Thursday, September 26, 2013

My Embassy Internship in Tokyo!

Anette 6:30:00 PM Embassy, Internship, Rakuten, Tokyo

Although I was supposed to graduate from university this summer I decided to extend my studies by one semester after I was offered a six month position as a trainee at the Norwegian embassy in Tokyo. It has been a month since I started working, so it's time for a short update about recent happenings! With that said, this will be more like a very general overview of how it is to work at the embassy. The reason for this is that working for the foreign department of course involves a certain degree of confidentiality. All I can say is that so far my time at the embassy has been very rewarding. The good working environment at the embassy and my nice colleagues makes it particularly nice to be here, and I felt welcomed from the very first day at the embassy.

In front of the embassy, ready for duty

I am one of two interns who have been employed since the end of August, and our duties have been many and varied. We participate for instance in various press conferences and seminars which we then write reports about. To give a couple of examples it can involve a press conference with a minister, or seminars held by professors from the top Japanese universities. For me it was especially great to participate in a luncheon with Hiroshi Mikitani, the CEO and founder of Rakuten, as I will start working in Rakuten from April next year. I even got the chance to ask him a question directly, which I somehow managed to deliver in an understandable manner despite being nervous as can be..

Hiroshi Mikitani from Rakuten at a luncheon at FCCJ

Yohei Sasakawa, chairman of the Sasakawa Foundation, holding a speech at a seminar about the Northern Sea Route

There are also some daily tasks we are in charge of, such as sending out newsletters or updating the embassy’s homepage. In addition we help out for instance when there are special events at the embassy, and get to participate in quite a few of them ourselves. With regular newsletters and rapports coming to my inbox every single day from other embassies all over the world I can easily stay up-to-date about recent events, something I surely will miss when the term is over.

Holding events at the embassy

I also want to mention that with my 2-year experience of living in Kyoto I find it particularly delightful to be a part of the Norwegian environment here in Tokyo. We were not that many Norwegians at my university in Kyoto, and we did not really have a “Norwegian community” there either. Now that I work at the embassy I get to meet a lot of interesting people coming all the way from Norway for various reasons, and it is nice to have the chance to share experiences and knowledge about our country of common interest; Japan. Going to karaoke with Norwegians who love to sing traditional Japanese enka in perfect Japanese is for instance not something you get to experience every day.

I look forward to the coming months and challenges, and I’ll try to keep the blog updated with my leisure activities here in Tokyo as well. Thanks again to all readers for taking the time to read my blog^^

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About Anette
Anette came to Japan as an exchange student in 2010, met the love of her life and got stuck. From her base in Tokyo she writes about her experiences as a full-time worker in Tokyo and about her travels in Japan and abroad. She's a free-spirited adventurer who enjoys both the great outdoors and her urban lifestyle.