of women employed. Young women often admire experienced female role models.

Create a culture that promotes diversity and gender equality: Provide an environment in which men and women feel they are being treated equally.

Adopt policies that support working parents: When possible, work–life balance initiatives should be reviewed to accommodate flexible or reduced working hours and childcare provisions, as well as provide internal support and flexibility when children are sick. Firms with such policies will be rewarded with dedicated employees who appreciate the support.

Hays actively encourages employers to take advantage of the local talent pool and, in particular, to utilise the skills of those who are currently underrepresented in the workforce.

PUBLICITY


Christine Wright


Which MBA in Japan?Global business boosts demand for bilingual courses

By Rob Gilhooly

I t was not so long ago in Japan that business know-how gained on the job was considered to be more important than anything learned from books and in classrooms.

But with business focus moving rapidly towards other parts of Asia, it’s not only businesspeople who, wishing to increase their marketability, are adding a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) to their CVs. Firms are seeking to hire personnel with these qualifications to increase their competitive edge.

Tomoya Nakamura, dean of Globis University’s Graduate School of Management, said, “Some more traditional Japanese companies out there still don’t appreciate the value an MBA can offer, claiming on-the-job experience and company training are enough to make good decisions and grow you as a businessperson.

“However, the majority of Japanese companies have changed their views”, he added.

For Globis, this year marks 20 years in business during which its overall student intake has grown from 20 to 7,000, with 414 students participating in its thriving MBA programme—a five-fold increase over the 2006 figure.

To celebrate the anniversary, it has built a new office in Shanghai, launched a new campus in Sendai and introduced a one-year full-time English MBA programme at its Tokyo campus, in addition to its existing two-year part-time MBA and a pre-MBA programme, which allows students to participate in part-time MBA courses before officially enrolling.

“Over the years, we have received a lot more applications from Japan-based foreigners and applicants from overseas”, said Nakamura. “Bilingual Japanese students are also increasingly attending, as are Japanese from major firms wanting to develop visionary leaders to help them in their globalisation efforts”.

This is also the case at Waseda University’s Business School, which last year updated its MBA programmes partly to accommodate a growing tendency by working professionals wanting to

undertake after-work studies. At 250, this year’s intake is 50 more than usual, said Koji Aiba, a professor of Waseda’s MBA programme.

“The part-time MBA market potential is huge, because people don’t want to leave their companies due to difficulties getting a new job in the current [economic] climate”, Aiba said. “People are starting to understand that, through study, you can learn how to manage better”.

Waseda offers two part-time two-year programmes—a general evening MBA and a specialised one—although the latter is only available to applicants with at least three years of professional experience. Meanwhile, the university’s two full-time programmes are a two-year international MBA (available in both English and Japanese), during which participants are encouraged to undertake some of their studies overseas, and a one-year general MBA programme in Japanese only.

“The hard part for international students studying in Japan is that they often only learn in English and therefore only communicate with English-speaking professors and not so much with Japanese students, many of whom do not want to come to English-language courses”, said Aiba.

“To help overcome this we offer bilingual courses and a zemi (seminar) system that encourages Japanese and international students to mingle and exchange ideas”, he added. With Japanese firms increasingly moving their operations outside Japan, young Japanese people want to better equip themselves for global business and are more open to this type of study.

This factor was also at the heart of a major change last year at the Business School of the International University of Japan (IUJ) in Niigata. “The faculty made the decision to focus all programmes on the central theme of ‘leveraging emerging Asia for global competitive advantage’”, said IUJ Dean Philip Sugai. “As Asia becomes an increasingly important and dominant market, it is impossible for any company to ignore this region if global competitive advantage is their aim”.

In addition to its two-year course, IUJ launched a one-year intensive MBA for corporate-sponsored students wishing to gain an integrated management

perspective during their MBA studies, Sugai said. IUJ, which last year also celebrated its 30th anniversary, offers a newly redesigned E-Business Management programme in entrepreneurship and technology, he added.

“An MBA is an incredibly important degree and our main focus is on training truly global leaders who are able to effectively solve the major challenges of globalising businesses and markets”, said Sugai. “We are now at a critical point in the evolution of Japan and the Asia region. The challenges that both Japanese and international companies face require a new group of globally minded leaders who are capable of dealing with these for the highest possible benefit of their companies, their countries and the world”.

Meanwhile, Yvonne Kageyama of Hitotsubashi University’s Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy (ICS) believes that a “fundamental shift” in

EDUCATION

At Hitotsubashi University’s Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, subjects include finance, accounting operations, marketing, people management and strategy formulation.


the Japanese job market, to strengthen management and leadership skills, has increased demand for MBAs here. “It is the substance of what the MBA education offers and not the degree itself that is important to corporations here in Japan”, Kageyama said.

The university offers a one- or two-year, all-English language MBA programme, as well as a three-year Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) course, also taught entirely in English. However, their Financial Strategy and Business Law MBAs are offered only in Japanese.

“Students enrolled in our global MBA programme come from all over the world, with a vast variety of work experiences, said Kageyama. “Among our several ‘non-corporate’ examples, we have in the past graduated an art and investment director from France and a medical doctor from Myanmar. But despite this variety, students share several important traits: they all need to have international

mindedness demonstrated by a strong command of English and several years of full-time work experience to enable them to contribute more meaningfully to the class”.

Hitotsubashi ICS recently joined the BEST Alliance business collaboration with Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management and Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Business. “This agreement offers students and faculty from the three institutions an opportunity to produce cutting-edge research in business management through special courses aimed at understanding and experiencing the three largest markets in the Far East”, Kageyama added.

Triggered by the key phrase “global awareness”, Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (NUCB) has experienced a shift in emphasis in its MBA courses.

“We have been putting greater emphasis on business ethics and compliance in our programmes in order to develop leaders who can make sound judgements in the rapidly changing business environment”, said NUCB’s Shiori Takebe.

Their one-year, full-time Global Leader Program (GLP) is the lone English-only MBA at the university. Other MBA programmes conducted in Japanese include the two-year, part-time General Manager and Junior Manager courses.

Offering business management programmes since 1954, the university’s GLP is the only English-language

1. Waseda University’s Business School has added a part-time MBA to its syllabus.2. Nagoya University of Commerce and Business now puts greater emphasis on business ethics and compliance.

What happens after graduating?

Tokyo-based Catalyst offers online resources and Japan’s largest MBA career forum to bring together MBA graduates and top-tier organisations.

“Our career forums are not just a link to companies—you can get that at any job fair”, said Catalyst CEO Damon Mackey. “It’s a link to companies that are looking for experienced MBA talent”.

One benefit of an MBA is networking. “Our career forums and networking events offer a place to network with MBAs from programmes across the country and overseas”, said Mackey.

Catalyst’s members-only database enhances that network reach further and provides a place for MBAs worldwide to undergo research, study and discussions together online. “A big part of our dream is to change the way people take their MBAs”, said Mackey. “This kind of platform means MBAs can leverage the intellect of MBAs everywhere”.

The next forum is at Shinjuku L Tower on 29 September from 1pm to 6pm.

2

EDUCATION

1

“Some more traditional Japanese companies out there still don’t appreciate the value an MBA can offer, claiming on-the-job experience and company training are enough to make good decisions and grow you as a businessperson. However, the majority of Japanese companies have changed their views”.


EDUCATION

MBA course to attain international accreditation, according to Takebe. Some 96% of the faculty are business professionals in their fields, she added, explaining that, “With declining domestic consumption and an uncertain outlook in the world economy, Japanese firms are in need of employees who can think and act innovatively”.

Internationally, two schools that continue to prove popular are the UK’s Manchester Business School (MBS) and Canada’s McGill University.

The MBS has been offering a “blended learning” Global MBA since 1992, making it one of the oldest available business courses in the UK. It combines face-to-face learning with online studies, attracting experienced executives worldwide who are keen to boost their career without leaving their jobs, according to East Asia director Christina Siu.

In recent years, the course has attracted growing interest on the part of professionals overseas, resulting in numerous schools of excellence being set up, including ones in Brazil, the US, Singapore and Shanghai, due to an increasing demand for MBA programmes with international perspectives.

“Success at a high level in business demands international awareness”, she said. “The economy of Japan has been transforming from domestic to international focus and many high flyers wish to equip themselves for this change by pursuing a reputable international MBA”.

McGill University’s MBA, also tailored to the new emphasis in the Japanese market, will feature an overseas study component as of next year, said Philip O’Neil, director of the McGill MBA Japan Program. Half of the students are Japanese nationals,

while the remainder are from about 40 countries, he added.

“Over the years, the student group is getting somewhat more experienced, with the average age being about 35—compared with an average age of 28 at our home campus in Montreal”, he said. “I think this indicates that people are taking their career development into their own hands, rather than relying on the company to do all the training and career development for them”.

