CANADA-JAPAN CO-OP PROGRAM EXPERIENTIAL REPORT

for the work term undertaken at

DAI NIPPON PRINTING CO., LTD
大日本印刷株式会社（柏研究開発センター）〒２７７－０８７１
千葉県柏市若柴２５０－１
https://www.dnp.co.jp/

byLucas John Andrew
BSc. Honours
Department of Chemistry
University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
20 December 2019

Table of Contents
Introduction and History of Dai Nippon Printing………………………………………………….2
Work Term Structure………………………………………………………………………………3
Skill Development and Main Research Topics……………………………………………………...4
Relationships with Coworkers and Superiors……………………………………………………….7
Life in Japan – Day to Day…………………………………………………………………………8
Life in Japan – Cultural Activities…………………………………………………………………10List of Cultural Activities/Photos…………………………………………………………...…….12
To Future CJCP Students…………………………………………………………………………18
Impressions of Japan ……………………………………………………………………………..19
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………...22

Acknowledgments
I would like to sincerely thank the numerous people, both in Japan and Canada, who assisted
me to adjust to life in Japan as best as possible, most namely Mami Schouten of the University ofVictoria International Co-op and Career Centre, Yuko Nemoto of the Canada-Japan Co-op Program,
and Tsuyoshi Hotta, Noriko Ida, and Hiroshi Asada of Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. I would also
like to thank all the employees of Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd., who taught me many things bothabout their research and life in Japan throughout the co-op term and helped me feel like a welcome
member of the workplace every day.

1

Introduction and History of Dai Nippon Printing
As anyone with some knowledge of the names of Japanese companies might know, the words“Dai Nippon” (lit. Big Japan) usually signal that the company is an especially old one, and Dai Nippon
Printing (DNP) is no exception. Founded in 1876 under the name Shueisha in Ginza, Tokyo as aletterpress printing company, it rapidly emerged as one of the largest printing companies in Japan
during the time, printing Japanese books as well as some of the first Japanese translations of foreign
books to be produced in the country. In the early 1900s significant competitors began to emerge andfollowing the destruction of the head office in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, Shueisha mergedwith another company, Nisshin Printing Co., Ltd in 1935 to become Dai Nippon Printing.
After the end of World War II, DNP first listed its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in1949 and thus began a period of Research and Development growth for the company. Demands weredifferent after the end of World War II, and DNP had to expand its interests to remain relevant in the
new business landscape. Production began on new paper containers, and printing technologies wereexpanded to new substrates including vinyl, cellophane, and cloth. DNP developed new techniques
not only in the printing sphere, but in other research areas as well – for example, DNP was the firstJapanese company to produce shadowmasks for colour televisions.
In the economic boom years of the 60s and 70s, research interests at DNP expanded greatly
into fields such as food packaging and aseptic filling systems, direct printing on metal surfaces, andmagnetic-stripe security cards. This period of innovation continued through the 80s as DNP opened
sales branches worldwide as well as factories in neighbouring Asian countries. During this time,
production began on technology such as PET bottles along with aseptic filling systems for them,
thermal transfer ink technologies, and smart cards. This trend of expansion into fields not traditionallyconsidered part of the sphere of “printing” technologies continues today, where DNP applies its
printing expertise in unique ways to fields such as semiconductor and circuit printing, regenerative
medicine and life sciences, insulated packaging for lithium-ion batteries, and much more with the goalof creating “Tomorrow’s Basic” – products that with become an essential part of daily life for many
people in the future.

2

Work Term Structure
The structure of this work term was somewhat unique in that I did not work with one single
department for the entire seven-month period. Instead, I began the work term by rotating throughvarious departments at the Kashiwa Research and Development Center as well as several otherlocations in week-long or shorter segments. This period exposed me to a very diverse set of research
projects which I otherwise would never have a chance to experience, as well as gave me the chance to
get to know as many of my coworkers as possible. From the beginning of the work term in May 2019
until the beginning of August 2019, I worked with 15 different departments, from which I chose four
departments to return to for month-long rotations beginning after the August summer vacation.
At the Kashiwa Research and Development Center, departments are divided into major
umbrellas based on the main type of research being performed – the Patterning Products teamresearched techniques to apply DNP’s unique printing and patterning technologies to create new
products, and the Converting Products team worked on applying DNP technology to add new value
to existing products on the market. Within each of these large umbrellas, individual teams worked on
more specific projects, and the people within each small team were usually divided up into several
small groups themselves. Each of my rotation periods involved working closely with these small teams
on individual projects, and I was impressed by the diversity of research interests not only within thecenter itself but within each of the smaller teams as well.
Given the unique structure of this work term, it is difficult to define my specific role in theworkplace as it varied greatly between each department depending on factors such as my priorexperience with the topic. In some cases where I had little experience with the research being done, I
took on more of an intern-like role and focused more on learning new concepts, but in cases where I
had previous experience with the research I took on more of a normal, everyday working role,
especially during the month-long rotation periods at the end of the work term. This diversity inexperiences between each team kept the work term exciting from beginning to end, both in terms ofthe variety of research performed but also the many people I had the pleasure of spending time within each team.

