ESL Writers Forum

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ESL Writers Forum is an online journal of nonfiction by both professional and up-and-coming ESL writers. Each issue features an interview with an established writer (with links to his or her work), as well as short pieces by aspiring ESL writers. We are always looking for submissions. For more information, or to submit a query (any genre of nonfiction, except academic writing, is acceptable) please e-mail: robina@gol.com.

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October 20, 2009

Masahiko Ishizuka: Salesman of Ideas

Masahiko Ishizuka is one of Japan’s leading journalists. He began his career in the 1960s as a reporter for Nihon Keizai Shimbun (The Nikkei), Japan’s largest economic daily. He was Hong Kong bureau chief from 1976 – 1980, during which time he covered Manila, Singapore, and other Southeast Asian cities. From 1985-1988 he was editor of The Nikkei Weekly, the English-language international weekly edition of Nihon Keizai Shimbun. He served as editorial writer of the daily for 10 years until he retired from the newspaper in 2000. From 2000-2004 he was managing director of the Foreign Press Center Japan, an organization aimed at helping foreign media cover and report on Japan. He has been lecturing at Waseda University since 2006, and continues to write a monthly column for The Nikkei Weekly and occasional commentaries on the Foreign Press Center Web site.

Writers Forum

You were born in 1940, five years before Hiroshima and Nagasaki and before the firebombing of Tokyo during WWII. It was an incredibly tumultuous time.

Masahiko Ishizuka

We evacuated from Tokyo to Shikoku in the spring of 1945, several months before the end of the war, so I don’t remember any scenes of misery. I heard a lot about that from my parents, but my neighborhood, until we moved, wasn’t air raided.

What was your neighborhood?

Present-day Shinagawa-ku. My father stayed on in Tokyo to work. He was not drafted. My mother and I moved to Shikoku in mid-April in 1945. So when the war ended in August, my mother and I were in a mountainous region in Shikoku. Then, I moved to Kyushu and started elementary school in Saga Prefecture. And then, after a few years, we moved closer to Tokyo in Ibaraki Prefecture. We settled down in Yokohama when I was 10. So my memories...I experienced poverty right after the war, not the devastation. My parents talked a lot about that, but I didn’t experience it personally.

Do you think that even though you didn’t experience the upheaval of the war firsthand that it influenced your decision to become a writer and go into journalism?

No, it had nothing to do with it. I decided to go to a newspaper...when I was in college. When I was a child I had no idea. I was always joking that I wanted to be the stationmaster at Tokyo Station. [laughs]

I can see you doing that! [laughs]

My parents also laughed at that.

So what influenced your decision to go into journalism?

In college, I knew I would be a very poor businessman. So business was out of the question for me.

Why would you have been a poor businessman?

I’m not a good salesman! [laughs] And when I was in high school, I belonged to a so-called newspaper club. And I remember I was very excited...I wrote a very short article on the school’s rugby club result...I was very excited when that was printed.

Ah.

I remember that quite well – that excitement. And in college I was editor of the students’ association annual that discussed many issues and problems from the students’ viewpoint. That was my journalistic experience before taking up the job.

Your initiation into it.

Initiation. Yes.

Though...you, when you’re writing, and especially as an editorial writer, you’re a kind of...salesman, in a way.

Salesman?

In a way. When you’re writing editorials, you have a view and you’re trying to...convince readers.

Well, a salesman of ideas. But I’d make a poor salesman in selling goods, automobiles...

Because you don’t care as much about goods and products as you do ideas.

Anyway, I’m not interested in business.

Right.

Many [of my classmates] went to banking institutions, trading companies like Mitsubishi, Mitsui, and so on. And in those days, 50 years ago, popular job destinations were shipping, textiles, steel. Very well paid jobs. But I wasn’t interested in those areas at all.

Why English? Why writing in English as opposed to Japanese?

It doesn’t mean that I’m not interested in writing in Japanese. The fact is that I wanted to write in both languages, which I did when I was with the newspaper, and still do. I don’t know how I developed my interest in English. Somehow I got interested in the language when I was in junior high school and high school. Why I got interested in English, and continued to improve, was I had a sort of head start because my elementary school teacher gave us special lessons on Sundays, teaching us English. That’s how I started. I felt sort of that English became my tokui.

Your special...

...subject. Yeah. I was very poor in math. [laughs]

What were the special assignments that your elementary school teacher gave you?