While Japanese firms are among some of the most global in the world, there remain huge opportunities for overseas firms that operate in Japan to develop strength in Asia, Africa and Oceania, O’Neil said. “We hope we can help bring people together, and help develop the skills, mindsets and even the connections to make this happen for individuals as well as companies”, he added.


New Approach to Testing EnglishThe British Council’s revolutionary language assessment service

By Barry O’Sullivan

• Flexible, adaptable testing method• To be launched later this year• Choice of 15 packages

G lobal jinzai (human resources) has become a buzzword used in discussions about Japan’s international competitiveness. Japan’s

private and public sectors wish to increase this by educating people with the required skills to succeed in the international workplace. To this end, they have developed the Global Jinzai project.

However, it remains difficult for firms and educational institutions to assess whether staff or students have acquired the appropriate language skills.

This is partly due to the fact that traditional English language tests are designed and developed by an examination board, and are based on their interpretation of the needs of the sector. As a result, the typical standardised English language test is rigid in design and construction.

Although the most effective tests clearly measure language in a consistent way, they may not match the expectations of the individual client.

This is acceptable in certificated examinations whereby the test developer must control all aspects of the test content and administration. However, issues arise when a test is designed to meet specific in-house needs.

The British Council can now offer a new approach to this problem.

An assessment serviceThe British Council’s Aptis method was conceived as a service, rather than a testing system. Instead of selling a client an off-the-shelf test, the British Council works with the client to identify the aspects of language that really need to be assessed, the level of ability their employees need to achieve, and the most appropriate delivery system.

The Aptis formatThe Aptis service was developed by the British Council over two years, based on the most up-to-date research and development theories.

The test comprises two basic elements: a focus on the test taker’s knowledge of the language, and a focus on the test taker’s ability to use the language.

The language knowledge paper tests an individual’s command of English grammar and vocabulary. This paper is seen as the core of the test.

There are four additional papers. These test one’s ability to use the language and focus on the skills of reading, listening, speaking and writing.

The core paper test result is used, in conjunction with the results of the skills papers, to increase the accuracy of the final reported scores.

The outcome of this is a total of 15 packages from which the client can choose, giving them control over what aspects of the language are tested. Examples include: a reading package (a core paper plus a reading paper), a productive skills package (a core paper plus a speaking and written paper), or a four-skills package (a core paper plus the reading, listening, speaking and written papers).

Together with a British Council consultant, the client decides which package is most appropriate for their organisation.

Flexibility and accessibilityAptis also allows the content of the test papers to be adapted to meet the client’s specific needs. Although this requires an additional cost, depending on the amount of customisation necessary, the resulting test is nevertheless competitively priced.

Aptis can be taken either on the computer or using a more traditional pen-

and-paper approach. In addition, both the listening and speaking papers will be available via telephone in the near future.

Another feature of interest to clients is the way in which the test can be branded. To reflect the level of control the client can enjoy in making the test more appropriate to their situation, the British Council offers joint branding of the test, while client-only branding will soon be available.

This process of localisation, making the final test appropriate for use within a specific organisation, is likely to be the most interesting feature of the service for prospective clients.

Using AptisAlthough relatively new to the market, Aptis has already been used by numerous institutions worldwide for a variety of purposes.

Examples include the benchmarking of language ability required for workers engaged in specific sectors in India; university placement decisions (post entry) in Brazil and Ukraine; and the filtering of candidates for further education and training in Kazakhstan.

The flexibility and adaptability built into the Aptis approach is truly revolutionary. By introducing client-centred tests rather than developer-centred ones, the British Council has ensured that the testing of English for internal decision-making in firms has undoubtedly changed for good.

Aptis in JapanThe development of Aptis represents an exciting new opportunity for organisations seeking to expand global jinzai.

The capacity to test the actual English ability of employees or students is fundamentally important in preparing for the challenges of the globalised economy.

Aptis will help you to do this. The good news is that it is now available in Japan, and will be officially launched later this year.

Meanwhile, please contact the British Council in Tokyo for further information.

www.britishcouncil.org

EDUCATION


HISTORY

The Namamugi IncidentYokohama man builds museum to mark samurai clash that strained UK–Japan ties

By Julian Ryall

• Trader’s death helped change history• Few Britons know about the incident• Clash led to fierce battle in Kagoshima

T his year marks the 150th anniversary of the Namamugi Incident, the conflict in which samurai killed a British trader, resulting in feudal Japan being

brought into the modern era.To commemorate the event, which

occurred on 21 August, Takeo Asaumi gave his 248th public lecture on the episode that is considered a turning point in Japanese history. However, the episode remains little known in the UK.

“Before this happened, Japan was an almost completely closed country, shut off from the rest of the world”, said 82-year-old Asaumi. “But the repercussions of this incident demonstrated to the leaders of Japan that it had to open up to outside influences, to develop foreign trade and relationships with other countries.

“That is why it is so important to our history”, he added.

Asaumi, a retired businessman, believes the death of Charles Richardson on 21 August, 1862 is so pivotal to Japan’s emergence that he has spent 36 years and his own savings on building the Namamugi Incident Museum in

Yokohama’s Tsurumi Ward. He also renovated the graves of the

two other Britons who were seriously wounded by samurai of the Satsuma clan.

Named after a small coastal village south of Tokyo that today is a suburb of Yokohama, the clash of cultures arose when four Britons on a sightseeing trip to a temple refused to dismount from their horses when they encountered the 400-strong entourage of Shimazu Hisamitsu, the regent and father of the clan head.

The terms of the 1854 Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty exempted Britons from the obligation to demonstrate the deep respect shown to leaders by the average Japanese person. However, the agreement meant little to the samurai’s bodyguards.

As the four Britons neared the covered litter at the centre of the procession, one of the clan’s escorts slashed at 28-year-old Richardson and his companions. The Yokohama-based merchants, Woodthorpe Clark and William Marshall, as well as Margaret Borradaile, fled on horseback, but were pursued by the samurai.

A simple plaque marks the spot where the clash occurred— today a suburban street of houses and shops. There is a larger, road-side stone monument some 640m away, where the mortally wounded Richardson finally fell from his horse.

“He had 10 deep cuts from swords to his body but was still alive on the road when the samurai who had been chasing

him arrived”, said Asaumi. “It was clear that he could not survive, so Kaieda Takeji killed him with a single sword thrust to the throat”.

When word of Richardson’s death reached London, the government demanded compensation of £75,000 (today equivalent to £48mn) from the Japanese government, and a further £25,000 from the Satsuma clan. The UK government also ordered the trial and execution of the perpetrators.

The clan declined London’s demands so, in August 1863, a seven-strong fleet of Royal Navy warships approached the Satsuma stronghold of Kagoshima in Japan’s southern island of Kyushu. Fired on by shore batteries, the British replied with a bombardment that destroyed three steamships, five junks and approximately 500 wooden buildings in the city. Casualties were light on both sides, and Satsuma’s representatives later agreed to pay the reparations that London was demanding.

Ironically, the Satsuma convinced the Japanese government to lend the clan £25,000 of the compensation, and subsequently refused to repay the debt.

Satsuma cannonballs performed poorly against those of the British navy, which were designed to explode after travelling over two miles. The clan was thus convinced that they needed to forge alliances with powerful nations.

Within five years, the shogun’s government was replaced, and the Meiji era established (1868–1912). In the rush to modernise, fundamental changes were introduced in Japan’s social structure, internal politics, military, economy and international relations.

Asaumi’s museum receives approximately 300 visitors each month. Copies of The Illustrated London News, the world’s first illustrated weekly newspaper, can be found at the museum and details the killing of Richardson as well as the aftermath.

The amateur historian also paid to renovate the graves of Clark and Marshall, and to move them to a new site alongside Richardson’s grave at the Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery.

“Their graves were not being cared for and, as they are all still in Japan, I thought it would be nice if they could all sleep alongside each other”, he concluded.

Takeo Asaumi has spent 36 years and his own savings on building a museum to commemorate the Namamugi Incident.

A traditional Japanese woodblock print depicting Charles Richardson, who was killed by samurai in the clash.

Goodrich particularly enjoys

the opportunity to pass on some of

the skills he has developed behind

the viewfinder.

On Safari with Urban SnappersGritty suburbs inspire photographer and his students

clarity; I was in the lounge and my dad had a projector and was showing holiday photos on a huge screen on the wall”, he said. “It was a still photo, huge, much bigger than the TV—and that captivated me.

“From that first memory of seeing history frozen, of my family on their holidays before I was born, I was hooked on being able to stop time”.

