Where were you in Japan as a JET and when?
The JET Program sent me to Nakijin Village in Northern Okinawa from 2015-2019
What sparked your interest in applying for the JET program?
As a high schooler, I was very fortunate to attend a school where 1/4 of the students were studying abroad primarily from Asian countries. Of the 100 international students, about ...READ MORE »
Jim Gannon (Imabari-shi, Ehime, 1992-1994)
Where were you in Japan as a JET and when?
I was an ALT in the port town of Imabari, in Ehime Prefecture, from 1992 to 1994. This entailed rotating among 11 junior high schools in the mountains and islands around Imabari. The island schools in particular were tiny, with maybe 20 to 30 students each. They were remote, ...READ MORE »
Where were you in Japan as a JET and when?
I lived in a town called Noto, Ishikawa. Noto is one large town merged by several smaller towns and villages across the southern part of the Noto peninsula. Although I taught across most of Noto in its many different towns, my apartment was specifically in Matsunami. Most of Noto is what ...READ MORE »
Where were you in Japan as a JET and when? While I was on JET, I lived near Daigo-machi a small village in northern Ibaraki between 2014-2016. After JET, I moved to Kasama-shi in 2017 to pursue a ceramics apprenticeship with Kobayashi Michio and family.
What sparked your interest in applying for the JET program? I was obsessed with Haruki Murakami’s ...READ MORE »
The Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade and Evolution of the Japanese Self-Defense Force in Regional Security
Patrick Ripton
Okinawa and Shiga, 2001–2005
As an American JET in Okinawa, I had the unique opportunity of experiencing the presence of U.S. troops there through both the lenses of interactions with my local community and my military friends. Tracing the history of the post-war U.S. administration of the ...READ MORE »
Competition of Provision: How Rivalries between Indo-Pacific Institutions Can Generate Goods for the Region
Rikio Inouye
Toyama, 2017–2020
The US-Japan alliance has remained the keystone relationship in the broader Indo-Pacific security architecture and this bilateral relationship has been the foundation for additional multi- and minilateral institutions like the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad). As Chinese-led institutions like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) create alternatives and competitors, it is worth ...READ MORE »
Marriage Equality Trajectories in the United States and Japan
Brian Watson
Saitama, 1988-1991
The path to marriage equality in the United States is a tortuous one that began in 1970 and concluded with two landmark Supreme Court rulings in 2013 and 2015: United States v. Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges, respectively. The trajectory to marriage equality currently in progress in Japan bears some similarities to the ...READ MORE »
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