Oh, we simply used the textbook used in the middle school. In those days, I think about the only English textbook used in Japan was called Jack and Betty – under the influence of the American occupation. “Jack” was a son of some kind of medical doctor – or engineer? “Betty” was the daughter of...a banker? Something. And the textbook centered on their life, their friendship, their conversation – American life. So people my age, in Japan, must remember Jack and Betty.

How much writing and publishing do you do in Japanese? Or is most of your published work in English?

At present, I work more in English than in Japanese. But when I was with the newspaper company, it was about half and half throughout my career.

Really?

When I was hired by Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper company straight from university, I was assigned to the English weekly edition which started that year. Before that, my writing was almost all in Japanese, in my high school and college days. Although I wrote a thesis in English because my thesis advisor was American. I wrote about economic thought in English and took many courses in English. But after joining the newspaper, where I stayed for nearly 40 years, my career was equally divided, half and half: 20 years in Japanese, 20 years in English, on an on-and-off basis. That’s how I became...a sort of bilingual journalist. When I joined the company, they started an international English weekly addition.

Just when you joined?

Yeah. 1963. And that was the time when the Japanese economy was starting its spectacular postwar growth – many foreign investors were interested in the Japanese economy. So the company decided an English newspaper was needed.

And that was The Japan Economic Journal at that time.

Yeah. It’s called The Nikkei Weekly now. So when I joined the company, my first assignment was that weekly. It was a very tough job, because I had no experience. Not only in Japanese, but in English...

....in writing newspaper articles...

...or translating from Japanese.

What was the toughest thing, at that time?

I didn’t know English well enough...for commercial journalism. So I wrote and got edited heavily. Straight from school, you’re assigned to a police department, right?

Right.

Heavily edited, or even...thrown into the trash box. If it’s the Japanese language, if it’s your native language, you’ll get used to it within a short time. Maybe in six months you’ll be a reporter. But English...if it’s not your native language, it takes more time. Three, five years. It of course depends on our own capability. So I stayed with the English edition for three years, and then reassigned to the Japanese edition. Because the problem with the English edition is that you don’t have much time to go out and collect news. You’re primarily dependent on original Japanese and translating it into English. One reason was a shortage of staff. For economic reasons, we cannot afford a big editorial staff. That won’t be good enough to train a journalist. So I was transferred to the economic news department on the daily Japanese edition. I covered the Ministry of International Trade and Industry and then the Finance Ministry. I covered those very important ministries for two years. And then the company decided to send me to New York – not as a correspondent, but for training at an American newspaper.

Really?

...so that I could improve my writing and editing ability. That newspaper is now defunct, gone. It was a very old newspaper called the Journal of Commerce. A very established newspaper with a long history at that time. Nihon Keizai Shimbun was in a sort of partnership with the Journal of Commerce. So the Journal of Commerce was supposed to accept me and train me. But the arrangement somehow didn’t work out well. So I asked the company to allow me to...enter Columbia Journalism School. So I got a masters degree in journalism. And after completing the school, I interned at UPI. This is a news agency which is not properly gone, but...

You still see it online.

But in those days it was a full-fledged wire service. I interned there for six months before coming back to Japan. It was in the New York Daily News Building, near the United Nations. Then I came back to Japan and was reassigned to the English edition, again. Stayed there for five, six years and in 1976 suddenly I was told you go to Hong Kong as a correspondent for the Japan edition. In September of that year the Asian Wall Street Journal, the Asian edition of the Wall Street Journal, started publication in Hong Kong. By that time, Nikkei’s partner had been switched from the Journal of Commerce to Dow Jones, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal. Nikkei had a 10% stake in the Hong Kong company, so the management thought it would be good to keep someone from Nikkei in Hong Kong. I stayed in Hong Kong for nearly four years, and that was a very good experience. I enjoyed my Hong Kong years.

Why was that a good experience?

Hong Kong was a very interesting place -- the point where China and the rest of the world met. It was a very freewheeling society as a British colony, very interesting place for business and watching China. It was full of a lot of information, although some of it was very false and unreliable. And it was economically very dynamic. My stay with the Asian Wall Street Journal was also very interesting. I spent the whole day with them.

Can you give an example of the richness of the Hong Kong experience?

I enjoyed Hong Kong people and their life. You know, it’s a very important banking center. All the major Japanese banks had branches. There was a lot going on, finance and trading...

