JIN-319 -- Viewing the Whole Person

========================================================
T H E J @ P A N I N C N E W S L E T T E R
Commentary on the Week's Business, Technology and Cultural News
========================================================

Issue No. 319
Wednesday April 27, 2005 TOKYO

+++ VIEWPOINT Viewing the Whole Person
1. Half Human?
2. Eurasian Features as Paragon?

========================================================
Resident First Co., Ltd. - "City Living at its Best"

Would you like a residence with swimming pool or sports gym?
Do you need Internet access? Would you like to watch your
favorite home-country program on satellite or cable TV?
Let us know your wishes, and we are confident we can provide
you a residence that will make your stay in Japan pleasant
and memorable.
* Area: Roppongi, Aoyama, Azabu, Hiroo, Omotesando,
Akasaka, etc.
* Rent: 200,000 yen - over 1,000,000yen

For more information, please visit
http://www.mitsui-resident-int.com
or call free dial 0120-317-039.

========================================================
AMT Group's Exclusive Seminar

"Leadership Awareness Seminar" (in Japanese) at AMT Group's
Development Den in Yotsuya. 10:00 - 15:00, May 17 & 19
In a small group (maximum 6 participants):
* Learn and apply new leadership & coaching tools
* Access 100+ ways to motivate yourself and others
* Practice presenting before a group of peers and professional
coaches

Total investment: JPY97,000.
E-mail seminars@amt-group.com for details and to register.
And...for a FREE subscription to Andrew's Ax Leadership
Development newsletter, e-mail Ax@amt-group.com
http://www.amt-group.com
========================================================

+++ VIEWPOINT Viewing the Whole Person
1. Half Human?

"My mother is Japanese. My father is American. They call me
'half.' So began my second-grade son's school composition.

Not long afterwards the principal invited the school's part-time
English teachers to dinner at a restaurant in Yokohama's
Chinatown. The teachers were generally mothers of mixed race
children attending the elementary school; in other words, they
were foreign women married to Japanese men, or Japanese
women married to foreign men.. I tagged along. The word "half"
popped up again. Thereupon the principal opined that since
such children were bicultural, they would best be called "double."
"I'm a "single," he said with apparent self-deprecating humor..

Some foreign residents of Japan disdain the Japanese term"half."
"Half of what? Half human?" they ask in exasperation. Others heap
it together with Japanese coinages like "salaryman" and "OL"
(office lady). Residents versed in the local language tend to
interpret "half "as short for "half-Japanese"; they do not find
it pejorative.

A Japanese friend informs me that 20 or 30 years ago the word
"half" sometimes had a negative connotation . Perhaps. In the
novel "Sound the Whistle Someday" (Hiroshi Hatakeyama, 1972)
we find "young guys, seemingly halfs, blindly aping others."

Japanese seem to think "half" refers to a child whose parents
include a Japanese. However, according to the "Nihongo Daijiten"
(Unabridged Dictionary of the Japanese Language), "half" is
short for English "half-blood" and means "konketsuji," literally,
"child of mixed blood." In other words, a "half," by the dictionary
definition, does not necessarily have a Japanese parent.

========================================================
Information Management Network
Japan Cup of Investment Management - May, 2005 * Tokyo

The Japan Cup of Investment Management is an outstanding
educational and networking program for institutional
investors throughout Asia. This year's program will begin
with an inside look at the investment practices of pension
plans in Asia and around the world. The afternoon will
focus on such timely topics as the move to free-float,
portable alpha strategies and alternative investments,
indexing for hedge funds, asset/liability management,
global fixed income strategies and transitioning
international portfolios. Join over 400 attendees to hear
the industry's leading experts in investment management.

For additional information, go to www.imn.org/etm738/jie
========================================================

2. Eurasian Features as Paragon?

"Konketsuji," a term that brings to mind children born to GIs
and Japanese women in the grim postwar period, is seldom
heard these days. Nor, for that matter, are its English
equivalents, "half-blood," half-caste, and "half-breed" -- the
last branded on the consciousness by Cher's Billboard No.
1 song in 1973. "Half" would seem to have replaced "konketsuji."

The same friend remarks that in the past 10 years the word
"half" has come to have a positive meaning. In the novel
"Honmoku Doll" (Saki Takahashi, 2003) panache ebbs from
the Honmoku district of Yokohama with the maturation and
departure of its tribe of "halfs." In short, today half is cool.
I wonder if on a subconscious level the many Japanese women
who undergo plastic surgery and dye their hair brunette or red
hold up Eurasian features as a paragon?

Pejorative, neutral, or positive --"half" represents a blight on
the moral intelligence--a mote in the eye that prevents one
from seeing the "whole" person.

"They call me 'half," wrote my son. "But I want to be friends
with everyone."

--Burritt Sabin

========================================================
Email Marketing Works

Study after study shows that email marketing ranks among the
most effective, and cost-effective, methods of reaching your
audience. However, constructing an effective email marketing
campaign involves far more than simply stuffing your customer's
inboxes. Follow up mailing, reporting, personalization,
autoresponders and, of course, crafting of the appropriate
message are all essential components of a successful campaign.

Ashley Associates Ltd. (http://www.ashleyassociates.co.jp)
is a leading provider of email marketing solutions.

For more information, or to request a free white paper please
contact info@ashleyassociates.co.jp.

========================================================
STAR Financial Management

Providing retail and institutional investors with bespoke,
non-commission driven investment advice and portfolio
management services. STAR is totally focused on adding
value for its clients through superior risk-adjusted rates
of return whilst delivering the highest levels of
professional excellence, integrity and service.
For more information, go to www.starfml.com or contact us
at 03-3667-1671.

STAR Financial Management is licensed and regulated by the
Ministry of Finance (Japan) - License no. 1237 Kanto region
========================================================

SUBSCRIBERS: 27,971 as of April 27, 2005

EDITOR
Written and edited by Burritt Sabin (editors2@japaninc.com)

(C) Copyright 2005 Japan Inc Communications KK. All Rights Reserved.