pokejapan@kyoto

Interview an exchange student, Jennifer from China

One of the team members for the Global MBA web site project, Ms. Eleanor from UK interviewed Ms. Jennifer, who is a Chinese exchange student from MBA at Xi’an JiaoTong University. This MBA is the one of Top MBAs in China and has been affiliated with Doshisha Business School since last year. Four students came to our university this year and stay in Kyoto for about three months. She almost finished her classes already. She said she was really satisfied with her stay in Kyoto and at DBS, because she enjoys faculties, classes and environments of this University located in Kyoto, very famous city as traditional city in the world. She is going to be second alumni of DBS as an exchange student from Xi’an JiaoTong University. We decided to take a video message for information of new students who want to come and study this MBA in Kyoto as following questions.

1. Please let us know your profile.
2. How is going your study at DBS?
3. What do you study at DBS?
4. Why did you chose DBS and Kyoto, Japan to study as an exchange student?
5. What were you impressed by about DBS classes and a student life?
6. What were you impressed by about Kyoto and Japan?
7. What is the difference about MBA between Xi'an JiaoTong University and DBS?
8. What are you doing after graduate from Xi'an JiaoTong University?

Her video message is coming soon on the new Global MBA website, which we are creating now. I will report another parts of other contents soon.

    

The second year of the Kakushin-Juku at DBS

One and a half years have passed since The Kakushin-Juku started. Kakushin-Juku is a class for business education for Kyoto craftsmen and women as the new leaders of Kyoto traditional industry at Doshisha Business School.
Today there's a meeting about the next stage featuring students of the 1st and 2nd graduating classes, teachers, staff and guests. We almost discussed those concepts and structure and what to do in the future. Focusing on craftsmen and craftswomen is especially so important. Professor Murayama, who is a leader of this project, says “We are continuing to function and came here by trial & error. We had some difficulties, but we reached this stage after making some innovative products with craftsmen and craftswomen from different traditional industries in Kyoto.” He continued to say, “We had a presentation of the new innovative products from the Kakushin Juku at the San Francisco Gift Show in the US and the Kakushin-Juku is going to continue for one to two decades.”
At this meeting, quite a few ideas for traditional industries were introduced, such as collaboration with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and it was important to categorize entirely new traditional crafts with the same concept and the same brand name in marketing theories. Anyway, the Kakushin-Juku will continue and develop to progress not only in Japan but also overseas.

 

The Apple iPhone 3G

I have started to use the iPhone 3G since 17th of Jul this year. Actually, this is heavier and typing is slower than the other mobile phones in Japan due to only touch screen, and no key board available. However, I am getting use to touch screen recently and enjoying it now to use the mobile phone with new concept. I think it is not mobile phone anymore, but it’s an Internet machine, which is the kind of the first machine to support the idea of Ubiquitous, at anytime and anywhere.
I don’t regret switching with the same number called Number portability to Softbank mobile from NTT Docomo which I used for more than ten years and is the biggest mobile phone carrier in Japan. The iPhone 3G has quite a few functions, such as full browser Internet access by packet and wifi communications, e-mails covered with almost of the  providers in Japan, YouTube, a camera and photo viewer, posting for face book, a map by GPS, bookmark sharing with your PC, and Podcast, etc. The concept of the iPhone is open source which means everyone can make software and service on the iPhone and sell them on it.
For instance, there is a program called iBeer, which seems like real beer on the iPhone’s screen and after pushing button on the screen, it is pouring into the iPhone with some bubbles, and you can pretend to drink it. If you shake the iPhone, by an acceleration sensor, the beer is shaking like a real beer. I found it on the YouTube video and I bought it which costs 350 yen in Japan. This is one of examples, but if you have a great idea and skill of making it, you might get a chance to sell to the many people in the world. The Open innovation is the trend on the Internet, but the most of Japanese mobile phone carriers are still closed for everyone to make something on it.

 

Students from the University of Education in China

Almost 30 Chinese students visited in DBS from Huazhong Normal
University in Wuhan (refer to the map below).  http://www.ccnu.edu.cn/english/

 

In the morning they had introduction about MBA education at DBS from the Dean Dr. Hasegawa from DBS. Then, one of DBS international student come from China, Mr. Wang, gave his presentation about DBS life and study. Also he explains how important for him to stay in Japan and to study at Japanese MBA. The students are so aggressive to ask many questions about Chinese firms to the professor. For instance, when the good timing is for Chinese firms going abroad, how effective for them Internet advertisements are, how they should act in the global age.

After those presentations, they had a look the facilities of DBS, which are new and advanced features, such as the coliseum style of class rooms with wired and wireless internet access, 24 hours library, large private locker room, and many project rooms which any students can use anytime, etc. I hope they had very important experiences at DBS in Kyoto.

 

 

 

 

Web consulting for online shopping

I have been doing a web consulting job for several years, besides my main job which is management of online shopping. Today is the second time for a client who has just started an online shop in Rakuten, which is the biggest online shopping mall in Japan. They created their online shop with a very good design and with using all the important functions, but the sales have not reached their target. Their products focus on the niche market and also more segments in the children’s market. Even if the Internet is good at a niche market, it is too small to sell a lot to reach their sales target. We suggested they expand the target to not only children but adults for more sales and to increase the number of products.
Japan's biggest online shopping mall, Rakuten, has more than 20,000 shops now. When our company joined this online shopping mall in 1998, it had only around 50 shops. They have grown up rapidly, but instead the competition among shops has been increasing. We need to have a business strategy and competitive advantages to survive this tough business environment on the Internet. The strategies are not only selling cheaper and advertising more, but there are many things that can be done without any paying costs. We have been consulting about such things based on our experiences of online shopping for more than ten years since we started the Internet business in 1995.