What are Hong Kong people like?

Very down to earth.

Unpretentious.

I still like that. We have quite a few students from Hong Kong at Waseda. So I keep and make friends with them. There is a restaurant near Waseda, which is run by a middle-aged guy who came to Japan and started a small restaurant. He’s very blunt, not very polite, but that’s the Hong Kong way. [laughs] Good-natured at heart.

You like that!

I like that.

Chokusetsu....Yeah, very direct.

Anyway, I liked Hong Kong in many ways. Personally, professionally, and I still like the city.

Have you gone back recently?

Many times.

How has it changed?

It’s changed a lot. Uh...looks like a different world. Politically, of course, it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997. Physically, a lot of new, glittering skyscrapers. It is more of a Chinese city than a British colonial city, of course. But I think Hong Kong people, basically....

...have not changed.

Have not changed. And there are a lot of old sections, still. So Hong Kong is still Hong Kong.

But China was not my responsibility. Instead of that, including Hong Kong, I was expected to look to the South – Southeast Asia. So I moved around Southeast Asia, visiting such cities as Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manila. Manila was my beat, so I went there once every few months. I also covered Singapore.

Looking back on that period now, and the reporting you did, do any stories stand out in your mind that you’re particularly proud of?

In 1977 there was a major meeting of, a major trip, a sort of historic, I would say, visit by our Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda. And he made a very important statement that Japan values a heart-to-heart relationship with Asians. That was called The Fukuda Doctrine that set the tone of Japan’s diplomacy toward the region and reassured people there. I accompanied him throughout the region on that trip. So that was one thing I remember very well. Another one, I interviewed Carlos Romulo [former Filipino diplomat and journalist]. He was very harsh against the Japanese because of the war. But I liked him. He was a journalist himself, and he won the Pulitzer Prize. It was a long time ago, even before the war. He prided himself on being a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

You were in the United States during the late 1960s. Was it interesting being there during that time?

A lot of upheaval in America. Yes, very interesting. 1968...was the height of the anti-Vietnam movement. Everything was tumultuous, radical, militant, racial issues, Blacks very militant, women’s liberation, hippies, students, campus riots. Columbia University’s president’s office was raided by students. So, it was a very interesting period to watch.

How did that influence you?

I don’t think I was influenced ideologically. But...America, for me, is still the America of the 1960s.

Really?!

Yeah. The way, maybe, I’m looking through...

...the lens of the 1960s.

So I’m very interested in how American political ideology swings left, right, Reagan years, Bush years. I don’t know if Obama is really swinging back to the left or not. The theory of the 30-year cycle was the theory of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. And according to a recent book Nixonland, by Rick Perlstein, a history of recent American politics published in 2008, the roots of the current situation in American politics are back in the 1960s. Another important book is Camelot and the Cultural Revolution, a book about John F. Kennedy’s assassination by James Piereson, who says that the assassination has had a more profound impact on American society than the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. So the 1960s, late 1960s, were very important. Kennedy was elected and killed. Martin Luther King was killed. So, late ‘60s – I was very lucky to be there.

A very interesting time to be there.

I was 28, 29 years old.

It didn’t influence you ideologically. But did it influence you personally?

[silence] Maybe I was influenced, but I can’t figure out how.

Let me ask in a different way. How did the experience of living abroad, living in the United States in the ‘60s, living in Hong Kong for four years – how has that influenced you?

In general?

Yes.

[silence] I have a very broad view of the world. Beyond the border. [silence] Not just confined to Japan in terms of viewpoint and mindset. How do you become global? International? I think I’m quite free.

Free from...

Free from...obsession with Japan.

Oh!

I think I can like foreigners, non-Japanese.

Be open to them.

Maybe I’ve been influenced in many other ways. I’m interested in many different parts of the world. I hope I can go to every corner of the world if physically possible. So what I tell students at Waseda – you have to take a look at, give your eyes to the whole world. And foreign languages, especially English, is very useful. My career and retirement after all show how I was influenced by overseas experience. After coming back from Hong Kong, I was again on The Nikkei Weekly. Those years included when I was editor in chief of the paper. The last 10 years I was with the editorial board, writing editorials for the daily edition, chiefly on Asian affairs. I also wrote about English-language education in Japan, occasionally, the importance of English. For example I wrote a 10-part series of editorials on the subject. And I keep writing occasionally for The Nikkei Weekly. After Nikkei, I came to the Foreign Press Center. And now I’m teaching at Waseda University in the school of economics and political science, they call it seikei gakubu, and also the graduate school of journalism. I keep writing for Nikkei once a month, and maybe two or three times a month for the Web site of the Foreign Press center -- this is unsigned.