3

Skill Development and Main Research Topics
Once again, the large diversity of research experience accrued throughout this term makes it
difficult to pinpoint extremely specific points of learning, but there were several general themes andmethods employed across various departments. The most major of these was soft and hardlithography technology, applied mainly for the patterning of metal circuits onto both flexible and rigid
substrates. These techniques involved the combination of photolithography and chemical etching to
produce complex, multi-layer circuits on substrates such as glass, silicon, or flexible polymericmaterials. Printing methods were employed in almost every facet of research such as screen printingof adhesive patterns for transfer of metal circuit between substrates or printing cell-adhesive material
on stem cell culture plates to encourage specific cell growth patterns. Another general skill developed
during this work term was the ability to work properly in a dust-free clean room environment,
necessary for avoiding contamination during printing processes. There are a number of clean rooms
at the Research and Development Center which offered an excellent opportunity to become
accustomed to work in a location with strictly-controlled environmental conditions. Overall, the work
term provided a great variety of different learning experiences in terms of research techniques andenvironments.
My first month-long rotation was carried out with a team developing flexible electronic circuits
for use in skin-mountable sensor and display modules. These types of devices could be useful for
applications such as portable, non-obtrusive heartrate or blood oxygen sensors, wearable media
devices for entertainment and functionality similar to today’s smart watches, low-profile sensors formonitoring muscle activity during physical activity or rehabilitative exercises and so on. Research withthis team involved extensive use of the photolithography and screen-printing techniques mentioned
above, all performed in a clean room. During this rotation, I worked in the clean room most of each
day for four weeks and developed a great appreciation for the measures required to ensure printing
accuracy and avoid dust contamination. I also gained experience in photolithography techniques, aswell as various laser microscopes used for checking accuracy of the printed circuits I had helped
fabricate.
On the other hand, the second month-long (six week) rotation took me out of the clean room
and into the cell culture laboratory where I assisted with the growth and upkeep of miniature intestinalorganoids. Grown for use in medical testing applications to reduce the prevalence of animal andhuman trials, working with these intestinal organoids afforded me the opportunity to learn techniques
4for working with human induced pluripotent stem cells, quite a change from my prior experience withbacterial culture. The upkeep process involved regular changes of culture media, removal of fully
matured/nonviable samples, and monitoring growth by taking pictures with a microscope. Being a
microbiological laboratory, work was mostly carried out in biosafety cabinets to ensure a sterile
environment which gave me the opportunity to improve on my sterile technique. Additionally, I
harnessed previous experience working in a microbiological laboratory setting at the University ofVictoria to help design and carry out three original experiments designed to improve maturation of
the intestinal organoids into more human-like samples. While the results were not as successful as
hoped, I enjoyed the opportunity to help design and carry out experiments in a corporate researchsetting which has a very different research environment to that of a university.
For the third month-long rotation, I again worked for most of the time in a clean room helping
to fabricate and test circuits for use in modern 5G applications. This period of research was especiallyinteresting from a learning perspective as it was something that I had never had any previous
experience with at university or otherwise. Development of 5G-compatible devices involves theprecise fabrication of circuits that run with low losses at high frequencies and is especially difficult in
the case of compact integrated circuits. In these types of circuits, multiple layers are stacked in a waythat ensures they are insulated from each other but are still connected through selected points called‘vias’ through the insulating dielectric layers in between. Realizing this type of device without incurringlarge performance losses is a difficult task that must be conquered for the successful integration of
5G-compatible devices into our daily lives. During this rotation, I employed photolithography,
electroplating, lamination of dielectric layers, and metal sputtering techniques to fabricate circuits, andmeasured the accuracy and dimensions of various circuit patterns with microscopy techniques. I also
had the chance to measure the high frequency characteristics of the circuits with a frequency response
analyzer. Finally, I gained experience in manipulating large quantities of data by summarizing andcomparing all the high frequency measurements. For this rotation more than the others, I spent a great
deal of time reading papers and developing background knowledge on the subject as well as it wascompletely new to me and developed an interest in an area of research that I otherwise would likely
have not been exposed to at all.
The final one-month rotation was the one that I was most familiar with before coming to
DNP, as it involved the synthesis and manipulation of nanoparticles. My Honours research at UVic
also involves nanoparticle research, but the type of nanoparticle was entirely different, enabling me toexpand my knowledge in this field even further. DNP’s nanoparticle research is mostly based on5developing hard, anti-reflective coatings, which is an application I had never heard of before andtherefore it was of great interest. Being at the end of the work term and end of the year, there weremany events and things to attend to during this time, so I did not spend as much time proportionallyin the laboratory as in previous sections. However, I spent about a week and a half getting used to theprocedures used in the lab through assisting my coworkers with their experiments, and then set out
to try and design my own experiment by altering the shapes of the nanoparticles used and evaluating
the effect of this on the particles’ anti-reflective properties.
As important as research and technical skills are, the interpersonal and intercultural skills
gained during this work term are just as important. Living and working in a foreign country is not easy,
and although my coworkers did their best to make it as comfortable for me as possible, there inevitably
were still challenges to face. Perhaps most obvious is the language barrier. The structure of my work
term meant that the English ability of my coworkers varied wildly amongst the different teams I
worked with; in a few cases there were fluent English speakers on the team, most of the time people
had some English ability but not much, and in rare cases had almost no English ability at all. My desire
to communicate with all my coworkers equally to the best of my ability became one of my biggest
motivators, especially during the beginning of the work term – I forced myself to practice Japaneseboth outside of and at work to reduce the language barrier as much as possible. By the end of thework term, most people spoke with me almost exclusively in Japanese including people with highproficiency in English, a testament to the communication skills I was able to develop.
Of course, interpersonal and intercultural skills encompass much more than just language skills– workplace culture and personal interactions in Japan are vastly different than Canada and took sometime to adjust to. The concept of understanding where you stand in the hierarchy of a group of people
and adjusting your speech style and mannerisms to match was very important. There was also apalatable since of community at the workplace, especially within each of the smaller teams. Everyone
greets each other when they arrive for the day and tells everyone “thank you for the hard work” when
they head home for the day. Being in a very decidedly Japanese environment every day for the pastseven months has expanded my way of thinking and allowed me to consider life from the point ofview of different backgrounds to understand their motivations. This growth has not come withoutsome rough patches such as miscommunication with Japanese friends or misunderstanding of
instructions at work, but all these issues are part of the learning process. Due to participating in the
Canada-Japan Co-op Program, I have developed a desire to work in a position involving international
research collaboration in the future and am confident that the skills gained during this work term will6