Gion Festival with Exchange Students from Doshisha University

 The Gion Festival (Gion Matsuri) is one of the most famous festivals in Japan. It takes place annually in Kyoto. As the people were suffering from the plague and pestilence, it is said that this festival took place since 869 to avoid those diseases. In the hot and humid summer in Kyoto, there are parades with several traditional floats by many voluntary staff from the local people and foreigners who are living in Kyoto. During this year, on the 17th July, nine exchange students from Doshisha University participated in this festival. They walked around the city for six hours in the burning hot summer. Those students consisted of three students from Europe, three students from the US, one student from Asia and two students who participated in this program last year and came back to Japan for this event again this year. I would like to present the comments of one of the students who participated in this Gion Festival this year as follows:

“I have two words of advice for any one planning to participate in the Gion Matsuri: wear sunscreen. Especially on your feet. Also, if at all possible, avoid having said feet be large enough to cause your entire heel to extend beyond the bottom of the traditional sandals and onto the burning hot pavement as you walk around the city for 6 hours.

Apart from those minor inconveniences, though, the Gion Matsuri was an amazing experience, although not quite in the way I had expected. From reading the descriptions of past participants on Doshisha’s web site and allowing my over-excited imagination to run away with itself, I had this image in my mind of being enveloped in a cocoon of camaraderie with the other 40 pullers of the Minami Kannon Yama as we ran along tugging mightily at our float, collapsing at the end in an exhausted but satisfied pool of sweat and brotherhood. It was true that there were times when the pulling was a bit of a strain, and it was cool getting to meet some of the other exchange students and Japanese locals pulling the float along, but to be honest the most exhausting thing was just being out walking in the beating sun for such a long time with a lot of standing around waiting in between bouts of pulling, and after a few hours I had had my fill of small talk.

Many of the past accounts also mentioned how they felt that the experience allowed them to feel their connection with the Kyoto of years gone by, but to me the most important part of the Gion Matsuri seems to lie not in preserving the past but in strengthening the present. The ridiculous ritual of pulling giant unwieldy floats in a huge circle through the city seems to have very little, if any, of whatever religious meaning it once had. To me, it just seems like an excuse to bring the community out into the streets and for them to bond together (although I wouldn’t be surprised if that community-building aspect of it was the real driving force even back in 869 when it first began). To be able to experience that from within, to hear the shouts of school children as they cheered us on from their classroom window or see the blissful, toothless smile of an old woman as she and her family cheered us down the home stretch from the second floor of their traditional machiya house, was a unique and powerful experience that I will never forget. Not only did I get to see the Kyoto community grow closer to one another, but by helping in this ancient but vibrant ritual, I felt welcomed into that community as one of their own. 俺は京都人や！” (アーモストフェロー Patrick Savage from Doshisha University)

 

More than 100 Chinese students visited DBS

We had more than 100 Chinese students from several universities in China, such as Fudan Daxue University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xiamen University and the other major universities at DBS(Doshisha Business School). This is the first time we have had such a large number of Chinese students at Doshisha Business School. Our program for this day is as follows:

Introduction about Doshisha University in Chinese by the Vice President of International Center
Demonstration class in English by Dr. Hasegawa, Dean of DBS
PR of DBS by Chinese students who are studying at DBS now
Party for lunch with Doshisha students

They traveled to Kyoto after visiting Waseda University in Tokyo. They seem to be positive about finding out what Japanese MBA education entails. After the seminars, some of them wanted to come and study at Doshisha Business school in the near future, but quite a few people want to go to a business school in the US or some countries in Europe because those universities are attractive for them to learn Business Education in English and create a network from all over the world. In the speech Mr. Oho, who is studying at DBS now, said that he understands that those universities overseas are attractive for Asian students because the universities in the US are good at business education and European universities are good at finance, but he has chosen a Japanese MBA because Asian countries will be more important in the future. That’s why he chose an MBA in Japan. I think the role of Japan’s MBAs will be more important if you focus on Asia's rapid development in the future.

Fudan Daxue University
http://www.fudan.edu.cn/englishnew/
Xi'an Jiaotong University
http://www.xjtu.edu.cn:8080/en/
Xiamen University
http://www.xmu.edu.cn/english/

   

  

The Exchange Student Program 2008 started

Since 1982 our rotary club, called Takarazuka Mukogawa Rotary club in Japan, has had a sister club, La Habra Rotary Club, in Southern California in the US. Every year we have continued to do an Exchange Student Program for two or three students. This year, 2008, two university students from our club just left Japan yesterday. I have been in charge of this program almost every year since I joined this club in 2000.

I had some e-mails from La Habra Rotary Club members with photos of the students from their first day in California. They arrived there safely and they are enjoying lunch, swimming in the pool, seeing many people and discussing the differences and similarities between California and Japan as well as looking around the neighborhood of their host family with Rotarians and their family members. The email from a host family member says that they met a person who is the sister of the host family, who played a character named Kimmy Gibbler on a television show called Full House. Full house was a popular soap opera from California and it was well known because they used to broadcast it for eight years in Japan as well. Anyway, the students are going to stay about two weeks in California and are having a lot of experiences. I am so happy to hear they are enjoying many things in a different country away from their families.

  

English education in Japan

There are discussions about English education reform in Japan at Japanese Central Education Council. “How do we master English communication with foreigners in the Global Society” One of their solutions is to let English education start from elementary school. I don’t agree with this idea, because we have many things about teachers themselves and curriculums to reform current English education in Junior High school, High school and University. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has introduced the Jet program and the ALT program to assist Japanese English teachers. But it seems like still test cases because most classes are taught by Japanese teachers who don’t speak English fluently. I know they are professional for teaching of writing and reading and grammar of English. But why don’t they speak English? Because they didn’t have enough training of listening and speaking. After graduation from University, they are so busy to become teachers to pass the test. Actually, this test of public school teachers is very difficult. Most of the test is focused on reading, writing and grammar, not speaking and listening. I think current teachers should have special trainings for English communication skill and at the same time MEXT should increase native English teachers instead of Japanese English teachers urgently. Before early English study at elementary school, the quality of teachers should be better and change curriculums to focus on English communication. I know many adults in Japan are crazy about English including me, even thought they didn’t like it when they were at school. The reason is simple that we enjoyed conversation with foreigners like different language from mother tongue, not grammar writing and reading. After knowing how English communication is fun, we chose studying other skills of English.

