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I hope this email finds you well.
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Tokyo has suddenly grown colder, and we are impatient to see the first red autumn leaves appear.
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Our interviewees for this month have experiences that mirror and oppose each other in an interesting way.
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Our first interviewee, Michael Hirschbichler, is an Austrian-born artist who likes to explore the past, present, and future of places and express them in his art. He traveled all over the world and spent three months in Kyoto as a resident. By reading his interview, you will see that Michael is curious and sensitive about environments and culture. That is why his art is at the crossroads of several disciplines, and he relates a very unique and personal experience of Kyoto.
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On the opposite, Sayuri Nishimoto was born and raised in Kyoto but left the city to study and work in several countries. There, she overcame her shyness and refined her networking skills. Sayuri, too, is sensitive to cultural differences, but as an energetic working woman, she is also passionate about empowering women in the Japanese workplace.
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I hope these two interviews, although very different in topics and context, will give you a good insight into the benefits one can obtain from the exchange of culture between Japan and the rest of the world.
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Amélie, chief editor of Kokoro Media
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"I don’t make art being seated in a studio in front of a white canvas and expressing myself, or inventing something from nothing. For me, it’s always important to deal with what is there. I consider art to be dirty work!"
Michael Hirschbichler's art is situated at the crossroads of architecture, philosophy, and anthropology. He was an artist in residence in Kyoto for three months and made a series of art pieces about Kyoto's ghosts.
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Read on to discover what he learned about Japan during this special experience.
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"To stand out, it’s good to have unique business cards. For example, my business card is square. That’s a conversation starter, and it’s not directly related to business. I also have a barcode that enables people to connect with me on LinkedIn. Lastly, my mission statement is on my card, and it explains why I want to connect with new people."
In this interview, Sayuri Nishimoto, senior client solutions manager at LinkedIn, shares advice on networking as a foreigner in Japan.
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This Month's Most Read Column
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"If you’re like most Japanese learners, planning to tackle the 2,136 joyo kanji and the 3,863 official readings that accompany them, studying with a spaced repetition algorithm can literally shave years off of your language learning journey."
Not all flashcard applications are created equal! Here is how to choose a flashcard app that can leverage the power of spaced repetition.
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Our Farm
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Each month, receive a piece of the Japanese countryside in your mailbox. Feel relaxed by our partner farmer Masamichi's gentle mood, by the green and the sound of nature. Take a look at how our vegetables are growing and gain some knowledge about Japanese organic farming.
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Organic farmer Masamichi has cleaned the field to grow the vegetables you selected in our last survey!
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Look at how fast they bud after being sowed and learn about how to select the more promising individuals.
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The Reality Behind the Words
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Lately, Japanese terms and concepts such as "Ikigai" or "Kintsugi" have crossed Japanese borders and are often talked of in the media. For this edition of our newsletter, we invite you to have a look at lesser-known words: "Rogai", "Meiwaku", and "Akiya." All of the three are part of everyday conversation in Japan, but their meanings cover different phenomena and ideas than their closest English equivalent.
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"In Japan, due to Confucianism, aging is a way to rise up the hierarchical ladder. Political leaders of Japan and other important officials are part of the aged or very aged population. During the last few years, gaffes and other fatal mistakes from older politicians were classified as 'rogai' online, and the younger population is not willing to forgive them as they used to."
Rogai is a Japanese word that applies to elderly people who create trouble in their surroundings.
From "grey crimes" to politicians' gaffes, here are its several levels of meaning.
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In Japanese culture, harmony inside the group and society, in general, should be maintained as much as possible. When you break it, you are causing "meiwaku."
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From a foreigner’s point of view, avoiding meiwaku can be difficult to deal with at first, especially if you come from a more individualistic culture. Here are a few hints to understand how it works.
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"In Japan, tax incentives lead people to leave dilapidated and vacant houses on a property instead of demolishing them. This is because the property tax for derelict land is five times higher than for built-up land."
“Akiya” is the Japanese term for “vacant house”, whose number has been increasing more and more during the last few years and has become a societal issue, especially in rural Japan. Read on to learn about the diverse causes behind this phenomenon, and some hints at solving it.
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If you like what we do, you can support us by buying us a coffee (or rather, green tea). We would be grateful for your contribution!
Your donations will help us invest in our writers, technology, and more, so that we can bring you stories from the farthest reaches of Japan.
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Do not hesitate to give your opinion on this newsletter by writing to us at info-media@kokoro-jp.com.
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