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Senior staff travelled from Tokyo HQ to the UK and Ireland, to meet and discuss with stakeholders the current situation and future direction of the JET Programme and general links between the countries of the British Isles and Japan. Executive Consultant Mr. Masahiro Fukukawa’s visit included meetings with former JETs working in a range of sectors including finance and in the FCO, to discuss how and if participation in the JET Programme had any bearing upon their career choice, and if being a JET was a useful experience for their current roles.

Mr Fukukawa also met with SOAS associates in the Japanese Studies department, as well as SOAS Careers Service to discuss recruitment of graduates in the UK to the Programme, which was also the subject of discussion with colleagues on the JET Desk at the Embassy of Japan to the UK, coinciding with a courtesy visit to Ambassador Hayashi. In London the final meeting was with some of the JETAA UK committee members to discuss current activities put on by the chapters around the country, and progress on networking with Japan related organisations and companies with the current strategy to engage more professionally on behalf of former JETs looking to use their Japan learnt skills and experience in employment.

In Dublin Mr Fukukawa met with Ambassador Atsumi to discuss links between Ireland and Japan. There are interesting historical links, marked recently by the opening of a garden in Waterford and dedicated to Dublin born Patrick Lafcadio Hearn, known also by the Japanese name Koizumi Yakumo the international writer best known for his books about Japan, especially his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories, such as Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. Irish writer and foremost prose satirist in the English language Jonathon Swift’s satirical masterpiece Gulliver’s Travels also includes a section in Japan. Part III of the book has the account of Lemuel Gulliver’s visit to Japan, the only real location visited by him in the book.

There were also various meetings with former JETs in Ireland working in Japanese companies with an office in the country, as well as those working in education and language teaching. The JET Programme in Japan currently has 383 graduates employed by various local authorities throughout Japan from the UK, with 86 from the Republic of Ireland. To date since the beginning of the Programme over 11,000 UK and Irish graduates have been employed through JET in Japan’s regions and cities over the last 29 years.