Assignment for the class of Intelligent Speaking at Inter School

My experiences with typhoons

We have many typhoons in Japan every summer. I believe last year we had the first one on the Japanese island someday in June, which is much earlier than usual. People were anxious about the too early visitor, because we expected it in August and September. I checked the weather report all the time even though I live in Takarazuka, which normally does not have big damage by typhoons, but still people worry. People are living in the areas where critical damage happens many times, such as Okinawa, Kyusyu, Shikoku, etc. This issue is much more serious than us. You and your families might be injured or die in the worst scenario.

Talking about the other natural disasters, we have many earthquakes in Japan. More than ten years ago, I had serious damage in my house in Takarazuka by the huge one named “Hanshin Awaji Earthquake. My family and I were sleep in bed just before six AM and suddenly had the big shake which I never had experienced before. After finishing this shake, the inside of my house was terrible. Furniture had fallen down and then many dishes were broken and the fence made by rocks was completely broken. All life lines had been stopped, such as water, gas, electricity and food supply. The convenience store near my house had no food at all. What we were doing is only watching TV after electricity recovered to get the latest news. One day our relative came to my house with gas cylinder for cooking and many food and water from Osaka. Osaka was normal life even just after the huge earthquake. Anyway, I don’t want such a bad experience in the future any more, but we have learnt how relationships with family and relative is important also the people who don’t know each other can help together in the emergency case. 

Assignment for the class of Intelligent Speaking at Inter School

What concerns do you have about the future of our planet, its people and its other species?

As everybody knows, our planet is so beautiful when you see it from space. However, there are many problems on the earth regarding environmental issues, such as pollution, Global warming, destroying the nature, etc. Those problems caused lots of factors against people and other species. People are affected badly by several kinds of health problems and some species which there are only small number of are an on the verge of extinction.

What kind of solution would be available to make those critical issues better in the future? I think the solutions are not only one. The Toyako, Hokkaido, G8 Summit will be held soon and they are going to discuss the global environmental issues led by the Japan prime minister as a host country’s leader. The world is watching the results of the discussions in this conference. What kind of impact messages could be available? And how many countries without summit members could agree with them.

Recently, people’s concerns about the environmental issues have been changing compared to the past several decades. People, including Japanese, start to think more seriously about the earth for our next generation. This is a very good chance to make the solutions and the targets to protect our future environment on the earth. The earth is only one and the earth is for everybody not only people, but also any kind of species. We should focus the results of the global leaders’ agreements about environment at the G8 Summit and they are important for us to continue to discuss them everywhere in the world.  2008.07.05

iPhone

I got iPhone yesterday.I am writing this web log by it. The quality of photo is no good due to 2.MP.

Foods in the US

I was getting bored with eating a hotel breakfast every morning. It was nice for the first two or three times, but it was getting tiring to have the same food seven times. However, I took different American food for lunch and dinner, which are different from those in Japan and enjoy many kinds of food here in Los Angeles. The best of all was the Southern California BBQ, which is one big beef steak, steamed corn and salad. The beef steak was not so soft for me, but its taste was so good and the steamed corn was so soft and tender. The hosts of this party, which was held in the backyard of one of the members' houses, cooked more than sixty steaks and more than seventy cornhusks for more than fifty people at this party.
The other day, we went to a sports bar and by chance we saw the round of Tiger Woods on the final day of the US Open Golf Tournament. I enjoyed watching golf with a big portion of a steak sandwich. I used to enjoy steak sandwiches for lunch in Australia, but now I'm doing so in the US. A sandwich in this country is so big!!, but this time I ate all of it without a problem since it was so nice. On the next photo, look at this big potato! This is bigger than spareribs. In the US, the portion of all foods is much bigger than in Japan.
During our stay in Southern California, we went to a Japanese restaurant three times in eight days on our trip. When we went to Little Tokyo in the city of Los Angeles, we chose a Japanese restaurant. One of our members ordered a sushi called California Roll to share with the other members. I did not expect it would be so nice, but actually it was very different from our sushi because of its color and it had a beautiful taste. I couldn't find out what it had on the inside. To tell the truth, I really like Japanese food and Chinese food but not so much the food from other countries. However, this time I realized that American food was very tasty such as steaks and hamburgers, but people said that I should have tried IN-N-OUT Burgers once.

    

  

Visit to Southern California

I have just come back from L.A. in the U.S. I have been in the U.S. for eight days at the same place called La Habra, which is located about a fifty minute drive from the city center of Los Angeles. My main purposes of visiting La Habra with our Rotary Club members were two things. Firstly it was to meet members of La Habra Rotary Club, which has been our sister club for twenty-four years, although we have never seen most of the members, but we know each other through our Student Exchange Program almost every year for many years. The other purpose of my visit was to join the International Convention of Rotary Club. I made a plan for this trip with my friend in the club in the U.S and tour members. We had a really good time while we were staying there, because they had prepared so many wonderful events, such as a Southern California BBQ at one of the member's houses with more than fifty guests and other parties with dancing, playing golf, swimming, Disneyland, hot rods and several events of the Rotary International Convention. We also enjoyed visiting the members' working place at the University called CSUF, a huge hospital, a lawyers’ office with twenty lawyers, a large rubber firm, a beautiful motorbike and parts shop and a successful insurance company etc. On the way back to Japan, we talked about our next meeting with our friends in La Habra Rotary Club in the near future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to study English 2 (Self Study)

I decided to do two things to study English every day. One of them is to read at least three articles from an online newspaper, “The Japan Times”. I choose the articles from its top page and print them out and then read them out loud. Even if I find difficult words, I skip them and later I check them by dictionary and read them again out loud. The second thing which I do everyday is to listen to the NHK and BBC news several times by iPod Podcast. It's easier for me to listen to the NHK because Japanese announcers read the news. One year ago, when I started to listen to the BBC news by Podcast, I couldn’t understand what they said at all, but now it is getting easier to roughly understand many of them. I realized that it was one of the best ways to continue to do this for a long time. I can say some things on my English weblog. It has already been two years since I started to write them. It took a long time to write one article for the first time but now it is getting easier to write quite a lot faster with less mistakes. It is getting to be fun. It’s not only practice in writing, but also in speaking. The articles which I have written on the web log can be used in terms of my conversation and it is easy to speak because I already know how to express it.