Born in Canterbury, south-east England, Goodrich moved with his family to the Welsh borders as a boy and studied photography at college. Before moving to Japan permanently with his wife, Hiromi, and their three children, he ran his own web and graphic design business in Monmouth, south-east Wales.

He continued doing web designing in Japan but found himself increasingly drawn back to his first love—photography.

“I originally came up with the idea of teaching English and photography at the same time, giving people the chance to learn the language through their hobby, but I soon deviated from that plan because I learned that there are a lot of foreigners here who want to learn about photography”, he explained.

Before the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear crisis, the majority of Goodrich’s clients were expatriate employees and their families. In the aftermath of the disaster, his clients are a slightly different group

CREATIVE

of enthusiasts, who include a higher proportion of Japanese Anglophiles.

“Many of these people have recently spent quite a lot of money on new photography equipment and have not quite figured how to get the very most out of it”, he said. “Some of them had film cameras previously and are now coming back to photography with expensive digital kit and they want to get beyond putting everything on the auto setting.

“Some have done digital and want to get back to film, so it’s a very mixed bunch, but everyone is enthusiastic and passionate”, he added. “That’s very good for me, too, to be around people who still have that raw passion for the camera”.

Classes are held either for groups or individuals, and focus on the basics—from aperture, speed and exposure, to manipulating the images through the use of light, shadow, tone and contrast.

Once these skills are mastered, Goodrich takes his students on what are probably best described as urban safaris.

“I try to go out on a photography walk every weekend, but I believe you need to have structure or a theme to the event”, he said. The edge of Tokyo Bay, close to Haneda Airport, is good for some technical and macro work, he explained. Another favourite area is the back streets of Yokohama’s Hinode-cho district, where he has done a series of workshops that have involved semi-professional and professional models.

“It’s a great neighbourhood for photos because it has so much character, it is laid back and down-at-heel, and people don’t care when a group of photographers and models turn up on their doorsteps”, he said.

“Especially with the fashion and portrait shooting, I have this idea that I try to get across to the students of seeing the city as their studio, the potential of the city, even in the most unpromising of situations”.

Classroom sessions also examine the history of still images, digital workflow, editing and other important skills for anyone wanting to follow in Goodrich’s footsteps and develop a career in photography. Ultimately, he aims to set up a formal school for the art of photography, and is currently in discussion with several universities about their possible


By Julian Ryall

A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. Attend one of Alfie Goodrich’s roving photography classes and you’ll get the thousand words

thrown in, as advice on how to capture that perfect image.

Goodrich first picked up one of his father’s old cameras at the age of five and, what began as a hobby, has since evolved into a career snapping for clients ranging from Time Magazine to The International Monetary Fund, the BBC, Elle, Q magazine, la Repubblica and, most recently, The Official Ferrari Magazine.

While shooting for commercial clients can be rewarding, Goodrich particularly enjoys the opportunity to pass on some of the skills he has developed behind the viewfinder.

“My dad gave me an old Russian Leica copy—a Zorki—when he switched his own cameras and that became my early obsession”, said 43-year-old Goodrich. “But I had really been fascinated by photography even before that.

“I can remember the moment with complete


CREATIVE

Alfie Goodrich’s favourite shot is a rush job of Yoko Ono.


collaboration in his venture. And, like most top photographers,

Goodrich has a favourite shot.“I literally got 60 seconds with Yoko

Ono, to get something unique of her for the BBC, as the PR guy was literally hustling us out of the door”, he recalls. “It was a dull, featureless hotel room—and suddenly she just looked over the top of her glasses at me and I ran off a dozen shots.

“I’d been saying to her what nice eyes she had—after seeing so many shots of her with huge sunglasses on, blocking out her eyes—and she had this slightly cheeky grin as she looked up at me”, he said. “And it was the very first shot that was the one that worked best”. www.alfiegoodrich.com

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Creating Classic CuisineNo tablecloths, fast service and real food

By Julian RyallPhotos: Joao Longo Pereira

• Briton uses French method to cook US food• Honed skills in Hollywood and ... Oklahoma• Grill and rotisserie cuisine in a brasserie setting• Still strong after 11 years in tough market

I n the 11 years since chef Ian Tozer opened Roti, a US-style grill and rotisserie, he has noticed big differences in the way in which a substantial portion of the restaurant’s

clientele likes to eat.And he is delighted.“There has been a huge shift in the way

many of our Japanese customers eat and I really welcome it”, said Tozer, 50, who in February 2001 opened the first-floor restaurant in the heart of Roppongi.

“Lots of people tended to have a nibble of this and a little taste of that, and then move on to something else. But now, nothing gives me more pleasure than seeing a Japanese person ordering a huge steak, or a young woman picking up a big burger and eating it as a burger is meant to be eaten”, he said.

“When we first opened, I used to send out 10 steaks and seven would come back with a request for them to be cut up”, he told BCCJ ACUMEN. “That makes the meat dry, as the juice runs out and it quickly goes cold. There were times I went out and had words with customers, but we don’t get much of that any more.

“Our Japanese diners want the full experience of what we do here and I’m really pleased to see that”.

Over the years, many of the items on the menu have become classics, making it impossible to replace them. Roti—a reference to the French-style revolving grill—has a rotisserie constantly in motion in the kitchen.

“I have customers coming in here who are addicted to some of the things on

the menu”, said Tozer. “The American president of the Virgin Toho Cinema that was being built in Roppongi Hills came in here five times a week for over a year and always ordered our Bang Bang Chicken Salad”, he said.

“And then he would often return the same evening with some colleagues, and order the same for everyone.

“As a chef, to see that happening gives me the greatest satisfaction, but it makes it difficult to radically revamp the menu as there would be a riot”.

The concept behind the restaurant is that of an American wine bar and grill in a chic, modern brasserie setting. Tozer is unsure if a single term has been coined to describe precisely what he does, but draws on knowledge and skills gained from over three decades in the business on three continents.

Born in Shaftesbury, Dorset, Tozer left school aged 16 to start chef training, but faced the unappetising prospect of serving

meat-and-two-veg for the foreseeable future after graduating. He answered a trade magazine advert that was looking for chefs to work in the US, and received a telegram five days later telling him to pack for Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Tozer admits that arriving in Tulsa, a small city in the Midwest, as a 21-year-old from the exciting London scene was “a mighty culture shock”, but was also a learning experience.

After a stint working in the city’s Kensington Hotel, he threw his motorbike in the back of a U-Haul rental truck and drove to Hollywood. He began working at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles just as the California food movement was starting to take off.

A few years later, a spell in San Francisco cemented his love of American cuisine and gave him some fantastic anecdotes. Tozer catered for movie-wrap parties thrown by George Lucas on his Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, and

fed 400 investment bankers from New York on Alcatraz Island— despite there being no running water, limited electricity and the kitchen being set up in the former prison library.

On a brief visit to Tokyo to see his friend and fellow chef David Chiddo, who left LA in 1992, Tozer fell in love with the city’s vibrant atmosphere. He moved here in 1994, “before the bubble burst and when all the excesses of the heyday were still in vogue”.

He opened the 240-seat Farm Grill rotisserie and wine bar in Shimbashi and then joined staff of the West Park Café in trendy Yoyogi-Uehara.

Together with Chiddo, Tozer went on to work at T.Y. Harbor Brewery in Tennoz Isle where they revamped the entire operation, all the while refining his exciting ideas for his own restaurant.

Convinced that his vision for a restaurant would work, everything in Roti—from the menu, décor and

management, to the carefully selected wines and craft beers—is Tozer’s.

“You could say that I have something of an obsession with Paris-style brasseries”, he said. “We have no tablecloths, fast service and our own style of food: real food. This is a brasserie on my terms”.

Tozer is constantly searching for the best ingredients for the restaurant’s menu, be it a juicy American or New Zealand steak, or an Old or New World wine. He tweaks the menu three or four times a year, but is careful to retain the dishes for which Roti can be justifiably proud.

Popular appetisers include New Orleans-style Oysters Rockefeller, Cajun barbecue shrimp, and popcorn mushrooms stuffed with blue cheese. The Bang Bang Chicken Salad needs no introduction and is just as tasty as the house-smoked Altantic salmon, grilled Australian lamb chops, or the classic roti

FOOD


chicken, also available in a Peruvian-style, which means it is brushed with spicy chilli sauce.

And that is even before the burgers have been added to the mix.

Thursdays to Saturdays have recently become lobster nights at Roti. Live Maine lobsters are prepared in a variety of ways, including the East Coast speciality method of lobster rolls.

Sundays are steak nights when a selection of prime US sirloin and New Zealand bone-in rib eyes can be enjoyed by diners.