go a long way towards furthering that goal both in terms of the laboratory skills and ability to connect
and communicate across cultures.

Relationships with Coworkers and Superiors
Above anything else, the warm welcome and constant support that I received from DNP and
my coworkers was the main reason I felt so comfortable in Japan so quickly. As DNP has been
receiving interns every year for quite some time now, the employees are used to having an intern
present even though the company is undoubtedly very traditionally Japanese. Additionally, the factthat DNP only ever takes one intern at a time means that many DNP employees can get to know eachintern on a more personal level. For me as the intern, this meant developing friendships with somecoworkers that extended outside of work events and the like. For example, I went with coworkers toTokyo Disney Sea and a local soccer match on a weekend, volunteered with the boy scout troupe of
one of my coworker’s children, played mah-jong at a local parlour after work, and went bowling toname a few. It has been an excellent experience for me to develop these connections with people atwork, and the fact that many people quite a bit older than me allowed for some very interesting
conversations that bridged not just cultural but generational gaps as well. At work, coworkers always
offered to eat lunch together in the cafeteria, and regularly greeted me in the hallways to ask how I
was doing or what kind of travels or activities I had been up to recently. As for my relationships withsuperiors, before coming to Japan I was slightly nervous about the task of interacting with superiors,
given the intricate politeness levels of the Japanese language which I still do not fully understand.
However, the interactions ended up being much more casual than expected in most cases. During theone-week rotation period at the start of my work term, I had a party after work almost every weeksponsored by the boss of each section I worked with, and more than a few of them explicitly told me
it was okay to use casual Japanese when speaking with them. Of course, I realize that these privileges
would not be afforded to regular employees, but I appreciated the warm welcome all the same andnever had any personal issues with any of my coworkers or superiors.