How to study English 1 (at English school)

I was getting bored in English conversation school now I’ve been in one for many years. After I researched different schools, I decided to go to one of them in Osaka. This school is famous as being an interpreter school. They say all the students are highly motivated and classes are very strict. They use some methods for their interpreter practice. I am taking the class named “Current Affairs”. It is fun, but the atmosphere of the class is quite serious. They provide the class with three different methods. At first, it is the “Interpreter method” from English to Japanese and they use tapes from the BBC and CNN or other stations. After listening to one sentence from the tape in English, the teacher appoints someone in the class randomly to interpret from English to Japanese. She gave us some hints and let us listen to it again. If you don’t answer, the teacher will soon appoint another student. We have to answer very correctly. The second method is the “Reconstruction”. After listening to one sentence from the tape, you are required to repeat the same sentence or a similar one. Short time memory is required. The third method is the “Shadowing”. Just after a tape says a sentence, you have to repeat the sentence while listening to that tape saying the next sentence. It is the first time I have taken such a unique English lesson. The time passes so quickly in the class every time. I hope this training will improve my English a lot.

Saudi women challenge driving ban

I read an article that said the government had banned women from driving a car in Saudi Arabia. The act of driving a car is banned in cities around the kingdom and only permitted in remote areas. One of the Saudi Activists named Wajeha said “For women to drive is not a political issue. It is not a religious issue. It is a social issue, and we know that many women in our society are capable of driving cars. We also know that many families will allow their women to drive.” When they go out to take their children to school, go to the hospital or go shopping by car, they have to hire a driver. I saw one of the activists post her video message not to ban driving a car on You Tube. It was a topic taken up by CNN news. The reporter said Wajaha thinks the time to drive is now. Also, I saw the video that said it was very difficult to get a job as a Saudi woman. Most women have to stay at home without working or going to college. On the other hand, the situation is gradually changing such as the first woman commercial pilot, the first medical doctor at a large hospital and some companies hire women in their factories. They look like they are full of life when they are working. I think those facts are making the situation change little by little.

 

Backstage tour of the Takarazuka Review

 One of the members of our Rotary club is working for the Takarazuka Review as a stage artist. This is a famous review in Japan because it has been operating for more than 90 years and is only for single ladies. I asked him to show the backstage of this review to me and our exchange student, who is a student of the Rotary foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship to study at an overseas University. She is going to learn at the Sorbonne University in Paris in September and is giving a presentation about Takarazuka City at the Rotary club in Paris. For me, I am attending the Rotary International Meeting in L.A. in June and giving a presentation at the sister club, named La Habra RC in L.A. to introduce our club and our city, Takarazuka. In this backstage tour, many actresses and staff are very active and some of them rush to change their clothes for the next set while others relax by talking cheerfully with co-workers. We were surprised how polite they were at greeting us naturally. Also we leant how to create the stage from the several pictures he drew of the real stage sets on paper. They are so huge and beautiful and looked real. Since this is the third experience of the back stage tour for me, I am getting to understand the reason why it has lots of strong fans and has continued to operate for many years.

http://kageki.hankyu.co.jp/english/tg_stage.html

 

French Party in Kyoto

One of my friends, who graduated from the same MBA, guided me to visit the old temples for trying out the first single-lens reflex camera before we joined the party in Kyoto city. The cherry blossoms have almost finished, but the scenery was still beautiful with a Buddha and the Pagoda at the old temple in Kyoto.

We went to dinner at the Udon noodle shop with his wife, who I met for the first time, near the party place after sightseeing. I ordered the Gobo-Udon, which I tried for the first time ever, but it was so nice because it is the one of the recommended items on the menu. A “gobo” is a burdock root and we often use it for traditional Japanese food.

The party at “the Institute of France and Japan in Kansai” was good fun for us, because there were many performances such as a movie, poetry reading, music and photos. I guess more than 100 people visited this party. It was held by the “Kansai-Nichifutu-Gakkan”, supported by the French government for the artists who visited from France. They stay and work there for about six months to create new arts in Kyoto, which is a very historical place in Japan.

I met some artists from France such as photographers, painters, craftsmen, modern artists etc. Through this unique experience, I learnt a lot about French culture. If I have an opportunity, I would like to visit there again and exchange opinions with some artists who are living there.
http://www.villa-kujoyama.or.jp/index1.html

   

The 1st Entrepreneur Meeting in Kyoto

I joined a group named “the Meeting of Youth up to 100 years old for Entrepreneurs”.In the evening we went to the Heian-Jingu and the Shrine Garden in Okazaki-Koen. This shrine was built in 1895 to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the founding of Kyoto. The shrine buildings are gaudy replicas, reduced to a two-thirds scale, of the imperial Court Palace of the Heian period (794-1185). The Shrine Garden is known as the most beautiful landscape gardens typical of the Meiji period and it has won national distinction. This is one of the most favorite gardens which I’ve ever visited in Japan. We could especially see so many kinds of cherry blossoms at the same time with good timing because the cherry blossom season is so short. I think it is the best day to see them due to the warm weather in spring with no rain and no wind at all. Some traditional buildings’ and flowers’ reflections on the pond were so beautiful. After visiting this garden, we had a very good time with nice Mexican food. Most of the members are entrepreneurs in the Kansai area. The members' occupations are various, such as a glass blower, translator, coordinator, E-commerce owner, faculty member of a University etc. It seems like we are in different fields, but we can respect and learn many things from each other.

