Word: japanism
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...Such idealism drives recruits for the government-run Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV), which since 1965 has dispatched more than 30,000 people to do good in 70-plus countries. Today, the bulk of volunteers are women or older Japanese who are searching for meaning in their postretirement lives. Most contribute in fields that seem typically Japanese: planting stronger strains of rice, running environmental-training programs, teaching high school math and science. Chiyoko Ichishima, 33, helps female villagers near the Ugandan capital of Kampala build a local craft trade. "When Ugandans think of Japan, they immediately think of cars...
...Most of these volunteers toil quietly. JOCV lacks the global aura of the U.S. Peace Corps. Karaoke may be popular in the developing world, but Japan's aid workers need to amp up the volume of their p.r. if locals are to recognize the source of all the largesse. Sadako Ogata, the former U.N. High Commissioner of Refugees, now oversees the Japan International Cooperation Agency, which, after a massive reorganization this year, has become the world's largest bilateral development agency, with more than $10 billion at its disposal. Up next on the tireless 81-year-old's agenda...
...Charity Begins at Home"] Other factors have forced the nation to look anew at its role in the world. A crucial consideration is the nation's dwindling birth rate. Japan is running out of workers. To fill its factories and care for a graying population, the Asian nation will need to import ever greater numbers of laborers from abroad. What better way to lure skilled immigrants to Japan - ones who might be just as interested in moving to the U.S. or Australia - than piquing their interest in all things Japanese...
...much the same way, Japanese firms face a global imperative. They must expand overseas to maintain growth. There simply aren't enough Japanese to buy their products back home. With domestic car sales slowing, Honda, for instance, just opened a second plant in Thailand so Japan's second largest auto company can double its annual production capacity in the Southeast Asian nation to 240,000 cars. Japanese pharmaceutical firms have also bought up American and Indian rivals. Overall, in the first 10 months of this year, foreign acquisitions by Japanese firms soared nearly fourfold to around $67 billion, according...
...much as Japan is exerting its influence abroad, the country needs to welcome the world to its shores, too. Back in the 1980s, during Japan Inc.'s first global foray, many of its mergers and acquisitions languished because overseas employees chafed under the strictures of Japanese management. In the same way, unless Japan relaxes its rigid immigration policies, cultivating foreign Japanophiles will be a waste of time. Indeed, in moving beyond Japan's insular past, Prime Minister Aso might do well to take inspiration from a cuddly cat. Hello Kitty, it turns out, may not be ethnically Japanese. Her surname...