7

Life in Japan – Day to Day
While it took a few weeks to settle in, day to day life in Japan quickly became very comfortable.
The day that I arrived in Japan, the person who had conducted my job interview, Mr. Tsuyoshi Hotta,
came to pick me up at Narita Airport and help me bring my bags to Kashiwa, Chiba – my home forthe next seven months. We were greeted at Kashiwa station by three other coworkers who led me to
my apartment, a small monthly rental located a short walk from Kashiwa station, where they helped
me to set up my bedding and internet access. After this, we headed to a nearby izakaya for a delicious
welcome dinner of sashimi and grilled fish dishes. I was quite overwhelmed and nervous at first whenarriving at Narita Airport, but having my bosses and coworkers there to help me adjust as soon as I
arrived was an amazing welcome and great start to the work term.
For the first two weeks or so, I lived what the Japanese call the “convenience store life”, buying
every meal and most supplies from the nearby convenience store while taking the time to get mydocuments in order, explore the city and get my bearings. Kashiwa is not so far from Tokyo, but theatmosphere is much more local and English support was few and far between, so I relied on mycoworkers to help me set up my phone plan, get my residence card at the city hall, and any other ofthese initial issues that I may have experienced. At first things were slightly overwhelming, but thanks
to the friendly attitudes of not just my coworkers but everyone around me, from shop clerks helping
me to decipher payments in stores, and people helping with directions if I was wandering aroundlooking lost.
By the end of the second week, I had bought a small set of essential kitchen supplies at the
local Don Quixote and stocked up my fridge with basic ingredients. From then on, a more daily
routine started to set in. I took a company bus to and from work every day, which left from outside
Kashiwa station at around 8:10 – 8:30 am to travel to the Research and Development Center near
Kashiwanoha-Campus station, an area housing satellite campuses of both Chiba and Tokyo University.
Every work day began at 9:00 am and ended at 6:00 pm (except for the occasional after-work gatheringin the cafeteria), and I took the 6:15 pm bus home every day. My apartment was incredibly convenientfor getting to and from work as it was only five minutes on foot from the bus stop and the same
distance from Kashiwa station. I decided to save my money as much as possible for the weekends
when I would go travelling or go out with friends, so I began to cook almost every day at home if I
did not have plans to do anything after work. As mentioned earlier, during the beginning of the work
term I had a work party almost every week, but other than those days I would cook at home and meet8other CJCP students on the weekend to travel, explore Tokyo, or go to restaurants. This routine of
cooking simple, cheap food at home as much as possible continued throughout the work term, but asI began to make more Japanese friends I spent more nights after work meeting them for dinner,
movies, or other activities.
During the first few months of the work term, I studied Japanese every day for an hour or soafter I returned home and made an effort to use that night’s new grammar or vocabulary as much as
possible at work the next day. Once my Japanese level started to improve, however, I stopped thispractice and began studying mostly through conversation with colleagues. I found that learning
grammar through immersion and conversation, while slow at times, enabled me to develop a morenatural speech style. Conversing a lot at work also improved my pronunciation greatly as well. At first,
I often found myself mentally exhausted after work due to forcing myself to use Japanese as much as
possible, but my efforts paid off. It was very rewarding to hear from coworkers that my language skills
had improved or go to a store where previously I had difficulty and navigate/communicate with ease.
By making Japanese practice a part of my daily life, I believe that I was able to experience local culture
more than would have been possible otherwise.
The work day varied significantly from day to day depending on experiments, but in general I
would arrive at work around 8:45 – 8:50 am, change into my work uniform, and go to check emails.
Every morning around 8:55 am a song played over the building speakers and everyone stood up to
stretch and prepare for the day ahead. Starting from 9:00 am, I would generally begin the first task ofthe day with my supervisor, which was usually an experiment but could be research orsummarizing/analyzing the previous day’s data. Lunch break was officially held from 12:00 – 1:00 pm,
but the staff cafeteria was open from 11:30 am – 1:30 pm so we often chose to go earlier or later toavoid the crowds. At the cafeteria, there was a choice of about six different options which rotatedevery day, including curry, udon/soba, occasionally ramen, and set meals, all of which were priced
around 500 yen. I enjoyed the lunch setup as it allowed me to have a variety of cheap options tochoose from depending on what I wanted to eat that day. After lunch break, I would usually perform
experiments until about 4:30 – 5:00 pm, at which time I would return to the office and do any
paperwork that needed to be done or summarize my work for the day until 6:00 pm. Daily life wasvery simple and convenient, and with no long commutes to deal with I had time to do what I wanted
after work each day. I could head back home to rest and cook dinner, explore my city, or take the train
from the station near my workplace into Tokyo to meet a friend for the evening. The convenient
location of my workplace and apartment made for a very enjoyable lifestyle.
9Life in Japan – Cultural Activities
As my interest in Japanese culture was one of the main reasons I applied for the Canada-Japan
Co-op Program in the first place, I tried to experience as many cultural activities as possible during
the work term. However, before coming to Japan I had decided that I also wanted to experience
activities that a normal tourist would not be able to, so after I had adjusted to the Japanese lifestyleand my language skills had improved I did my best to search out more local cultural activities. Someof my favourites were going to summer festivals and fireworks, exploring shrines both small and large,
trying out various different public baths and onsen resorts, going to local community events, taking
part in tea ceremony classes, seeking out the famous foods of each region I travelled to, and more.
Additionally, in order to enjoy these things to the fullest, I did my best to make as many Japanese
friends as possible both at work and outside it.
Making Japanese friends was one of my main goals before embarking on this work term. As I
am generally a bit reserved when it comes to new people, I found it difficult to make friends withJapanese people outside of work at first. However, I found a way around this by using a language
exchange application called HelloTalk, with which I was able to connect with people living in theTokyo area. Afterwards, I began to meet friends through mutual friends I already had, or coworkers
as well. Living relatively far apart from most of the other Tokyo-area CJCP interns, I decided to instead
devote my efforts into making more local Japanese friends as opposed to travelling all the way to thewest of Tokyo every time I wanted to meet someone. I also managed to visit some Japanese friends
that I had met in Canada in their cities of Fukuoka and Kyoto. My relationships with the Japanesepeople I met during this work term are the thing that I will miss the most upon returning to Canada.
Japanese festivals are always incredibly interesting and range from lively and loud to sombre
and peaceful depending on the occasion. On the day after I arrived in Japan, I met CJCP students in
Asakusa to see the last day of Sanja matsuri and so was immersed in festival culture from the start. I
travelled to Fukuoka to see the famous Hakata Gion matsuri in July with some other CJCP students,and once summer arrived I went to three different fireworks festivals three weekends in a row –Adachi, Sumidagawa, and Edogawa. During the Obon festival time I watched the Kashiwa Bon Odori
dance at Kashiwa Matsuri, and when my family came to Japan we went to a Bon Odori group dance
event in Hiroshima as well. Overall, I greatly enjoyed the lively festival culture of Japan and had a greattime every time I went. Also related to festival culture are Japanese shrines – I saw many beautiful
shrines, mausoleums, and temple throughout my work term. Some of my favourites were Nanzoin in10