About my research 2 (Abstract)

My research theme is as follows: "Consideration of the cultural factor in electronic commerce (EC)” Case study of "The Kakushin Juku". The function of the Internet has evolved over the last several years and it began to be able to convey information interactively by various methods. The traditional industry of Kyoto is considered as a case study about the transmission of culture on the Internet. The content of the research classifies the transition by time period while comparing the Japan and the U.S., two countries of EC. Moreover, how a cultural product can be treated by the Internet by using Chris Anderson's "Long Tail Theory" is verified. The verification method is done from both a quantitative verification and a qualitative verification. A quantitative verification analyzes various data obtained from the website of "The Kakushin Juku, Innovative Globalization of Kyoto’s Heritage Industries Program," which is a class of the Doshisha Business School and analyzes the decisive factors of the change in major indexes. It verifies it by using the method of the questionnaire survey to the analysis of evaluations from people who visit the community on the website, the comments, visitors and interviews, etc. in a qualitative verification concerning the acceptability of the traditional culture of Japan.

Kakushin-Juku Community Site

http://bs.doshisha.ac.jp/kakushin/shokunin_e/index.html

http://pokejapan.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/11/kakushin-juku-c.html

About my research 1 (Introduction)

I am researching about EC (E-commerce) at university. I have been doing this research for about two years. Why was I interested in EC and start to study about it? One of the reasons is that I have been doing EC, which is called online shopping, as my business for 12 years. I just know how to do business this way from my own theory based on my experience, but I want to deal with EC more theoretically. If I know theories and practices, my business will go well and I might be able to contribute to the progress of the EC industry in Japan.

Now I am going to write some reports about EC such as the history of EC, an analysis of EC using the case of “The Kakushin Juku” website, which is a new class of our MBA from the last academic year to support some traditional craftsmen by MBA education from our faculty members, and invite lecturers from outside the university. I would like to write an outline and some details of my report about the history of EC on this weblog. There are two types of EC by different methods, such as EC by PC (Personal computer) and EC by MP (mobile phone). The history of EC by mobile phone is much shorter than that by PC. At first I will write about the PC history of EC in my next article on this weblog.

The cherry blossom (Sakura) is blooming

  I went to the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. Kyoto Imperial Palace used to be the residence of Japan's Imperial Family until 1868, when the emperor and capital were moved from Kyoto to Tokyo. Our University is located next to the Kyoto Imperial Palace. Before I went to the University, I visited there to see the cherry blossom in this place. This place is one of the best places to see cherry blossoms in Kyoto and now is the best season to see them because it is getting warm. In Japan it is spring now. The cherry blossom’s life is short and only lasts about two weeks. The flowers on each tree are starting to bloom. The cherry blossom is Japan’s unofficial flower. It has been celebrated for many centuries and takes a very prominent position in Japanese culture. In Kyoto we have many places to see the beautiful cherry blossom. I am going to visit two famous places in Kyoto at the end of this week and next week. One is Kamogawa Park besides the Kamo River and the other is Maruyama Park, next to the Heian Shrine, which was constructed in 1895 to commemorate Kyoto’s 1,100th anniversary as Japan’s capital. We call it ‘Hanami’, which is a party held outside with the cherry blossom in spring in Japan. Japanese people enjoy a party with warm temperatures outside after finishing a long winter.

 

The new school year has started

The new school year has just started. This year I am in the second year of a PhD course called TIM (Technology Innovative Management) at Doshisha University Graduate School of Policy and Management. Last year, as my first year, I was so busy because I took 9 classes, which are 18 credits. Some of the classes are provided in English so that some teachers come from overseas, such as UC Barclay in the US, the University of Cambridge in England and the University of Auckland in New Zealand. I gave several presentations in Japan and one in China. In the morning, I work at my office for managing my company called KTS and in the afternoon I go to school to take classes and attend  workshops and seminars, even if on the weekend. I also do my consulting job for EC (E-commerce) as a part-time job. Actually it's busy, but I enjoy being busy. I think it is very important to strike a balance between one's private life, work and study. The second year of my PhD course should be tougher than the first year. I should concentrate on research more this year. The theme of my research is"Effectiveness of the online shop for Kyoto traditional crafts in local and foreign markets by using information technologies"

 

The recollection of Cambridge

One of the faculty members of our MBA has been in Cambridge for one year and he started to write a weblog everyday on Japan's most famous SNS called mixi. Due to reading them everyday, they reminded me that I had a special class in the University of Cambridge about two years ago, when I was an MBA student. Today I've just found those photos and picked out some of them which I liked and posted them on this weblog. It was my first experience of having lectures in an overseas University and I was so impressed with everything. The environment of Cambridge was so nice to have the atmosphere of studying, because of its long history of more than 800 years. We stayed in the college dormitory named Fitzwilliam College for about one week and had a really nice and large English breakfast at the college dormitory every morning. I wrote on his weblog that I would like to visit there again in the near future with someone who would like to go with me.

The collaboration of Space and Traditional Industry

I attended the symposium of Jaxa (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), similar organization to Nasa in the U.S. Professor Murayama from Doshisha Business School gave a wonderful presentation of the collaboration of Space and Traditional Industry. Then Kakushin-Juku member, Mr. Kawabe who is a CG
Yuzen Kimono designer from Kyoto traditional industry and Mr. and Mrs. Watanabe, who are running the firm of  flower arrangement from Kyoto showed us their new products from the collaboration with the materials possessed by JAXA. They created the new design Kimono, Bags, clocks, and post card with
flower, etc. I really enjoyed their challenge and I hope their products are going well. http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html

Kakushin Juku introduced by Daily Yomiuri News Paper

The title of article is "Redesigning tradition for modern life Doshisha University course aims to pass skills of Kyoto craftsmen to next generation."

