It's already the middle of May and we seem to have just started an earlier than usual rainy season- hope you are staying dry and positive wherever you are in the world! Thanks for reading this post :)
The Seeking Sustainability Live Talkshow came back with a bang after golden week to dive into a variety of interesting topics with insiders and experts from across Japan. I'd like to drop a mid-month summary of the talks so far this month to highlight some of the great insights from these fantastic insiders from various fields of expertise.
Jane Best and Tove Kinooka work at REI (Refugee Empowerment International) to support refugee assistance, training, education and survival around the world. They talked about their name change, fundraising in Japan and challenges and successes they faced over the stay-at-home COVID19 period.
I was so impressed to hear about the innovation and flexibility of the managers in the organizations they support who seek out solutions to cultural inequality and drug addiction which provide great examples of best-practice that could be applied to any business or organization worldwide.
This is a follow-up discussion as I had the opportunity in Episode 26 to first learn about REI when it was still called RIJ in 2020 with Jane Best OBE
Listen here to REI podcast [Episode 235] on the InboundAmbassador Website or any podcast player
Dr.Nadine Willems is a lecturer in the United Kingdom who specializes in Japanese history. Here she shares stories and details of her research and translation of poems written by a Japanese migrant, Genzo Sarashina, who lived and worked in a Hokkaido island Ainu village in the 1930's pre-war Japan.
There are so many wonderful takeaways from this talk that still apply to the issues Ainu people face in Japan as well as indigenous communities around the world can also identify with.
Listen to Poetry of Ainu Life podcast [Episode 236] on the InboundAmbassador Website or any podcast player
Our first talkshow guest from Nagoya, travel expert Julie Baud from France, has lived and worked and consulted on sustainable travel and SDG's for the past 10 years and now works on rural destination development projects.
RillinJapan is her nickname in social media and anyone who follows her will also love to share her passion for vintage kimono and rescuing cats abandoned by their owners.
Listen to Rill in Japan's Podcast [Episode 237] on InboundAmbassador.com or any podcast player
May 11th was another opportunity to follow-up with writer, columnist, teacher and public speaker Baye McNeil. In our Episode 49 talk in 2020, Baye introduced his books and in this episode we continued the conversation. Now he is working on the audio book of Hi My Name is Loco and I'm a Racist as well as trying to get the tone and nuance right of a version of the book translated into Japanese. We had some technical and racist spam troubles, so the talk is actually in 2 parts below.
Listen to both talks in one podcast [Episode 238] here on InboundAmbassador or any podcast player. I think I may have convinced Baye to offer a master class in writing at the end of the 2nd part of the episode, so I look forward to seeing how that progresses this year.
On May 12th, we switched gears to talk about pop-culture, anime and manga translation from Japanese to English with Jake Jung. Translators of manga and anime are such an important part of not only the export of Japanese products, but also help to protect cultural and historical heritage interconnected with the stories.
Fans of the ANIME and MANGA pop-culture genre take in much more than the stories. Audience also sees the traditional Japanese buildings, craftsmanship, natural landscape and traditions in these films and picture stories. So, the effectiveness of communicating effectively into other languages helps the overall brand of Japan: Japanese culture, folklore, history, heritage, people, community, and so many sustainable features. Listen to the Podcast Version of Episode 239.
A brief overnight trip to Osaka was a nice chance to enjoy an early morning walk through a rose garden in full bloom while local residents did their morning RAJIO TAISO exercises.
On May 14th, Chris Wieners of HOGO Digital marketing talked about many of the key issues of marketing in a honest, transparent and accountable way in Asia when communicating appeal to tourists and customers for the gaming, gambling and hospitality industry.
Chris has lived in the US, Macau and Singapore before coming to settle in Okayama, Japan. It may seem strange to talk about sustainability when discussing casinos and luxury hotels, but there are many best practice examples of key players in the industry who have created high-quality sustainability standards as an essential part of international operations - above compliance - which could be very good for the long term sustainability of Japan's workforce, environment and economy.
Listen to Episode 240 with Chris Wieners of HOGO Digital here on InboundAmbassador.com
Have a great week everyone- thanks for reading this far! Please let me know what you think of these topics- did you have a favorite? Any surprises or revelations? I'd love to hear from you!