Fukuoka, Ginkaku-ji and Fushimi-Inari Taisha in Kyoto, Itsukushima Jinja in Miyajima, and Zuihoden
in Sendai, but I enjoyed all of the ones I went to for each of their unique atmospheres.
Over the course of this work term, I fell in love with the onsen culture of Japan. The first
exposure to this culture was a trip to Oedo Onsen Monogatari in Odaiba, Tokyo with some other
CJCP interns. It was a good introduction to the bathing etiquette of onsens or public baths but lacked
the natural ambience that I had been curious about before coming to Japan. The second time wasduring a solo trip to Kanazawa in which I went way out into the countryside to a public bath, whereapparently only very old men ever go to. I ended up having a long conversation with them in the bathafter one of them started a conversation by telling me he had been to Vancouver 40 years prior. During
a trip to Sapporo, I decided to go visit the famous Noboribetsu onsen, and spent about 3 hours tryingout all the different varieties of baths. My favourite onsen of them all was Kusatsu onsen in Gunma
prefecture, where I stayed at a ryokan resort and relaxed all day in the waters. The onsen culture in
Japan, if you can go to a more nature-rich area with good outdoor baths, is one of the most relaxing
experiences to be had in Japan and a great break from the busy life of Japanese cities.
Perhaps the most significant cultural activity I took part in throughout the work term was thetea ceremony classes taught by one of my coworkers, which I attended four times. During thosesessions I experienced the most peaceful and meaningful expressions of Japanese culture through bothdrinking the tea and preparing it, made some good friends, and had many interesting, insightful
conversations as well. While preparing my last cup in the last class of my work term, I felt theculmination of my time in Japan, from the friends I had made, struggles I had, and things I had
experienced all be incorporated symbolically into that last cup. It was a powerful experience andindicative of my feelings about the time I spent in the country. There are of course many more culturalactivities that I participated in, but to talk about them all in detail would require many more pages.
Thus, I’ve summarized all of them in list format below as a short overview, but it is important to notethat the main cultural activity that I took part in and enjoyed the most was simply the act of trying mybest to experience immersion in a completely different culture and all the lessons I learned along the
way.