“My thinking is that we like to be busy every day, because when we are not, our energy level goes down”, he said. “So why not throw open the doors, slash the prices and welcome some people in that might not usually dine with us?

“Who knows; we may convert them and they will come back other nights with friends”, he added with a shrug. “Bold, but why not?”

Roti’s popular weekend brunches run from 11:30am to 5pm. Happy hour is Mondays to Fridays, 5pm to 7pm, which allows connoisseurs to sample six rotating craft beers on tap—including brews from Scotland.

Like all good chefs, Tozer has some secrets up his sleeve. He won’t reveal what ingredients are added to his barbecue sauce, but warns that while most burgers will send you to sleep in the afternoon, his version will revitalise you for the rest of the working day.

Those secrets have undoubtedly contributed to Roti’s longevity—many other restaurants have come and gone in the decade during which Tozer has been building his reputation. But it takes a lot more than that to be a success.

“It’s about staying positive, keeping at it. It’s the determination and dedication on my part and of the team”, he said. “There are a lot of chefs in Japan who are doing some fine work, but you still have

to stay at the stove and remain involved, hands-on and keep the passion.

“It’s a very hard business and you certainly don’t get into this business for the money”, he added. “If you lack the passion—and a love of extremely hard work—that shows, and the customer can see it.

“With a small restaurant like this, it’s as if we are welcoming people into our home”, he said. “We want this to be a place where not only can you be sure of an excellent meal, but also of being welcomed like an old friend”.

Roti RoppongiPiramide Building 1F6-6-9 RoppongiMinato-ku03-5785-3671www.roti.jpOpen: 11:30am–11pm

FOOD


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13310.v3.indd 1 30/8/2012 4:13:07 PM


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Fight or Flight

INDUSTRY | HR, RECRUITMENT & CORPORATE TRAINING

By Eamon FlanaganManager, Michael Page International

• Firms want staff to work past retirement age• Strong demand for Japanese-speaking leaders• Healthcare and medical sectors booming• Need for temporary, contract staff growing

J apan’s recruitment market is experiencing severe challenges due to the shift in demographics currently taking place. Research indicates that, by 2060, Japan’s

population will have shrunk by one-third, while the number of people aged 65 or over will almost have doubled.

As a result of the mounting pressure on firms’ human resources departments to find and retain the next generation of leaders and managers, firms are offering rolling and renewable contracts to encourage employees to work past their retirement age.

At the same time, recruitment firms are seeing a significant increase in demand for young, talented professionals. According to an HR director of a major multinational firm, only 6% of employees in Japan are under the age of 35.

Retaining future leaders is becoming increasingly important in Japan, even as the increase in candidate demand ushers in an increase in salary demands. This is not likely to change.

Although many organisations are becoming more receptive to the idea of

hiring non-Japanese who speak Japanese fluently, there is always the possibility that these foreigners might wish to return to their home countries. Nevertheless, at present the demand is strong for non-Japanese, manager-level candidates, who show potential for reaching director-level positions.

The need for haken (temporary and keiyaku (contract) workers is also growing. Older employees are increasingly accepting these roles but, with the retirement age at 60, many firms are cautious about hiring older candidates permanently who cannot be long-term employees.

In contrast, the healthcare and medical industries are benefiting from the ageing

population. These industries are booming in Japan, and global organisations continue to invest heavily in the world’s third-largest economy.

Healthcare and medical businesses have proved recession-proof, and continue to expand both organically and through joint ventures with Japanese firms.

Recently, some firms even have changed their policies for female employees, in order to adapt to the demographic changes.

Most women enter the workforce on completing their tertiary education but, until recently, tradition and long working hours have caused nearly three-quarters of these women to cease working outside the home either once they marry or after having had children.

But this, too, is changing, as many firms address the labour shortage by adjusting their policies concerning working mothers. Thus, by providing equal opportunities for women, foreign multinationals have been able to retain their female staff, even after the latter have started a family.

By adjusting traditional Japanese practices and promoting new policies, firms are better able to deal with the challenge of demographic changes that Japan is experiencing. There is no doubt that in the coming years the demand for young talented professionals will become even greater as the need for these workers within multinational organisations increases.

The effect of Japan’s ageing and declining population on recruitment strategies in multinationals

With the retirement age at 60, many firms are cautious about hiring older candidates permanently who cannot be long-term employees.

34 | BCCJ ACUMEN | SEPTEMBER 201234 | BCCJ ACUMEN | SEPTEMBER 2012

THE A-LIST OF HR, RECRUITMENT & CORPORATE TRAINING

Company Name: British Council

Address: 1-2 Kagurazaka Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0825

Contact: Chie Yasuda

Telephone: 03-3235-8031

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.britishcouncil.or.jp

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations.

We are a world leader in language teaching and learning, and many aspects of our work in English involve assessment.

Using our comprehensive experience and knowledge of the industry, and after two years of intensive research, we have developed a new global English assessment tool designed for organisations. Our new testing service, Aptis, is fast, flexible, adaptable, affordable and easy to administer.

Are you interested in enhancing your global competitiveness? Contact us to learn more about assessing your staff’s English skills with Aptis.

• Language testing• Language teaching• Teacher training• Cultural relations

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Company Name: Dale Carnegie Training Japan

Address: Akasaka 2-chome Annex #501 Akasaka 2-19-8 Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052

Contact: Dr Greg Story

Telephone: 03-4520-5470


Website: www.dale-carnegie.co.jp

Know the Book? You Will Love the Course!

Dale Carnegie pioneered corporate training. Businesses in 86 countries benefit from his breakthrough ideas, including 90% of Fortune 500 companies. How to Win Friends and Influence People is a timeless classic and consistent worldwide bestseller.

The reason is simple—people’s interactions are make or break points in business. Whether it’s getting a team behind the leader’s goals, gaining cooperation from a team, or making the sale, the human dimension is the critical factor.

Constant feedback and refinement over 100 years has made us the choice for business solutions and organisational change, and we have been helping firms in Japan, in English and Japanese, for 50 years.

If you seek real and measurable people results, one call to us will do it.

• Team member engagement• Customer service• Sales effectiveness• Persuasion power• Human relations effectiveness

• Leadership development• Process improvement• Presentation effectiveness• Stress management• Global employee

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Company Name: Human International Co., Ltd. (Daijob.com)

Address: Nishi-Shinjuku Kimuraya Bld. 1F 7-5-25 Nishi-ShinjukuShinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0023

Telephone: 03-5925-6541


Website: www.daijob.com

Established in 1998, Daijob.com is a job search website that specialises in multilingual talent and is utilised in 27 countries.

We contribute to society by promoting an internationalised business environment with globally-minded professionals.

Since its inception 15 years ago, Daijob has earned high praise from over 2,000 firms for its results and reliability in bilingual recruiting.

Our Chinese site was released earlier this year, allowing us to fully accommodate the growing market for Chinese talent.

To meet your hiring needs, our multilingual website provides you with recruitment tools in Japanese, English and Chinese.

• Recruitmentformultilingualbusinessprofessionals• 3,000newuserseachmonth• Totaluserbaseof340,000registeredglobalprofessionals• Over10,000jobpostingsatanygiventime• SearchableCVdatabasewithahighresponseratetoourscoutmail

AREAS OF EXPERTISE


bccjacumen.com/a-list

Company Name: Garuda Japan K.K.

Address: 3-7-5-901 Ebisu-minami Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0022

Contact: Mats BruzæusRepresentative Director

Telephone: 03-6412-7555


Website: www.garudajapan.com

“It is all about the personality!”

Founded in 1982 by Dr Finn Havaleschka, The Garuda Group has its headquarters in Aarhus, Denmark.

The Garuda Research Institute is one of Europe’s leading developers of tools for multiple HR purposes, with subsidiaries and partners on all continents.

Since 2004, Garuda Japan has provided professional human resources assessment and development tools and systems for excellent job matching. We help you select the right kind of person for the right job, boosting your bottom line results.

Instead of mapping an individual’s outer behaviour that seems to indicate potential for professional excellence, we uncover the true, inner core personality that really determines it!

• Personality profiling and candidate matching • Assessment of leader and salesmanship potential• Team development and optimisation• Individual coaching with 360 degree input• Leadership training seminars• Corporate climate and culture mapping• Cross-cultural training seminars

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Company Name: Hayashi Partners, LLC

Address: 2-17-12-1004 AkasakaMinato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052

Contact: Waichiro HayashiManaging Partner

Telephone: 03-4550-2020


Website: www.hayashipartners.com

Hayashi Partners, LLC specialises in executive search, assessment and organisational consulting for multinational firms conducting business in Japan and Asia-Pacific.