In Japanese.

No, both in Japanese and English.

Really?

On Japanese affairs, mostly economic and diplomatic issues. I’m asked to write both in Japanese and English, exactly the same thing, on the Web site for the Foreign Press Center. I try to always write English first, and then translate, sort of, into Japanese. Because if you write in Japanese first, your English will become awkward because you are bound by the original Japanese. Without that you could write more freely. It’s hard to explain, but when you write English you think in English. Right?

Right

But if you write in Japanese, then you think in Japanese.

Right.

The thinking process...

...is different.

...is different in English and Japanese.

How is it different?

[silence] In style, in thinking and everything. It’s hard to explain. It’s very different!

MI/WF

[laughter]

If I write in Japanese first, and then translate to English, it becomes like Japanese-English. I’m afraid of that, so I try to write in English first.

But then does the Japanese become awkward?

I guess so.

You guess so?!

The editor....maybe they don’t like the Japanese.

But you’re not sure?

Sometimes it’s corrected and edited.

[laughs] Oh, well.

It’s not easy to translate your own English into Japanese, even if you’re writing the same thing, because the structure of English news writing and Japanese news writing is different. In English news writing, the really important thing comes at the top of the opening paragraph. But in Japanese, from the English standpoint, is not like that.

So it’s more like pyramidal structure in Japanese and inverted pyramid in English.

Yeah. One example I give students is an article on the American Congress bailout of GM. The Mainichi Shimbun discussed whether to provide this amount of rescue money to GM, but the prospect is uncertain. Hakkiri shinai. That’s the ending sentence. But if I’m writing that in English, I start – “It is not certain whether the money will be provided, even though the Congress is debating.” So this is the structural difference between the two languages. So in English, you start with the important thing, but Japanese language simply doesn’t make it possible. Even if you try. If you do, it’s very awkward, unreadable for Japanese readers.

Yeah, right. This is what I’m always telling my students, too -- that they have to start thinking in English.

These days I don’t have many opportunities to write Japanese for anything. So I feel it’s easier to write in English. I have translated quite a few English books into Japanese, including Margaret Thatcher’s Downing Street Years, which was a best seller, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen’s Development as Freedom. I also have done a lot of Japanese-to-English translation. But after all, I hate translation. It’s not enjoyable work.

So you’re used to now thinking mostly in English.

I force myself.

[laughs] You force yourself!

Because, frankly speaking, I’m still struggling with English. Because, after all, English is not my native language. I wish I could be a native speaker, but I can’t But I can still try to become closer to being a native speaker of English. So I watch English television, I read English newspapers, in addition to Japanese newspapers. I read English newspapers and always mark phrases I think I should acquire and use someday.

Right.

I’m always telling my students, I’m still learning, and I’m learning with you. After 50 years...maybe there should be a more efficient and smarter way of learning English.

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July 12, 2008

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Japanese Journalist's ESL Odyssey

Interview: Yoko Nishikawa

Yoko Nishikawa is Senior Correspondent for Political and General News, Japan, at Reuters News Agency’s Tokyo bureau. She was born in Tokyo in 1971. When she was in the ninth grade she won a scholarship to study in the United States. After graduating from high school she enrolled at Georgetown University where she earned an undergraduate degree. She was first hired by the British news organization as a trainee in 1996. She quit six years later to pursue a graduate degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She was rehired by Reuters in 2004 as a senior correspondent for economic policy and has held her current position since October 2008.

Our interview took place in September 2008 as the financial meltdown in the United States was taking place. At the time of our interview, Yoko Nishikawa was the head of the economic policy team at Reuters.

Writers Forum

What made you decide to attend university in the States as opposed to Japan?

Yoko Nishikawa

Well, I actually was very homesick during my high school time. Although I missed Japan, I was kind of wondering whether I should go back to Japan for college or stay in the States. I got into some schools in the U.S., but still I was not sure. So I came back (to Japan) for a year and wondered whether I should go to yobiko (cram school for university entrance exams.) But I just couldn’t find any appealing university in Japan, so I decided to go to Georgetown.