11

List of Cultural Activities/Photos⚫

Company Activities➢ Year-end Party➢ Drinking Parties after work
➢ Southeast Asian international student
meeting and social (a)➢ Canada Day 2019 Presentation andparty➢ DNP corporate tour of Gotanda andIchigaya branches➢ Dinner at Mr. Tsuyoshi Hotta’s house(b)➢ Year-end party at Mitsui Garden
Hotel Kashiwa

(a)

(b)

12

⚫

Travel Destinations
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢

Kyoto (2 times) (c)Sendai/Matsushima, Miyagi
Kanazawa, Ishikawa
Sapporo/Otaru, Hokkaido (d)OsakaHiroshima/Miyajima
Mount Kouya (Wakayama)
Nara
Kawagoe, Saitama
Yokohama, Kanagawa

➢
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢

Kamakura/Enoshima, Kanagawa
Fukuoka
Kusatsu Onsen, Gunma
Fuji Five Lakes (e)Kifune, Kyoto
All around the Tokyo area!
Atami, Shizuoka
Singapore
Seoul, Korea (f)

(c)

(d)

13

(e)

⚫

(f)

Events and Festivals
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢

Nagareyama City Festival
Asakusa Sanja Matsuri
Kashiwa Matsuri
Hakata Gion Matsuri Fukuoka (g)Kawagoe Summer Festival
Adachi Fireworks Festival
Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival
Edogawa Fireworks Festival (h)➢ Hokkaido Food Festival at Yoyogi
Park➢ Ueno Summer Festival➢ Hiroshima Bon Odori Festival➢ Shibuya Blue Cave illuminations (i)➢ Tokyo Motor Show
➢ Nakano Gyoza Festival

(g)
(h)

14

(i)

⚫

Miscellaneous Cultural Activities➢ Onsen Onsen in Kanazawa
 Oedo Onsen Monogatari Odaiba
 SpaJapo Super Public BathSaitama Noboribetsu Onsen (j) Kusatsu Onsen (k) Funaoka Onsen Kyoto
 Hatago Sakuraya Onsen Ryokan
Yamanakako
 Nikkotei Onsen Atami

(j)

(k)

15

➢ Autumn Leaf Viewing in Kyoto (l)➢ Tea Ceremony Lessons (m)➢ Volunteering with Nagareyama Boy
Scoutsfor
typhoondamagefundraising➢ Testing famous regional and seasonal
foods➢ Hedgehog Café (n)➢ Traditional Japanese sweet making
class at Kanshundo in Kyoto (o)➢ Nightclubs in Shibuya and Roppongi,
Tokyo➢ Halloween party in Shibuya, Tokyo➢ Karaoke with friends and coworkers➢ Kashiwa Reysol vs. Tokyo Verdy J2
Soccer match (p)
(l)

(n)

➢
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢
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➢

Tokyo Disney Sea with coworkers
Mahjong parlour after work
Praying at temples and taking omikuji
Usedclothes
shopping
inShimokitazawa, Tokyo
Nuclear bomb museum in Hiroshima
TeamLab Borderless in Odaiba,
Tokyo (q)Tokyo Modern Art Museum
Bowling in Kashiwa
Game centers, billiards and darts in
Shibuya and Akihabara
Matsushima Bay boat tour
Yokohama Ramen Museum

(m)

(o)

16

(p)

(q)