Detail of Article as follows:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/world/20080327TDY16003.htm

Kakushin Juku http://bs.doshisha.ac.jp/kakushin/shokunin_e/index.html

English website of Kakushin-Juku completed

The English website of Kakushin Juku has been completed and opened to the public. I am in charge of this website of the class called Kakushin Juku in our business school. We started to make website in Japanese version first. This website concept is to focus not only products, but the people in this class of Kakushin Juku, such as craftsman, craftsman, managers of traditional crafts and industry in Kyoto.

Our team which is consisted of some undergraduate students of Doshisha University and me. We visited to eleven work places of craftsmen to have interviews, taking photos, filming video, etc. After visiting them, we made the drafts of website and editing the videos with subtitles in both Japanese and English. After creating website, promotion of pages are very important. In order to be attracted, we posted the videos to "Youtube" and made a community site at "facebook" for overseas and "mixi" for Japan. For analytics of website, we are using "Google Analytics".

We would like to find the best way to dispatch the information about traditional culture and crafts of Kyoto both in Japan and in overseas. We would like to ask diverse people in the world about Kyoto traditional crafts and our way of the promotion based on my ideas which was written in the Master thesis to find the new way for dispatching information of the Kyoto traditional culture by using IT technologies from now.

http://bs.doshisha.ac.jp/kakushin/shokunin_e/index.html

The Kakushin Juku
Doshisha Business School (DBS) is offering a class titled the Innovative Globalization of Kyoto’s Heritage Industries, ”Kakushin Juku”from April 2007. The program offers business education for young managers employed in traditional industries to enable them to create cultural industries from these heritage industries of historic Kyoto, with the objectives of offering hints for new styles of living and making a global impact through overseas expansion.

French designers in Kyoto

I met two French designers who were staying in Japan for several days, and took them at some working places of Kyoto traditional industry. They are interested in the inspection of the working places of craftsmen and ask some questions to get some hints for their work and especially in a processes and materials of traditional crafts. They wonder if they could have collaboration with  Kyoto traditional craftsmen when they would stay in Kyoto for six months in summer this year as they will be dispatched in Kyoto by the French Government.

Columbia MBA & Doshisha MBA

We had a wonderful party with many students from MBA of Columbia University. About forty people of a faculty and students from Columbia MBA and twenty people from Doshisha MBA had a party at the Sushi restaurant in Sanjyo, Kyoto. Their main purpose of visiting in Japan is the inspection of Japanese
large firms such as an auto company and high tech companies, and also traditional firms such as a brewing maker and a shoe maker. The Columbia MBA has about 1,500 students now for 1st year and 2nd year and about 30% are the International students from all over the world.It means that about 750 students each year, which is more than ten times larger than our MBA course.

After having a good time with sixty students and faculty, around forty people went to the Karaoke box for two hours singing together.I was so supplied to see their powerful singing. As I have quite many opportunities to see the different foreign students in Kyoto recently, I was enjoying to see many new
people.

 

PhD International Workshop in Doshisha

I took part in the PhD International Workshop in Doshisha for three days as a staff member of IT and manage for the workshop, preparation of parties. Thirty-seven attendances including faculties and PhD students came from all over the world, such as UK, US, NZ, China, Taiwan, Korea, Denmark, across Japan, etc. I have learnt a lot about studies of the different area from presenters and could exchange the information about PhD course and universities with unique features.
The students are working hard. Someone have job and someone have to finish within the period of time. I am happy to see many people from all over the world and could support them for their presentations as a one of PhD students. I was said I should make a presentation in this workshop next year.

MBA of Yale University

I have attended the group from Yale University in Kyoto yesterday. We visited at headquarters of Shimazu Corporation and Kyocera Corporation with the former president of Kyocera in the morning. We had very good time and studied about a history and strength of both companies, which are called “Kyoto Type Corporation”. After we enjoyed lunch at the Russian restaurant, we moved to our MBA of Doshisha University to have a class about Kyoto. The students and faculty from Yale University are very friendly and sophisticated. Finally, we had a nice dinner at the Japanese Sushi restaurant in Nijyo and enjoyed their garden with several students. I hope I could see them in Kyoto next year as well.

 

The San Francisco International Gift Fair 2008

Some of Craftsmen from Kakushin-Juku will place their new works on the Gift Fair in San Francisco on 26th to 29th of January, 2008. For this show, the members who will attend the International Gift Fair have just finished creating their new innovative products which are not their ordinal works and they showed them in the meeting at the last Kakushin-Juku class. They are all wonderful as is to be expected of professionals. We are looking forward to having the buyers and visitors feedbacks of those Kyoto traditional innovative products in January of 2008.

Christmas party of English School

I attend the Christmas party of an English school in Japanese restaurant near my house. I like this school parties, because the atmosphere is so relax and you can speak any languages. As many teachers can speak Japanese, we speak not only English, but Japanese and sometimes funny Kansai-Ben (Kansai direct) mix together. They are very nice guys. They’ve just started their own business in the different country, Japan as entrepreneurs. I hope they can success their business in the near feature. http://english-access.jp/index.html

Two speeches for two consecutive days

I finished two speeches yesterday and today. Yesterday, I gave two lectures at high school in my city. The title of a lecture is the reality of the internet business and what is online shop? This is the forth time to give my lectures to this high school in order to understand what is work in the society for them. I hope that some of students who had my lecture would be interested in the internet businesses. I think that it is important for students to know the realities from a person with experience of its job.