Big decision. Especially for someone who hadn’t spent her formative years in the States. Very big decision!

Actually, I was young enough to do that (laughs).

What did you major in at Georgetown?

International Relations, Politics, and Organization.

When did you start thinking about journalism as a career? Was that while you were still in school?

I don’t remember exactly. I was always curious about a job or career in journalism, but I think I made up my mind around junior or senior year of university.

What was it that attracted you to journalism?

I thought that the media has such a huge power. Yes policy makers do make policy, but media has such an influence. It’s such a privilege to be able to meet people and talk about what’s happening in the world. Actually, at first, I was thinking about a different focus from what I’m doing now. My first ambition was to go outside Japan and report on the poor, on conflicts, on war.

The developing world.

Emerging, developing world. And see how their lives are evolving. Some people are in misery due to war, due to conflict. A lot of people are forgotten. Living in Japan, I just wanted to make sure their voices were heard. I haven’t done it yet, but that is my ultimate goal…

That was the spark…

Yes!

…that was driving you. You’re reporting on finance now, which seems very far removed. Do you still feel like you’re moving toward reporting about developing countries as your eventual goal?

I hope so. I have been expressing my desire to go outside Japan. Now I’m totally into financial news. Reuters is such a huge organization. It has the biggest number of bureaus in the world, of any news organization. So the opportunities are there. It’s up to me.

To navigate, to find your way through. When you were hired in 1996 did you start out in Finance?

Well, first I was a kind of a trainee, so I did a lot of different things. I did some currency market reporting, and then moved to an economic policy reporting team. In the beginning, trainees are asked to do all sorts of things. I actually worked on what at that point was a new project – putting news on the web site. I did that project for about 10 months.

What do you enjoy about financial reporting?

It’s…I didn’t know about it until I joined this company, how huge the markets are, and how quickly things actually move. It’s just so amazing. You don’t see what’s happening, you just see prices going up on the screen.

You’re covering the financial scene at a momentous time. The New York Times said that the changes underway now (Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and others, declaring bankruptcy) are “reshaping the landscape of American finance.”

When I first started covering financial policy, it was overwhelming.

Overwhelming in terms of…

Overwhelming in terms of how things move so quickly. During the Asian financial crisis, I didn’t know enough to stay on top of it. I was always trying to catch up with what was happening. That was exciting, in a way. It’s hard, it’s challenging, but exciting too.

What influenced your decision to write in English as opposed to your native Japanese?

I guess I wanted to…since I got to speak English when I studied abroad, I wanted to take advantage of that. And also, if you’re writing in English, your views go global.

There are fewer Japanese speakers in the world than English.

Yeah, you don’t have to be an English native speaker, it’s an international language.

So you’ve got a huge audience.

And it’s always challenging to write about Japan in English so that people who don’t know about Japan can understand better what’s happening here.

Can you give an example of something you feel proud of – perhaps a particular story, or a certain aspect of Japanese culture that you’ve been able to explain in a way that non-Japanese could understand?

Everybody says that Japanese politics is so mysterious. Policy makers are so…vague that it’s hard to really understand what they’re trying to say. So it’s always a challenge. I guess it’s a constant challenge to make sure I can write a story to a broader audience. And that’s a big theme for Reuters, too. You have to write a story in a way that a person on the other side of the globe can understand what’s happening in Japan.

So there’s the technical aspect, the financial jargon that you need to demystify, but there’s also the whole “aimai” aspect of Japanese culture – the tendency in Japan to say things indirectly, or vaguely. So that must be…

That’s hard! Because I…

Even Japanese often don’t understand!

Yeah. And especially the politicians try to make it vague!

They specialize in that!

So…I mean, let’s say, “shoa ga nai.” Or... “Ikaga na mono ka” for example, I don’t know if you’re….

The second one I don’t know.

“Ikaga na mono ka" which means, like, it has a negative meaning of ‘I wonder if…this is right, or this is appropriate?’ But basically, that does not mean that that person has said, ‘This is inappropriate or undesirable’ but kind of raising the question of: ‘I wonder if that’s OK….’ or not. Basically saying that they are against that policy, against that decision. So that…whenever they say such a thing, it is very hard to translate. Because the English language is so different from Japanese language, as you know.

Yeah.

Especially like, if you hear something in Japanese, and then you have this nuance that you want to translate. It’s very hard to have that nuance in English. And, often times we just have to…you don’t use that quote, you paraphrase.