We operate on a retained basis, combining the flexibility, focus and personal nature of a small firm with a global reach. Through partnerships with the SES Group in Asia, Nosal Partners in North America, and Gemini Executive Search in Europe, Hayashi Partners has a comprehensive understanding of Japan’s local market in an international context.

The unique structure of our organisation gives us a much broader access to our clients’ competitive landscape that allows us to build deeper and longer-lasting relationships with a relatively small number of key players in any sector.

We fully understand our client’s requirements, apply focused resources to research, recruit the strongest candidates, and complete the assignment quickly.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

•Industrialsector•Cleantechnology•Technologysector

•Consumer•Healthcareandlifesciences•Professionalservices

Our areas of expertise in Japan include:

Company Name: Hays Specialist Recruitment Japan K.K.

Address: Akasaka Twin Tower 7F 2-17-22 Akasaka Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052

Contact: Christine Wright

Telephone: 03-3560-1188


Website: www.hays.co.jp

We are the experts in recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people across a wide range of specialised industries and professions. We operate across the private and public sectors, dealing in permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments.

At Hays, we believe the right job can transform a person’s life and the right person can transform a business. We’re passionate about connecting our candidates with the right job for them.

We operate in 48 locations in the Asia Pacific and our worldwide operations span 33 countries. We find permanent jobs for more than 15,000 people a year and temporary and contract assignments for more than 25,000 people annually, of which we employ more than 10,000 at any one time.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

•Accountancy&finance•Banking•Financetechnology•Humanresources

•Informationtechnology•Insurance•Legal•Officeprofessionals

•Lifesciences•Property•Sales&marketing•Supplychain

Our areas of expertise in Japan include:

THE A-LIST OF HR, RECRUITMENT & CORPORATE TRAINING


Company Name: TIG Japan KK

Address: #903 BUREX Toranomon2-7-5 ToranomonMinato-ku, Tokyo 105-0001

Contact: Andrew MacKinlayDirector

Telephone: 03-5510-3201


Website: www.theinsurancegroup.jp

“Building your successful future in the global insurance industry”.

The Insurance Group is a specialised executive-search consultancy, operating in Asia for over a decade.

We partner with selected clients to get the talent they need to deliver results. With our experienced teams based in Hong Kong and Japan, strong local databases and global executive network in the insurance industry, we are able to execute a controlled recruitment process to produce significant results—perfect for those who need succession planning within a limited time frame.

We support life and general insurance, re-insurance, actuarial consultancy and brokerage firms.

• Retained C-level executive search (CEO, CFO, COO) • Exclusive arrangements for multiple placements / team building• Asia and Tokyo insurance market updating• Pre-search consulting for talent management• Actuarial and risk management• Accounting, compliance and legal• Corporate business development and commercial underwriting• Operations and IT

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Company Name: HR Central K.K.

Address: Shinagawa Intercity FRONT BuildingDesk@ MB28 2-14-14 Kounan Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0075

Contact: Jun Kabigting, MBA/MS/HRMP Managing Director

Telephone: 080-3434-8665


Website: www.hrcentral.co.jp

We are in the business of helping organisations increase their profitability and competitive advantage through talent acquisition, development, and continuous learning.

Talent Acquisition: We partner with organisations to find the right people for their HR and mission-critical positions in less than 90 days—guaranteed! At the same time, we coach our clients on how to use the HireRight recruiting methodology to find, attract and retain top talent.

Training & HR Consulting: We help businesses increase their organisational capabilities through a combination of training and HR consulting interventions designed to increase employee competencies, motivation and engagement. HR Learning & Publishing: We provide continuing education and learning opportunities to HR professionals through our HR publications, events, knowledgebase, network and resources geared to help advance the practice of the HR profession in Japan.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Company Name: Michael Page International

Address: 15F Kamiyocho MT Building 4-3-20 Toranomon Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0001

Contact: Richard King, Managing Director

Telephone: 03-5733-7166


Website: www.michaelpage.co.jp

Michael Page is an internationally recognised and respected recruitment consultancy with a global network of 164 offices in 34 countries. We began operating in Tokyo more than 10 years ago and now have a depth of local market expertise that is backed by our global strength. In Japan we specialise in placing bilingual professionals with multinational companies on a permanent, contract and temporary basis.

The quality of our service is demonstrated by the fact that more than 90% of our current business comes from referrals and repeat clients.

We specialise in recruitment in the following areas:

• Accounting• Banking&financialservices• Engineering&manufacturing• IT:Commerce&financialservices• Haken / temporary positions• Healthcare&lifesciences

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

• Humanresources• Legal• Marketing• Procurement&supplychain• Sales• Secretarial&officesupport

bccjacumen.com/a-list

Company Name: Robert Walters Japan K.K.

Address: Shibuya Minami Tokyu Building 14-F 3-12-18 Shibuya Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0002

Contact: David Swan, Managing Director

Telephone: 03-4570-1500


Website: www.robertwalters.co.jp

Robert Walters is one of the world’s leading specialist professional recruitment consultancies for permanent and contract recruitment.

Robert Walters Japan possesses the distinct advantages of size and a proven track record, allowing you to tap into an unparalleled global network that enables clients and candidates to come together in the most efficient and productive way possible.

Our Tokyo and Osaka-based offices have been active in building integrated partnerships with clients and bilingual professionals—consistently delivering the most relevant match of skills and culture. This remains our ultimate goal as recruitment and sourcing specialists.

• Advertising&media• Assetmanagement• Banking&securities• Chemicals• Consulting&relatedservices• Entertainment• Healthcare• Hospitality

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

• Entertainment• Insurance• IT&telecom• Logistics• Luxury&consumergoods• Manufacturing&components• Realestate• Retail


Company Name: Randstad K.K.

Address: New Otani Garden Court 21F4-1 Kioi-choChiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8578

Contact: Takeo MisawaDirector, Global Client Solutions

Telephone: 03-6866-5830


Website: www.randstad.co.jp

Randstad K.K. is the world’s leading HR service provider. Founded in 1960, Randstad currently operates in 40 countries, with 4,700 offices worldwide including 59 offices across Japan. With more than half a century of business experience, we share a long-term vision with client firms to endure any economic cycle.

Through Randstad’s global network, you will have access to seamless global human resources solutions from Europe, the Americas, China, India and other Asia-Pacific countries. Most importantly, we can be found in the local areas where the right resources are needed to accelerate your business growth.

Randstad Japan covers a wide range of HR needs, including industry specific knowledge and tailor-made solutions. • Temporary staffing: clerical, manufacturing, logistics• Permanent placements: from middle management to business professionals• Outsourcing: manufacturing, contact centres and administration• Outplacement

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Company Name: R&KMarketing,Inc.

Address: Shinjuku Park Tower N30F 3-7-1 Nishi-shinjuku Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 163-1030

Contact: Ryuzo Kuraku

Telephone: 03-5326-3147


Website: www.randkmarketing.jp

R&KMarketing,Inc.isaresearchandknow-howmarketingfirmanddistributionpartner of Miller Heiman, Inc.

R&KMarketingisdevotedtoourcustomerswhoarelookingtoproducecreativemarketing and elevate their sales force towards highly effective sales performance.

As the distribution partner of Miller Heiman, who believes that successful selling is based on fundamental and repeatable processes, we offer their well-known and proven sales training programmes.

Their core programmes, Strategic Selling® and Conceptual Selling®, are the gold standardformanagingcomplexsalesandaredeliveredbyR&Kmarketing,Inc.in Japan.

• Sales training • Sales skills training• Training and consulting of sales managers• Market research and consulting

AREAS OF EXPERTISE


Globalisation through Gender Diversity


By David SwanManaging DirectorRobert Walters Japan KK

D iversity in the workplace has become an authentic tool to drive business growth in Japan.

Japan Inc., as the Japanese corporate world is known by many, is globalising at a rapid pace. With increasingly more firms expanding into foreign markets, the addition of women and foreigners to organisations means new ideas and viewpoints are permeating boardrooms—providing a competitive advantage through a stronger understanding of the markets.

There has been an increase in the number of Japanese firms hiring globally savvy professionals to work with businesses worldwide. Yet, Tokyo is at a disadvantage compared with the regional hubs of Singapore and Hong Kong in terms of sourcing these workers. This is because, although English is becoming more widely used in the workplace, domestic business still requires near-native-level Japanese.

Despite Japan’s highly educated and experienced talent pool, only a limited number of these professionals are able to use English effectively to communicate in a global workplace. Based on the results of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), Japan ranks 27th in Asia for the standardised business English fluency exam—just ahead of Laos, Tajikistan and Cambodia. This shows that not only is it difficult to import the bilingual people needed for global business, but there is a lack of local bilingual employees.