Today, I have just finished making a speech at Rotary Club which I belong to for about seven years. This is the third time to make it for our club members. The theme of my speech is my experience of a part time graduate school student at MBA and Ph.D. course. On the speech I said that the balance for work, study, family, hobby, sports was quite difficult and it is hard to keep my health good some times. After my fifteen minutes speech, some of members said to me that it was good. I was little nervous about its contents and time before my speech, but I am happy now.

http://www.hibari.jp/weblog41/2007/12/post_249.html  High Shool Lecture

DBS-MXJ MBA Symposium 2

I have just come back from Xi’an trip in China yesterday. These purposes of the trip were making a presentation about my research and attending the first symposium with DBS (Doshisha Business School) and MXJ (MBA of Xi’an Jiaotong University) which was the top MBA in China. We have almost 20 people from Japan including three professors, MBA students, post MBA students, Ph.D. candidates, etc. We could have a good time and meet many nice people in this University. Five days have been passed very quickly and I’ve already missed some Chinese food on the picture. 

Kakushin-Juku Community Opened

   I am very happy to have the day when "the Kakushin-Juku" website community has been opened. It takes almost six month to create this community sites. It has diverse contents on the community, such as culture zone, business zone and communication zone, and each zone has several areas as this chart. Please have a look. My recommend area is the video (movie) area and you can see the video for craftsman’s working place and their excellent works. Now only in Japanese, but we are going to create English version soon. http://bs.doshisha.ac.jp/kakushin/shokunin_e/index.html

   

The Kakushin Juku
DBS (Doshisha Business School) is offering a class titled the Innovative Globalization of Kyoto's Heritage Industries, ”Kakushin Juku” from April 2007. The program offers business education for young managers employed in traditional industries to enable them to create cultural industries from these heritage industries of historic Kyoto, with the objectives of offering hints for new styles of living and making a global impact through overseas expansion.

DBS-MXJ MBA Symposium

  I am going to make a presentation at Xi’an Jiaotong University in China at the end of this month. I have almost finished the PPT of my presentation and put it into rehearsal with teacher and the other presenters at our business school today. We were informed about the website of this symposium in Chinese. When I found my name and title of presentation on the website, it made me exciting. My presentation title is “Effectiveness of the online shop for the Kyoto traditional crafts in local and foreign markets by using information technologies.” Please access to this University’s website.

http://som.xjtu.edu.cn/ReadNews.asp?newsid=642

Giving a lecture at high school

I gave a lecture for around forty high students on last Sunday. Many of them want to go to well known private University in Kansai area including Doshisha University. New I am doing Ph.D. after finished MBA at same University. My theme of lecture for them about 90 minutes including Q&A is “”My Career” what kind of jobs I had in the past and I have now. I tald them that what I've learnt from those experience. My messages to them are two things that they should have skills for globalization including English communication skill as well as IT skill. I think that both of them are getting more important than now in the future. After my presentation finished, two students from Doshisha University had speeches about University life and their experience of their study for University entrance examination in few minutes and had Q&A time as well. Finally, their teachers said that students concentrated their speeches and were different from usual, because they were interested in our presentation and speeches.

Farewell party of Kawanishi Branch in Nova

We students have gotten into trouble at the biggest English conversation school in Japan named Nova. It was in the corporation reorganization law, because of credit crunch recently. I have been a member of “Voice” of this school, which is not class, but is “English conversation salon” for many years. When I have spare time, I get used to enjoy English conversation in this Voice which you can talk anything you what with one teacher and some Japanese students. Also a convenient point of this salon is that you can go to any branches and at any time in the afternoon.

Nova has been in trouble now, so all branches have been closed for a while and it might file for bankruptcy. Now they are looking for companies which can help Nova financially. The Kawanishi branch which is the one of oldest branch and my nearest one had been decided to close more than one month ago, so we had planed a farewell party. I joined that party and promised many voice members to keep in touch as much as possible.

pictures for party of Nova Kawanishi

"Kakushin Juku" visit 1

In this morning, We, the staffs and I visited the working place for one of the members of Kakushin Juku which is the class of our business school. This is the working place of "Hand-painted Yuzen Dyeing" for the way of painting for Kimono. The all staff members for painting are young ladies and they are working in the large working place. We interviewed to the owner of this working place of "Yuzen Dyeing" for making the home pages of Kakushin Juku for the all members of this class.

The home pages will be focused on the crafts men or owners in this class members to understand not only traditional crafts and their history, but also the crafts men's personal histories and backgrounds. The pages will include the movie of making products, pictures at working place and people,articles from interview, their weblog, home pages and online shops. We try to make home pages with multimedia to let visitors understand inclusively.

The next visiting in this afternoon was the shop of products using by antique Kimono. All products are made by the antique kimonos, which have been used in Showa era about 60 to 70 years ago. The are so colorful and beautiful. Many animal dolls are putting on kimono and their expression are so cute. The most popular items are sold more than 1,000 items per year.

 

Visiting Professionals Program

I had the visitors of five junior high school students at my  company from the nearby school. Their purpose of the visit is to learn about jobs from professionals. This program has been continued for several years by cooperation between the school and our Rotary club. There are two programs a year, such as junior high school students visit companies, or organizations such as a lawyer's office, hospital, account office, theater, tennis school and invited the speakers of various kinds of occupations to the high school at the same school which is located in the same city.

They would like to learn about the e-commerce (electronic commerce) from our company. At first I introduced about the history of our company, like what we did, what we are doing now, and why we did. There are different e-commerce like online shopping, online mall, auction, gathering, banking, ASP (application service provider), contents contents selling, etc. I also explained about online shop mainly to understand the structures, advantages and disadvantages comparing with the real shops. Finally the students asked me many questions.

I think to learn about jobs and society when you are students is important to decide their future after leaving school, and also why you have to study at home. I would like to contribute my experience for students to learn about jobs and society through this programs and the other programs like internship from junior high school University as much as possible.