Right.

Explain what…they suggested, for example. Although Reuters is not really keen on interpreting too much about what policy makers say. But sometimes we have to.

Sure.

To do so, you have to know what’s happening.

To put it in context.

Exactly.

We were talking about your decision to write in English as opposed to Japanese, and that audience was a big factor. Writing in English, you have such a huge, international audience. But I’m wondering if there’s anything in the nature of the two languages that also influenced your decision (to write in English.) For example, we were talking about the “aimai” factor.

Sure

…of Japanese language. Was there anything there that drew you to writing in English?

Let me think. This didn’t really drive me to choose English, to write in English, but after doing this job I realized that a lot of articles in Japanese newspapers … that the rules of writing articles are so different. For example, they don’t source policy makers but will say ‘The government has decided…’ without quoting any sources. The rules of the game are very different from English-language newspapers. I kind of like that.

More…accountability?

Yes. And credibility. You have bylines. Not to show off but just to show the audience…that you are responsible for this article, and you’re comfortable with this information.

Right.

Sometimes you have to… protect your sources, we do that, too. But…the mentality is a little bit different from Japanese journalism, Japanese language journalism.

Another thing I wanted to ask you, although….really, you’ve never worked for a Japanese company, right? I was going to ask if there is anything culturally about working for, in this case, a British company that’s challenging or difficult.

It’s much easier for me to answer. I really like working for a foreign company in Japan. I’m still…I’m 37 and I’m already in a middle management position. They didn’t really care about how young I was, or about the woman factor. I never felt that I was a female reporter. My gender doesn’t matter.

And you don’t really have so many issues around seniority, do you?

No. I mean…we do, but…maybe 80 percent of the reporters in the newsroom are Japanese. Still…the culture is so different (from a traditional Japanese company.) You can speak so frankly to anyone, and I really enjoy that. Even in a modern Japanese company, it’s still hard to… plan your career.

A well-known Japanese expression teaches that “The protruding nail gets pounded down." I think part of what you’re saying is that you can feel much more free to be who you are without worrying about…getting ‘pounded down’ in some way.

Exactly. It’s a very open organization. I guess growing up in the U.S., I don’t think I can handle a very traditional Japanese way of working. You can’t go home until your boss goes home kind of thing. (laughs.) You can go home, but you feel bad for going home. Until your boss leaves the office.

As opposed to, do I have work to do, that I need to do?

Yeah, right. Or speaking up and trying to express your ideas. Taking initiative is welcomed rather than discouraged.

Your initial spark for going into journalism was the thought of covering third world or developing world issues, or disenfranchised peoples or cultures. What do you see yourself doing, say, in 10 years?

I hope I will be doing that. I do not know yet if that will happen, but I want to be…if everything goes well, I have some kids, I have my whole family living in…I don’t know, even Indonesia.

So actually living outside Japan.

I hope that would happen, but it’s not very easy to do.

Is there any way to….write about developing world issues in Japan?

In a way, yes, and I have been trying to do that by covering those subjects. Like development aid, ODA issues.

Right.

And I try to do that as much as I can. I covered a meeting on African development that happened earlier this year. But I cannot write about what’s happening in Africa or Vietnam, for example.

Sure.

Because they have reporters there.

Sure.

One good thing about being in Japan is that a lot of policy makers from everywhere, U.S., Europe, and also developing countries, come to meet policy makers here. So whenever they come I have interviews with them. So I have been writing about Africa, Asia, that kind of thing. And I try to do that as much as I can. I just did an interview last week with the ADB (Asian Development Bank) president who was here. He’s Japanese, so I’ve known him for a while, but we talked about Asia. So that’s good.

Where do you see the current economic crisis ending?

I wish I knew. Nobody knows. I think it’s going to take a while to get back to normal.

Do you think that’s possible – going back to whatever ‘normal’ was – especially, say, in the States?

I think so. Look what we went through in Japan. We call it the “Lost Decade.” It resembles what we saw in 1997, ’98. You know, you never thought a big bank in Japan would go bankrupt. We’re back to normal, economically. Of course, it’s not perfect now, but…

What are the biggest challenges, or hurdles with your job?

