Internship Report, 7/29/95

Because my company is soon to have Internet access, they have called on me to design their WWW information pages. I am still working hard on this project and it will probably take a while to complete. It's a good experience, because as I design this so-called "kaisha annai" (company introduction) I am learning a lot about the company.

We didn't have a kengaku this week but we did have an internship conference in Shin-Yokohama. The best part of this conference was the opportunity to learn a little about the purpose behind these kinds of internship programs, and to learn about our sponsor.

According to one speaker, the conference was sponsored by a large grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, particularly the U.S. Air Force. Since Congress has noticed a serious deficit in people who understand Japanese language, culture, and business practices, they seek to build up an army of "diplomats" who are capable of functioning in a Japanese environment. That's why they payed for my tuition and airline flight to and from Japan. That's also why they payed for the all day rental of two ballrooms and hotel accomodations for all attending interns, in addition to their shinkansen travel expenses.

I guess we must really be valuable to the government. Up until now, however, I had no clue that I was part of a government project to build capable Japanese-fluent diplomats.

Goal for coming week: Find time to get to the o-matsuri.