To counter the problem, many firms are seeking employees from beyond the conventional pool of Japanese males, and are sourcing individuals from a traditionally untapped group: women.

While traditionally in Japan only a small proportion of the female workforce has acquired senior positions, currently there seems to be a growing appreciation of diversity. In a poll that Robert Walters conducted recently, 58% of the respondents said they believe a diverse workplace would influence their decision to join a firm, while only 37% said they feel their organisations are doing enough to encourage diversity.

This disconnect represents an opportunity for firms wishing to attract global talent. By fostering an environment that promotes diversity and equality, firms are hiring professionals on the basis of their qualifications, thereby favourably positioning themselves to attract potential employees.

Realistically, implementing a policy of diversity is challenging, especially if a workplace is male-dominated. Due to social influences and the pressures of work, women often must choose between a career and having a family. Thus, substantial numbers of qualified, global-minded women drop out of the workforce.

Further intensifying the issues surrounding diversity is the perception that females are less employable after having had children, which deters qualified females from returning to work. Many mothers have adapted by joining firms that offer flexitime or accepted professional contract positions. Both alternatives allow them to better manage their schedules.

Were the barriers eliminated, firms would be able to draw from a much larger pool of potential employees, and acquire qualified, experienced individuals as they prepare for globalisation.

www.paradigm.co.jptel: +813-5719-4660 fax: +813-3492-1202

This PDF is for proofing purposes only. It is not high resolution artwork.

Date: 30 Aug 2012

Proof version:

AApo No: 11396Client: TopTechPublication: EURObiZ Japan Insertion date: September 2012Size: 1/4 page Artwork origin: Paradigm A/E contact: Helene Jacquet Studio contact: Iree

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Future of Japan’s Jobs MarketPeople are planning their careers differently these days

By Rob Gilhooly

• Ageing society straining human resources• Workers seeking more satisfaction• Last year’s quake changed attitudes

A t a glance, Randstad’s slogan might seem somewhat overused. “Good to know you” encapsulates more than 50 years of a firm’s ethos that

places value on understanding its clients and candidates. It is also an appropriate adage for the far-from-rosy future of Japan’s employment market.

“In Japan we believe the key for the future lies firmly with retention”, said Marjet Andriesse, vice-president of the Japan branch of the Global HR services firm.

“It’s going to be a very tough fight for everyone to employ the right people, so once you do, you need to keep them because they are going to become increasingly scarce. And to retain employees, you need to know them”.

A skill imbalance resulting from Japan’s shifting demographics is the reason for this projected scarcity. Human resources are already starting to become strained as a result of Japan’s rapidly ageing society, Andriesse added.

“On the one hand, the economy is slumping, while on the other, the government is estimating that there will be 8mn fewer jobs by 2020”, said the Dutch native, who lived in Japan as a child and returned two years ago following Randstad’s acquisition of FujiStaff Holdings, Inc.

“So you could say, falling population, falling jobs numbers—that must add up. But, in fact, what you will have is a quantitative and qualitative mismatch”.

The qualitative mismatch that will result from a declining manufacturing sector and a growing service sector is one of the biggest concerns for Japan, Andriesse revealed. “Unfortunately, blue-collar workers cannot suddenly switch over to being white-collar. Our research shows that, on a global level, there is definitely going to be a mismatch in skill availability. Japan will be no different”.

An understanding of the changing attitudes towards employment in Japan will also become increasingly crucial. According to Workmonitor, Randstad’s quarterly research publication in Japan, the Japanese are gradually moving away from the overtime-devouring, company-devoted salaried employee stereotype, to a more discerning worker seeking a rewarding employment experience.

“It’s interesting to see that, while Japanese employees are loyal and committed to their business, only a small percentage seem to be engaged with the company for which they work. This is something that will need to be addressed when issues of retention arise.

“It’s interesting to see that while salary is still a top priority for employees, other things, such as personal development and pleasant colleagues are starting to gain increasing importance”.

One question asked in the survey is “Do you work to live, or live to work?”, Andriesse added. “We were surprised to find that Japan is now switching to ‘work to live’ from ‘live to work’, which I think was predominant here for decades. This is further proof that people are becoming focused not only on the company, but on themselves as well”.

According to Andriesse, this change in attitude became particularly noticeable following the triple disaster in the Tohoku region last March. “I think 3/11 accelerated this, but it seems to be a trend that young Japanese with good university degrees no longer want to spend 50 years rising through the company ranks. They want to get there faster, even if that means quitting jobs that previously they would never have dreamed of quitting”.

In fact, the gradual demise of Japan’s lifetime employment system has started to change the way Japanese view their career planning, she added. “Tier one companies [large firms] cannot sell lifetime employment anymore. They are cutting many jobs and employee loyalty is decreasing.

“We are seeing globally that, if you make your workforce more flexible, you can ride the waves of the economy. However, in Japan the employment structure is still very rigid, and the acceptance of flexible labour forces, such as haken [temporary] staff, is still low”.

“I think there needs to be a little more flexible thinking here moving forward”, said Andriesse. She added that the firm has made conscious efforts to raise the HR industry’s profile together with industry associations, such as the Japan Staffing Services Association.

“If you are an HR department or on the board of a company, you have to start thinking about which profile you want to keep and which you’d prefer to be more flexible.

“The point is, rigidity does not add up anymore. Paychecks, company stability and financial wellbeing are still important, but there are other engagement-related things around all that are changing. And to retain staff in an environment where labour is going to get increasingly scarce, you will need to address these things and take care of the people in your company”.

HR

Interview:Marjet Andriesse, vice-president of Randstad Japan.


By Dr Greg StoryPresident, Dale Carnegie Japan

A silent, tectonic shift is taking place in Japan. The so-called lost decade—that commenced in the 1990s with the collapse of the nation’s

asset prices—is now into a third decade. The period has seen stasis in many areas, including investment in human-capital productivity.

It is not that white-collar workers and the service sector fail to be paragons of efficiency, for that they never were. More critical is the fact that the lack of investment in people has seen the formal-training-internal-follow-up nexus break down.

As a result, the on-the-job-training (OJT) construct has become a parody of a reasonable idea, with the untrained, incompetent and mediocre leading the corporate charge. It has also become the sole default.

With clueless leaders clueing in successive generations, many workplaces now have seniors who have not faced a new idea about leadership in the last two decades. The injections of formal training, from which employees were able to learn 30, and even 20 years ago, are no more. Training and learning are not the same, and OJT is killing firms.

Although some of the older, more traditional firms are seeking training to enable their senior ranks to catch up, these employees are not able to confront the new. Moreover, these days, training has become little more than a box-ticking exercise.

The leadership style with which the seniors have grown up has come from the school of tough love, but minus the love. Just as in many countries, in Japan modern leadership training roots stretch back to the military model of World War II.

Most countries have moved on from this model but, mainly thanks to the OJT, elements of the imperial forces linger here, in the form of giving orders not praise, condemning not complimenting, and criticising mistakes rather than motivating.

The rationale in Japan is that this is how the present batch of leaders were educated through OJT. And, if it was good enough for them, then it is good enough for this generation.

But it is not. This generation is different; and future generations will be in short supply. Meanwhile, as universities are rapidly dropping their standards, to better compete for fewer fee payers, the raw material entering firms each April is no longer of the same quality.

Japanese universities, never a powerhouse of education and learning at any time in living memory, will continue to have marginal impact on the intellect of those in their care. Firms will be tapping

cosseted, 22-year-old brains that won’t be up to par. Imagine this generation being trained on-the-job by managers dishing out tough love as part of their corporate buffing, designed to make them appear to be glistening diamonds.

I find that scary, as do a growing number of Japanese firms. The young people are baffling them. They have attitudes which seem incomprehensible and disturbing, while nearly 40% of them are jumping ship in their third and fourth year with a firm, voting with their feet and heading off to greener pastures.

The cost and disruption of the youth exodus is huge. Firms are starting to work it out: the OJT solution for training this generation just isn’t working.

Apart from induction training, demand for leadership training in the senior and middle ranks is well up when compared to three years ago. Communication skills get the Gold Medal for burning need. Leaders who can inspire, arouse, motivate, enrol, engage, and incorporate are what they are seeking. Yet, the younger generation is driving this requirement, whether or not firms like it.

Sales is the other area in which OJT is in a death spiral. Globally, most salespeople are not adequately trained, and Japan is no exception. Slowly but surely, the realisation that particular knowledge might be better learned than merely wished for, is sinking OJT as the default setting.

The Death of on-the-job Training


Lack of investment in people is driving down standards


off-season, and once a week between September and December. The team plays in the Shuto League and finished third in its division last year.

Growing up in Sweden, Jonas Hult only caught the rugby bug after witnessing the world-famous Rugby Sevens tournament during a business trip to Hong Kong.