The solo exhibition for ceramic art; Kiyomizu

      I had a good time of the solo pottery exhibition with some friends at Takashimaya Department store in the south of Osaka, Nanba.The person, who is one of the members of "Kakushin-Juku" and holds a solo exhibition, is Mr.Kato, a ceramic artist of Kiyomizu pottery in Kyoto. The "Kakushin-Juku" is the new class of Doshisha Business School ;MBA (DBS). After that we had the culture exchange with three countries form Korea, China, and Japan at the coffee shop with nice cakes. The detail of this class is as follows:

The Kakushin Juku
DBS is offering a class titled the Innovative Globalization of Kyoto's Heritage Industries, ”Kakushin Juku” from April 2007. The program offers business education for young managers employed in traditional industries to enable them to create cultural industries from these heritage industries of historic Kyoto, with the objectives of offering hints for new styles of living and making a global impact through overseas expansion.  (Refer to the home pages of the Kakushin Juku)

Exchange students program with LaHabra Rotary Club 5

This is the last night, so tomorrow they are going to leave Japan. I hope they enjoyed our programs with our club members in Japan. We went to the fireworks in Takarazuka city which was our club located. We reserved the seats on the best place to see it and the fireworks were so beautiful. 45 minutes passed so quickly. We had lots of ash of the fireworks, because it was held just above us.

Exchange students program with LaHabra Rotary Club 4

Today, it was quite busy day for us. Five of us, who were two US students and three Rotary members including me, went to Kobe　and Awaji Island by car. At first we went the lawyer's office for one of our members and we had inspection of the public prosecutors office after visiting the district court in Kobe. Then we went to the Kobe beef　restaurant and took a ferry from Akashi to Awaji Island. In Awaji Island,　we visited the memorial building of the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake on Jan.,17th in 1995. The students had experience of the demonstration of　the earthquake ride with me. It reminded them the LA earthquake about one year before this earthquake in 1994, when they were children.

Exchange students program with LaHabra Rotary Club 3

I arranged to go to aquarium in Osaka today with Brad and Chris, who came from LA as exchanged students and five Chinese MBA students together. After enjoying the aquarium which was the biggest in the world, then we had lunch at Okonomiyaki restaurant. After enjoying Osaka, The Chinese students have been separated into two groups and five of us went to my office to have inspection our company and said hello to our staff members. I had a nice day for refreh with students from two different countries communicated　in English. I thought that English became the International language and I realized it very useful  communication tool again.

Exchange students program with LaHabra Rotary Club 2

I have met the exchange students from our sister club in LA at the club meeting of our Rotary Club in Takarazuka city for the first time, since I had met　on Sunday. They were so healthy with little suntan, even if it was so hot and humid summer now in Japan. They have been to Nara which is the one of the oldest city and famous for huge Buddha They said it was most impressive thing that they had done in Japan so far, and been to Golden temple and Kiyomizu shrine in Kyoto, etc. In this week, they are going to city hall for the courtesy call to the Takarazuka-city Mayor and go to the professional baseball stadium tomorrow night.　Also, we will have a BBQ party on Saturday night at the one of member's house. Today, they have attended to our club meeting and made a good speech each of them and I have interpreted to Japanese for the other club members and guests. I hope they enjoyed our meeting and could have lots of experience while staying in Japan for ten more days.

Exchange students program with LaHabra Rotary Club

                                         Yesterday, the members and their families and I, who are members of Rotary club (Takarazuka Mukogawa Rotary Club) in Takarazuka, went to the Kansai International Airport to pick up two college students from California. We have been continuing this program for more than 20 years. Almost every year, we have accepted several students and our sister club; LaHabra Rotary Club accepted our students each other.

     It was passed more than one and half hours at the airport, but we could not find them at the arrival gate. We asked the staff in the information counter, and she said that all bags had picked up already and she also said that name of passengers were not informed to anyone, even if their families. So only we can do is to ask the announcement to call them to the counter we were waiting for. Finally, we could meet them and asked the reason why they had taken for long time to go out, because they were trapped the immigration due to no name of place of staying in Japan and this small trouble had been getting bigger.

     Anyway, we were happy to see their healthy faces and who were traveling for 17 hours via Taipei from Los Angels. After having the orientation at Takarazuka Hotel, they moved to the first accommodation for one of members’ house.

     Their schedule is two weeks staying in Japan, including visiting many places in Kansai area, such as kobe, Kyoto, Osaka , and Tokushima. I will be charge of visiting aquarium in south part of Osakaand short trip in Tokushimain Shikoku Island. This story will be continued.

International Workshop in China

       I was appointed to make a presentation at business school of Xi'an Jiaotong University, which is one of the best MBA in China, at the beginning of December of this year. I am so happy to hear that from our marketing professor at our business school, because it is my dream to make a presentation and  discussion with people from different counties in Asia. Actually, the exchange students program between two business schools has been started since this year and now we have five Chinese exchange students in Kyoto. I have seen them for the first time at yesterday's party held in professor's home. They are so nice, because they are friendly, aggressive and smart. They also have different back ground about job experiences, so I could learn a lot about China from them.
      I am going to make a presentation about Japanese e-commerce and how to introduce Kyoto traditional culture in the Global market using the Internet technology. I would like to research about the relationship between Chinese traditional culture and Internet, too, when I would visit in China in December. If you have any suggestion about this theme, please let me know.

MBA Network Workshop

     Yesterday, I have attended the DBSN (Doshisha Business School Network) and gave a presentation on how I wrote SR (solution report), which was a master's thesis at our MBA, for the students who were going this report from now for 30 min + questionnaire with the other two people who had already graduated from DBS. There were about 56 students audiences with the students already graduated and still keep studying now.

After this seminar, we had a party with mixed students who have joined and graduated different years together. Our school is quite new, so now there are forth generation. This was a so nice seminar and party to know each other for continue this network, which is very important, because they come from different field on different industries and have unique experiences and knowledge.

After those party, we went to the small bar near the school to drink, talk and see the funny original video which was taken by us for our graduation party this March. I am looking forward to join DBSN meeting for the next time which will be held on September.