17

To Future CJCP Students
It is difficult to give a blanket recommendation of how to make the best of one’s time in Japan
during a CJCP internship, as everyone has their own unique way of enjoying what the country has tooffer. The activities that everyone enjoys and their drives to participate in this program are different,
so try not to compare your experience to others and instead focus on what you want out of thisexperience. Be aware of the excellent opportunity you have and make the best of it in the way you
want. One of the most important pieces of advice that I can give to everyone is be courageous about
putting yourself into new situations – as much as possible, try not to let worries hold you back because
there are many experiences you can only have in Japan and holding yourself back would be a waste of
the opportunity.
However, regardless of your future plans to use Japanese after your internship ends, I believethat making a conscious effort to improve your Japanese skills during your time in the country is very
important. I encountered a common attitude among many of the CJCP students during my time inJapan: “I won’t use Japanese after I leave so there’s no point to studying”. While perhaps there is sometruth to this point of view for many people, improving your Japanese skill a little can make a large
difference in your quality of life and experience of the country. First and foremost, speaking someJapanese will break down the barriers of shyness that Japanese people often have towards speaking
with foreigners, especially in English. Chances are, their English is decent but their fear of making
mistakes is holding them back from trying. Increasing your Japanese level is a sure way to more easily
make friends with locals during your work term, as often people will often be too shy to start a
conversation with you even though they may want to. Some of the most interesting conversations I
have had were the ones where I spoke with people in a mix of both languages, using whichever one
allowed us to express our thoughts the best in that moment. Secondly, daily life becomes so mucheasier the more Japanese you know. You will start to be able to recognize and read signs and especiallyrestaurant menus, the announcements you hear on trains and buses will become understandable, youwill no longer have to worry about not understanding messages about train delays or accidents, andinteractions with store staff become much simpler. At first it will be overwhelming, but the faster you
start to understand, the faster you will feel comfortable with your life in Japan. Lastly, every time youlearn something new you will feel a great sense of accomplishment. Japanese is a difficult language
especially when it comes to reading and writing, so conquering obstacles and learning about new
aspects of the language is incredibly rewarding. The first time you are able to read a sign, understandthe questions of a shop attendant, or have a regular conversation entirely in Japanese with someone
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will all leave you with a strong feeling of accomplishment and make you want to study and learn more.
All it takes is the first couple times of learning something new – the improvement in your comfort
and quality of life in Japan is easily noticeable and when you do so you will not want to stop learning.
Your efforts in language learning need not be intensive – a flashcard program on your phone, goingover a textbook on your lunchbreak, and working towards new goals bit by bit is all it takes. I cannotemphasize enough the difference that learning Japanese makes – by the end of the work term you may
find yourself regularly going days without using English, conversing with friends that do not speak
English with relative ease, and just simply enjoying a more comfortable, integrated life that is
impossible to experience for the average tourist.
As far as work goes, the advice depends on the nature of work. For me, my work was researchbased so the schedule was not rigid every day, different from non-research positions. My advice for a
research position is that when you are knowledgeable about a subject, create your own research ideas
and thoughts for next steps to take, be proactive, and communicate those thoughts to your supervisors.
Of course, be careful not to overstep your authority when it comes to proposing new ideas but work
hard and make it known that you have ideas and are eager to share if possible. If you are not as familiar
with the research, use time wisely to learn new skills. Spend your free time looking up backgroundinformation about the subject and reading scientific papers and ask plenty of questions to yoursupervisor about the topic. Finally, take every task you are assigned seriously, and even if it is asomewhat mundane task, use the time to think about new ideas while performing your work. If you
have no work topics to consider at the moment, think about how you can improve your interculturalcommunication skills. Consider the attitudes of your coworkers and how they carry themselves atwork and try to emulate them as much as possible when you get the chance. Simply put, do not waste
time at work, be proactive, propose new ideas, communicate well with your coworkers, and you will
succeed.
My Impressions of Japan
Living in a foreign country for a longer period of time is a very different experience to beinga tourist in one. Both are great experiences and have their own merits, but there are certain things thatcan only be experienced over a longer period of immersion and integration into a culture. You learn
both positive and negative things about the country through the experience, and have a much deeper
look into how everyday, normal people live.
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In the case of Japan, the first thing that struck me was the simultaneous orderliness mixed
with the chaos of having so many people occupying such a small space (if considering the Greater
Tokyo Area). Following that was the staggering variety of great quality food wherever you go, atreasonable prices if you look in the right places. To sum up daily life in Japan briefly, it is very
convenient. Of course, this does not apply to the far countryside areas of Japan, but the 24 hour
convenience stores, long opening hours for restaurants and bars, and megastores like Don Quixote
that carry anything you could need make it quite an easy place to live in terms of daily necessities. The
neighbourhoods range from chaotic and exciting to peaceful, both of which make for excellent places
to take a walk and explore if you have nothing to do. There are traditional temples and low houses
juxtaposed against tall apartment complexes in a rare look at a generational and cultural shift inprogress. Being in a Japanese city or town is exciting and interesting, and there are different things todiscover wherever you go – the culture differs greatly from place to place and especially from city tocountryside.
Work culture is a place where differences are easy to notice. The way people interact with eachother is deeply rooted in seniority and age-based hierarchy. This kind of experience may not besomething you notice unless you are placed at a more traditional company, and as a foreigner it is very
likely you will not be expected to be perfect when it comes to recognizing hierarchy and interacting inaccordance to it. However, as your Japanese ability improves and you become more used to thecountry, you will start to notice the subtle and complicated differences in the way people treat eachother at work. In my case, I did not fully start to realize this until a few months into the work term,
wherein the politeness differences in everyday speech started to become very apparent. I also started
take notice of the long hours that everyone worked, and the perpetually tired faces of people on the
trains before and after working hours. It is also true that there is an obvious gender gap in theworkplace in Japan, which most women are acutely aware of but unfortunately feel like they cannot
say much about the problem or change it. Working in Japan in a typical “salaryman” position is noteasy, and it is important to be mindful of the privilege we as foreign interns have working in Japan inthat generally we do not go through that experience. I also enjoyed the many drinking parties that I
attended with coworkers but can appreciate how they could become tiresome for regular employees
as well. All in all, it is very important to treat everyone with understanding at all times, as the reality ofan average worker’s life is oftentimes quite stressful.
One of my favourite things about Japan is the food, and I grew to greatly appreciate the cultureof regional specialities. In most areas/towns in Japan, there are one or two different foods that are20

