March 2022 Newsletter

Tomodachi

Looking Forward!

As the Sydney and wider Australian community opens up to in-person work and socializing, your Board at AJS-NSW is busy planning face-to-face events - to be held in a COVID-safe way. And with Japan now also open to vaccinated business travellers without the need to quarantine, Australia-Japan business activity can also be expected to pick up. Can the re-start of tourism to Japan be far behind?

We expect to have some outstanding person-to-person and business-themed events in the next few months. This week member Christopher Gallagher will talk about his 25-year Japan journey as an IELTS educator and his new tutoring business. See below for details.

Our Student Awards Night, when we present awards to top students of Japanese at universities in the Sydney region, is also in the planning stage for a May date. This year we have extended the award to the University of Newcastle, in addition to the other six universities - Macquarie, UNSW, UTS, Western Sydney University and the Universities of Sydney and Wollongong.

It's the time of the year when we often say farewell to members and colleagues at Japanese companies whose posting to Sydney has ended. I would like to thank Mr. Ryo Sadayuki, MD at airline ANA, one of our corporate members, for his support of AJS-NSW during his six-year posting to Sydney, and wish him well for future endeavours. We extend the same good wishes to any other members and friends who are similarly returning to Japan.

Looking forward to meeting you soon.

Anita Byrnes, President

An Educator's Journey: three decades in Japan

Click to register

Member Christopher Gallagher recently returned to Australia after three decades in Japan, including 25 years as a tenured academic at International Christian University (ICU) in Mitaka, Tokyo. He is an EAP (English for Academic Purposes) specialist, and experienced tutor for IELTS, an internationally recognised test used for tertiary entry and visa applications, among other things.

Chris will talk about his (and his family's) time in Japan, his career there and the changes he saw over that time, and his new status as an entrepreneur, the founder of AusSpeak Academy, an academic tutoring service targeted at Japanese students. Event details here.

We Children and the Narrow Road to the Deep North

Missed our Zoom event with Libby Hathorn, author, and Sadami Konchi, illustrator? Click the image above to view a video excerpt of the talk about this excellent new children's book based on poet Basho's travels.

Supported events

Japan Foundation is hosting Paper-cut Animation Workshops on March 12th and 19th in conjunction with their current exhibition, continuum: Independent animation from Japan and Australia.

Australia-Japan Sports News

Australia’s Socceroos will take on Japan's Samurai Blue at Stadium Australia in Sydney on March 24th, in the  penultimate AFC Asian Qualifiers – Final Round. It's free to view on Network 10 and tickets are here.

Japan qualified for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 which will be held in Sydney from September 22 until October 1. Australia and Japan were both drawn in Group B and will face each other on Tuesday September 27 2022 at Sydney Olympic Park. More: https://www.fiba.basketball/womensbasketballworldcup/2022