“The atmosphere, the pace, the hits and excitement all attracted me to the sport, and I haven’t been disappointed”, said Hult, 39. “In about six months since joining the Crusaders, I’ve made plenty of new friends, learned much about the game and had some great times out with fellow rugby players.

“One of the things that fascinates me about rugby is that two sides can be really competitive on the field and beat each other up for 80 minutes, then share a sento and beers after”, he said. “I’ve heard this is not particular to Japan: what happens on the field stays on the field.

“Another thing is that everyone seems of equal value once you put the jersey on”, he added. “There are no ‘stars’ on the team.

“Of course, there are players with more experience and better rugby ability, but unless everyone moves together, the team can go nowhere”, he said.

Marc Sherratt has recently moved back to Cheshire after teaching at a high

More to Rugby Than a Ruck“Game of equals” stands for bonding, charity . . . and beer

By Julian Ryall

R ugby Union has a long and distinguished history in Japan, and there are high hopes that the sport, at all levels, will experience a further boost in

the run-up to Japan hosting the Rugby World Cup in 2019.

Japan will be the first Asian nation to stage the showpiece event, but amateur foreign teams are already active in spreading the gospel according to William Webb-Ellis, who in 1823 stunned players on the football pitch at his Warwickshire school by picking up the ball and running with it.

An estimated 200 players turn out for the four mainly foreign teams in and around the Kanto area: the Yokohama Country & Athletic Club, All France RC, Tokyo Gaijin and Tokyo Crusaders.

And while the sport is taken very seriously on the pitch, there’s a lot more to rugby in Japan than just tries and conversions.

“We like to provide a network for guys to meet, make friends, socialise, join rugby tours and play rugby”, said Gareth Lim, managing director of Focus Consulting Partners and a stalwart since 2008 of the Crusaders—or the Cru, as they like to be known.

“But we also want to provide a sports club where guys can keep fit, train and play a competitive sport, as well as go on to coach and develop new players”, he said.

The rugby community is also very active in charitable causes here, added Lim, and stages fundraising games. In February, the team took part in a two-day tournament, at the U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base, in aid of the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Previous events have raised cash for victims of the Asian tsunami and last year’s Great East Japan Earthquake.

Lim, 37, played schoolboy rugby in north-east England and later at the University of Leeds. Enticed back into the game after arriving in Tokyo, he said he made 30 new friends immediately.

Founded by a group of expats in 1990, the Cru can today call on players from the UK, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Scandinavia, China and Japan. Training is twice a month during the

school in Saitama Prefecture, but said it was the “promise of fun, adventure and really wild parties” that led him to the Cru’s door.

“The club is a great networking opportunity”, he said. “Give a little blood, sweat and some tears for a great group of guys and they will rarely steer you wrong.

“Charity work is always a bonus, but the post game beverage is also fun”, said 26-year-old Sherratt.

The first recorded rugby match in Japan took place between British sailors in Yokohama in 1874. In 1899, Cambridge graduates Professor Edward Bramwell Clarke and Ginnosuke Tanaka introduced the game to students at Keio University. It was another 20 years before the game really caught on, but today there are more than 120,000 registered players, from grass-roots clubs through to professionals, and no fewer than 3,631 official clubs.

“Rugby is one of the most highly skilled physical sports around”, said Lim. “Played well, it is sheer elegance. It is 15 people on one pitch, each with a different role, but organising together into an amazingly well-coordinated unit.

“There is a real feeling of achievement when you win after putting your body on the line”, he said. “The feeling is like nothing else”.

SPORT

1. Tokyo Crusaders 2. Laying out the kit at a two-day tournament in aid of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, in February at the U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base. 3. Tokyo Crusaders’ Gareth Lim, Paul Skurr and Patrick Wheen

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SPORT

MUSIC By Julian Ryall

S usanne Bayly was pregnant with Diana Yukawa on 12 August 1985, when Japan Airlines flight 123 from Haneda International Airport to Osaka crashed into

Mt Osutaka in Gunma Prefecture. Diana’s father Akihisa was among the 520 people who did not survive the worst single-aircraft crash in history.

Anglo-Japanese Diana has since blossomed into a solo violin prodigy, now working on a new project with John Foxx, the former front man for Ultravox, and experimental electronic band Benge.

MUSIC

MERGINGViolin prodigy sets stage

for next chapter in her colourful life


This is a shift in her attention, after the 26-year-old received huge acclaim for three albums, including her 2000 debut, La Campanella, which was an immediate No 1 bestseller when she was just 15 years old.

Her second album, Concerto, again featured classical pieces, but 2009’s The Butterfly Effect was a clear expression of her own original sound and demonstrated that the young musician was not afraid to experiment. And so it is with this latest project.

“We all come from different musical backgrounds, so it’s wonderful to see how the different influences are merging together and to hear the music that is

MUSIC

being created”, she told BCCJ ACUMEN. “It has been a very different way of working and we’ve invented our own methods of writing and recording, which has been a really interesting process”.

Yukawa’s latest compositions include City of Shadows and My Way Home, and can be heard through her website.

“Musically, it is quite different from what I am doing with my solo work, so I can’t wait for people to hear what we have done together when we release the album”, she said.

The sadness that followed the plane crash was felt for a long time. As Yukawa’s parents were not married, it was 24 years before Japanese authorities would add her name to the family register.

In the intervening years, there was acrimony between Bayly and Akihisa’s sons; things became so serious that the family home in Wimbledon, London was mortgaged to raise money for a violin, which had to be sold later to ease the family’s financial problems.

After battling through the tough times, Diana has her eyes firmly set on the next stage in a career that is already impressive.

She performed at the 2012 New Year’s Concert at the Burj Khalifa, in front of 100,000 people at the Dubai World Cup race earlier this year, and at a sold-out Hollywood Bowl.

Next on her hectic schedule was her appearance in late May at the Tivoli Festival, the largest classical music festival in Scandinavia.

“At the moment, I’m in a place with my music where I really feel I’m at the beginning of my new sound”, she said. “It has been a long journey and my last album was most certainly part of that process, but I now believe the music I am creating is a true reflection of what I want to say and who I am as an artist at this moment”.

And although she says she is excited at the latest collaboration with John Foxx and Benge, she says her solo work remains special because it comes from such a “personal place”.

Equally, thoughts of her father have had an impact on her songwriting.

“Just as every person, and everything that happens in my life, contributes towards what inspires me to write music,

thoughts of my father are, of course, also a very important part”, she said.

“I always say that, through my music, I have learnt many things about my father and felt closer to him in ways I never thought could be possible”, she added. “It was certainly not my intention to feel connected to him through music—so I am extremely grateful for that gift.

“We may not have been able to meet in this lifetime, but I always feel my father is not too far away, guiding and watching over me”.

In previous years, she has visited Mt Osutaka on the anniversary of her father’s death, performing pieces that she has composed in his memory. This year, however, she was unable to make it because of her hectic schedule.

“Ideally, I’d like to visit Japan without many work commitments and just spend time in my homeland travelling and having quality time there as that’s something I’ve never been able to experience”, she said.

“I would also like to climb Osutaka-yama at a time other than the anniversary, as I have never really been able to have that personal experience in private”, she explained. “I hope to be able to go back soon and create a more permanent memorial there”.

“We may not have been able to meet

in this lifetime, but I always feel my

father is not too far away, guiding and

watching over me”

46 | BCCJ ACUMEN | SEPTEMBER 201246 | BCCJ ACUMEN | SEPTEMBER 2012

ARTS EVENTSCompiled by Shoko Sekiya | [email protected]

“Sukita Masayoshi Retrospective: Sound and Vision”Taking its title from David Bowie’s song “Low”, Sukita Masayoshi’s photography exhibition showcases close to 300 of his images from the 1970s to the present. During this period, the photographer enjoyed overwhelming support from foreign and Japanese musicians, such as David Bowie, Marc Bolan of British rock band T. Rex, and the Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). He has also played an active role in advertising, TV commercials, and videos.

Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of PhotographyYebisu Garden Place 1-13-3 Mita Meguro-ku, Tokyo10am–6pm (8pm on Thursdays and Fridays)

Closed on Mondays (If Monday is a national holiday or a substitute holiday, it will be closed the following day)

Adults ¥80003-3280-0099www.syabi.com

A Dangerous Method Directed by David Cronenberg and starring Keira Knightley and Viggo Mortensen, this 2011 film is based on The Talking Cure, a play which originated from John Kerr’s book, A Most Dangerous Method: The Story of Jung, Freud, and Sabina Spielrein.