famous and at times can only be found in that specific area. I found trying each of the new famous
foods every time I travelled to a new location very exciting, and it offered an insight into the deep
regional pride that exists around Japan. Each prefecture and area are slightly different in ways that are
fun and interesting to discover. The best thing to do when arriving to a new area is to head down to
the department store food floors and look at what kind of local products are on sale.
Another one of my favourite parts of life in Japan was of course the Japanese people. I
experienced positive interactions with essentially everyone that I met, from coworkers, friendly oldpeople in onsens and cafes, people on trains, restaurant and train station staff, and even strangers instations and busy areas who helped me out when I was looking lost. This effect is even more
pronounced the more Japanese you make an effort to learn – people will become excited, ask you
many questions, and just generally be very curious and friendly. The good friends I made were someof the most considerate people I have met, and often remembered even insignificant things that I had
said in passing in a conversation 3 or 4 months back. It is true that Japanese people sometimes do notconvey their true thoughts very openly, but I found the process of becoming closer to people andwatching the conversation relax and become more open a very interesting experience. I did notexperience any overt discrimination aside from occasional unexplained empty seats beside me on the
train or several restaurants with signs saying “only Japanese people” on the front of restaurants. Mostof the perceived discrimination comes from unfamiliarity with foreigners, so I did my best to adapt toJapanese life as much as possible while still being open with people about my experiences as a foreigner,and that went a long way towards bridging the cultural gap.
Japan is an amazing country that has preserved its culture in meaningful ways while also
embracing modernity and progress in others. It is a country of contrasts – traditional culture andmodern ideals often mix in both positive and negative ways. There are problems, like any country;
management, particularly in large traditional companies, is dominated by older males which inhibits
progress, there are serious issues with gender equality, overwork, and inefficient use of time at theworkplace, and the tendency to make comparisons of “Japan vs. Other Countries (海外)” creates what
I believe is an unnecessary pseudo-competition between which way of doing things and carrying out
business is better or worse. On the other hand, Japan is exceedingly safe, the culture is rich andinteresting, great care is taken to handmade and artisanal work, and the people are generally extremely
nice and willing to help given the chance. People will show genuine interest in you and yourexperiences both in Japan and abroad, especially if you express some effort into learning Japanese. If
you are fortunate to make good Japanese friends, you will feel a sense of loyalty from them that you
21may not share with others. Like any country, there are positives and negatives, and it is important tobe mindful of all those aspects as you navigate through the short time you are in the country.
Conclusions
Overall, this experience was easily the most transformational and important time of myuniversity career. I learned many things about new research topics, life in a new country, and about
myself. Along the way, I made many friends, had unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and immersed
myself in the culture as best I could. Undoubtedly, my personality has changed quite a bit due to thisexperience, and I will always carry the lessons I learned in Japan with me from now on. Through thisexperience, I realized my desire to continue being a part of international collaboration in research
efforts and to attempt to foster more intercultural understanding and relationships across the globe.
Simply put, it has been a transformative experience, and I am glad that I experienced every second of
it. Thank you again to everyone at DNP, UVic, CJCP, and my family for making it possible.

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