Book launchTuesday 26 March 2013
6:00pm – 7:00pm
At Home Abroad: The Contemporary Western Experience in Japan
Drinks reception from 8:00pm
13/14 Corwal Terrace, London, NW1 4PQ
Organised by The Daiwa-Anglo Japanese Foundation
By Adam Komisarof
Published by Reitaku University Press
With Japan’s working population greying and rapidly dwindling, supplementing the labour shortage with non-Japanese workers has been proposed as one solution to this demographic crisis. It is crucial, however, that foreign nationals not only be “imported,” but also that Japanese and non-Japanese can coexist comfortably and ultimately thrive together. Professor Komisarof focuses in this book on one group of foreign nationals—attempting to discover the essence of the contemporary Western experience in Japan by interviewing 12 trailblazers who intimately know the heart of Japan. The interviewees describe heading a multinational corporation, life in a remote mountain hamlet, the inner sanctum of the Japanese entertainment industry, and much more. Luminaries such as Donald Keene, Donald Richie and Patrick Harlan reveal the extent to which they feel accepted within Japanese society as well as what can be done by both Japanese and non-Japanese to strengthen the inclusion of foreign nationals. A rigorous analysis following the interviews explores the keys to creating a more global Japan and actualizing positive intercultural communication between Japanese and Westerners. This book is essential reading for people who are searching for keys to developing synergistic, effective relationships between Japanese and non-Japanese in the workplace and beyond.
* The book was available on the day at the special price of £25.
About the contributors
Dr Adam Komisarof
Dr Adam Komisarof is a professor in Reitaku University’s Department of Economic Studies and Business Administration. During the 2012-13 academic year, he is serving as a senior associate member of St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, and conducting research as a visiting academic at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies. As a bilingual intercultural trainer (Japanese and English), he has performed scores of workshops for large companies and governmental organizations in Japan, the United States, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Dr. Komisarof has over 40 publications—including academic papers, English textbooks, and articles in the mass media. His previous book, On the Front Lines of Forging a Global Society: Japanese and American Coworkers in Japan (2011), earned him Reitaku University’s Excellence in Research Award 2012.
Judith Raynold
Judith Raynold is a Japanese language graduate, having studied Japanese and French at the University of Leeds. As part of her studies she spent a year in Tokyo attending International Christian University in Mitaka, and then after graduating she returned to Japan with the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme to work in Aomori Prefecture as a Co-ordinator for International Relations. On returning to the UK after JET she studied law for two years before commencing work with the international law firm Hogan Lovells. She spent six months in Hogan Lovells’ Toyko office in 2006, before returning to the UK to specialise in commercial property law in London with Hogan Lovells, where she still works. She is currently studying for an MA in Intercultural Communication at the University of London.