Of course writing in English is a challenge always. I read my colleagues’ stories written by native speakers. When I see a very good story written by my colleague, I wish I could write that way. Even though, I feel like I could never master the language as much as they have. I still feel more comfortable with Japanese. As a language. I still say Japanese is my first language. And that will never change. So it’s a challenge to be writing in English, but I like that challenge.

I’m teaching Japanese students to write in English, so I see the challenges from a teacher’s perspective. Can you recall, especially that period back in Georgetown, when you were writing academic papers on a much larger scale than what you were doing in high school, what were the earliest challenges of being able to write in English?

I think it was just, at that time, it was not just writing, but it’s more understanding about the subject. For example, theology. I had to take theology at Georgetown. And because the subject was not familiar to me, I had to read like 100 pages for homework, and I just couldn’t catch up with it. Also, you had to express your opinions in class. And that was different from sitting in class and listening to teachers. More debate is required for schools in the U.S. and it was very difficult to adjust to that. I started learning English in Junior High School, just like everybody else. I went to the States after a few years of junior high and high school English classes. When I first went to the States, I couldn’t speak well, I couldn’t understand well. I couldn’t write anything. I had to read, like Huckleberry Finn, which was a total disaster for me, at that time!

Reading…or writing about it?

Reading.

Because there is a lot of slang there.

Ah.

Reading a page for English class took me, like, hours to translate and understand. That was high school. And in university I got much better, but still...you know, I had to read 100 pages by next week. You had to try to do it by skimming it and trying to, you know, read the….

…pulling out the…

…yeah, basically. You try to focus on the headings and main points and skim the rest and try to get the conclusion right. (laughs) I finally felt very comfortable taking classes and participating in classes when I went back to graduate school.

Oh really?

I really felt comfortable. At Georgetown I did fine, I got fine grades and everything. But, I never felt like, this is…like, this is, like I was….

You were out of your element – at that time.

Yeah. And I was trying to catch up and trying to do well.

Huh.

So when I went to graduate school I really enjoyed it. I felt like I had this freedom to…

Huh. And that was after you had been working, of course…

Yeah, so I was more mature as a person, too.

And more confident.

Confidence, exactly. And then writing at Reuters helped too.

Interesting, though, that the challenges that you’re talking about seem to be more about verbal communication and classroom culture than the actual mechanics and organization of writing.

Um. Actually I...I don’t know, even if I wrote in Japanese the same thing would happen…

“Same thing would happen” meaning…

You have to learn how to write well. You have to know how to structure your papers, how to write well.

There’s a lot of research on cross-cultural rhetoric, especially studies that compare Japanese rhetoric to Western rhetoric, that have found that Western writers follow what’s called an “inverted pyramid” organizational style, meaning that they start by stating a main idea, in the case of a paragraph, or a thesis statement, in the case of an extended essay, and follow it with details and examples that illustrate that main idea. Japanese rhetoric, by contrast, follows a pyramidal style in which writers give a number of details and examples and then end with the main idea. These are obviously two very different approaches. Have you found this to be true and, if so, was it a challenge for you to switch to a different organizational style?

I think…maybe no. Because I went to high school in the States and I just kind of jumped to the inverted pyramid style. I got trained there. When I read Japanese magazines and newspapers I notice the differences. In junior high school I had to write papers with Japanese rules, but not as much. It was more about memorizing and taking exams than writing papers.

Without ever having been trained in the so-called Japanese pyramidal style to begin with.

Exactly. So I think that probably is one reason I don’t find it as challenging as other people may have. If I had gone through university education here and then went to school over there, maybe that would have been a huge issue.

Whereas, as it turned out, the schooling you went through in Japan, you were getting that pyramidal style, but through reading. So it was more through osmosis.

Right. Exactly.

Interesting.

I feel more comfortable working in the inverted pyramid style after having worked at Reuters. Having done the graduate program at Johns Hopkins not only expanded but deepened my knowledge about economics. I also did a Southeast Asian studies program. Part of the reason is because I’m very fascinated by the region and want to live there at some point. So…I really enjoyed learning about that. And, especially, I’m writing about economics, and international economics courses have helped me understand what’s behind the scenes when I talk to economists. I can understand better why they say certain things.

You have a wider view.

And more confidence in myself to go talk to people. I now have friends everywhere – Southeast Asia, the U.S., and that’s a great asset.

Yes, absolutely.

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October 20, 2009

Masahiko Ishizuka: Salesman of Ideas

July 12, 2008

Japanese Journalist's ESL Odyssey

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