TOHO Cinemas Chanter1-2-2 Yurakucho Chiyoda-ku, Tokyohttp://dangerousmethod-movie.com/

JMW Turner Moonlight over Lake Lucerne with the Rigi in the Distance, Switzerland 1841 Watercolour and gouache on paper The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester

“The Real and Imagined: Watercolours from The Whitworth Art Gallery” The University of Manchester’s Whitworth Art Gallery houses the world’s largest collection of English watercolours. This exhibition of more than 4,500 world-renowned British watercolours and drawings introduces the works of JMW Turner and many other famous masters.

The Bunkamura Museum of Art2-24-1 Dogenzaka Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

10am–7pm (9pm on Fridays and Saturdays)Last entry 30 minutes before closing timeOpen every day (except 1 January)

Adults ¥1,40003-3477-9413 (switchboard)www.bunkamura.co.jp/index.html

FREE TICKETSWe are giving away five pairs of free tickets to this event.

20 OCTOBER–9 DECEMBER

11 AUGUST–30 SEPTEMBER

FROM 27 OCTOBER

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David Bowie, Heroes, 1977

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Peter GrimesThe first British opera to be performed at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, this Willy Decker production was performed at the Royal Opera House in London in July 2004, and nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production in 2005. Composed by Benjamin Britten, this year marks the centenary of the birth of one of the greatest opera composers of the 20th century.

New National Theatre, Tokyo1-1-1 Hon-machiShibuya-ku, Tokyo

6:30pm (2, 5 October)2:00pm (8, 11, 14 October)

Adults from ¥5,25003-5352-9999 (Box office)www.nntt.jac.go.jp/

“Sylvia” The 2012–13 ballet season opens with the first performance in Japan of David Bintley’s production of Léo Delibes’ “Sylvia”, created for the well-known Japanese ballerina Miyako Yoshida and her partner Kevin O’Hare, the new director of The Royal Ballet.


2:00pm (27, 28 October; 1, 3 November)7:00pm (28, 31 October; 2 November)


Richard III As the sequel to Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy, Richard III has been praised for its significance and grand scale. Frequently staged as a separate play, this is the first attempt in Japan to reunite the cast from Henry VI and have them perform their original roles in Richard III.


1:00pm (4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21 October)6:30pm (3, 5, 12, 18, 19 October)



2–14 OCTOBER

27 OCTOBER–3 NOVEMBER

3–21 OCTOBER

To apply for free tickets, please send us an email with your name, address and telephone number: [email protected] Winners will be picked at random.

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MUSIC

Violinist Masayuki Kino, soloist and concertmaster of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, with councillor Alan Armitage at a reception in the Oxford Town Hall after a performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto for the Oxford Proms on 24 August.

Koto player Fuyuki Enokido with the audience after her performance at Manchester Metropolitan University on 18 August in an event organised by Japan Society North West, and supported by the Embassy of Japan in the UK.

COMMUNITY

AWARD

British Minister to Japan David Fitton, Jeff Streeter from the British Council, and Naoji Yui from the Eiken Foundation of Japan together with scholars attended the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) scholarship award ceremony. The ceremony, organised by the British Council and Eiken Foundation of Japan, was held at the British Embassy Tokyo on 1 August.

LECTURE

The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2012 “Meet your brain” series was presented by Professor Bruce Hood, director of the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre in the Experimental Psychology Department at the University of Bristol. The July lectures were organised by the British Council and the Yomiuri Shimbun, and were held in Yokohama and Sendai.

SEMINAR

The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme (JET) pre-departure orientation was held at Brunel University’s Uxbridge Campus in London on 12–13 July.

LAUNCH

Products of British interior brand Established & Sons were exhibited and sold in the fifth-floor main building of Isetan department store in Shinjuku from 29 August to 11 September.


CULTURE

A cosplayer, dressed as character Fluttershy from the animated TV series My Little Pony, attended the AmeCon 2012 anime convention at Keele University on 11–12 August.

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The 2012 Japan House: Olympic Games TV Screening was held on 27 July–11 August. Live television coverage of sports and events featuring Japanese athletes was streamed in support of the Japanese team and Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic bid.

COMMUNITY

FESTIVAL

Welsh rock band Lostprophets and Franz Ferdinand, the Scottish indie band, performed at the Summer Sonic 2012 Festival held on 18–19 August at Tokyo’s QVC Marine Field and Makuhari Messe.

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CONCERTCONCERT

Oxford University’s male a capella group, Out of the Blue, performed at the Tokyo Jazz Circuit 2012 “Beatles Jazz” event on 7–9 September. Held in the Tokyo district of Marunouchi, the group performed their favourite Beatles songs in celebration of the UK band’s golden anniversary.

Oxford University’s male a capella group, Out of the Blue, performed at the Tokyo Jazz Circuit 2012 “Beatles Jazz” event on 7–9 September. Held in the Tokyo district of Marunouchi, the group performed their favourite Beatles songs in celebration of the UK band’s golden anniversary.


BOOKS Reviews by Ian de Stains OBEBCCJ ACUMEN has one copy of this book to give away. To apply, please send an email by 30 September to: [email protected]. Winners will be picked at random.

History as You Never Imagined It

By Neil MacGregorViking£32.89

Products such as the Amazon Kindle and Apple iPad have changed the way many people enjoy the reading experience.

There is no doubt that including one of these devices in your carry-on bag when flying is better than packing numerous books, both in terms of weight and convenience.

However, sometimes a publication comes along that shouts out for a place on the bookshelf. Neil MacGregor’s magnificent A History of the World in 100 Objects is such a book.

MacGregor, the director of London’s British Museum, has a strikingly original approach to history and, in his latest offering, he includes objects that previous civilisations have left behind.

“If you want to tell the history of the world, a history that does not unduly privilege one part of humanity, you cannot do it through texts alone, because only some of the world has ever had texts, while most of the world, for most of the time, has not.

“Writing is one of humanity’s later achievements, and until fairly recently even many literate societies recorded their concerns and aspirations not only in writing, but also in things”, MacGregor said to explain what he believes is the “necessary poetry of things”.

The subtitle of the book, From the handaxe to the credit card, gives some idea to the scope of research that has gone into it.

However it doesn’t even begin to do justice to the quality of the research or the wonderful clarity with which it is set out.

Each of the 100 chapters deals with a single object and tells us much more about civilisations than most of us could ever imagine.

Each chapter is a self-contained snapshot of history in the making—or, rather, in the discovery, and there is a real sense of this on every page.

In addition, each of the 100 objects—all housed in the British Museum—is beautifully photographed and presented. There is also a very useful appendix of maps that illustrate where in the world each of the objects was found.

The original idea of telling the history of the world in 100 objects began as a programme for BBC Radio 4. Radio, obviously, does not provide visual aids and accounts, in part, for the remarkable clarity of the explanations in the book—an instant bestseller in the UK.

To write effectively for radio, you must literally paint a picture in the listeners’ heads.

MacGregor does this with superb ease and skill, and even before you reach the full-page colour plate, you can see the objects in your mind’s eye.

For example, the author described the Basse-Yutz Flagons that date back to about 450 BC and were found in north-eastern France in 1927: “They’re bronze, elegant and elaborate. They are about the size of a large bottle of wine, a magnum, and they hold about the same amount of liquid, but they’re in the shape of large jugs, with handle, lid and very pointed spout. They’ve got a broad shoulder, which tapers to a narrow, rather unstable base. But what strikes you at once about these two flagons is the extraordinary decoration at the top, where animals and birds cluster together”.

MacGregor, as an experienced curator, has considerable knowledge and this is matched by contributions from some of the most learned people in their fields: “judges and artists, Nobel Prize-winners, religious leaders, potters, sculptors and musicians”.

This is an ambitious book and succeeds splendidly on almost every level. It is an attempt to imagine and understand a world of which we have no direct experience, as the author states in his introduction.

In his opinion, the object that best defines the book is Dürer’s Rhinoceros (1515), a beast the painter drew but never saw.

“Dürer’s animal, unforgettable in its pent-up monumentality and haunting in the rigid plates of its folding skin, is a magnificent achievement by a supreme artist. It is striking, evocative and so real you almost fear it is about to escape from the page. And it is of course … wrong. But, in the end, that’s not the point”.

The 700-page book covers the period from 2,000,000 BC to 2010 AD—a breathtaking achievement, and no page is ever less than utterly fascinating.

Each of the 100 objects tells us something about what brought us to where we are today.

I wonder whether the Kindle and iPad will tell future generations about where they came from?

Sometimes a publication comes along that shouts out for a place on the bookshelf. Neil MacGregor’s magnificent A History of the World in 100 Objects is such a book.

BCCJ ACUMEN, September 2012

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Transcript of BCCJ ACUMEN, September 2012