Sarajean's notes

Japan seems like the perfect market for groups to do fundraising – from the outside that is. Over the past year no less than 4 international fundraising groups have contacting me about cracking into the Japan market. They generally do not have experience in the Japanese nonprofit ngo market. Since Japan has such a broad middle class – it might seem that this would be the place for nonprofit work to be supported by the masses. Also maybe since there are so many Japanese people abroad talking about ngos and nonprofits it might seem that the market is matured and it makes it hard to see that these people are outliers. I have finally started to hear more about professionalize fundraising here too. It seems like all nonprofit NGOs realize they need to get on the shtick and develop their supporter base and start actual having a staff person whose work it is to fundraise from the private sector. Why has this idea taken so long to come to Japan? * Orgs are small? * Staff are too devoted...

The link is to the right. I got lots of mail based on this article - thanks Lucy!! A few people have tried to Google me after reading this artcile but could not find me because my name is ROSSITTO not Sarajean Rossito. I have always had confusion over the 2 S's and 2 T's. Since I came to Japan I have had much confusion over what my name is - I have often been called Rose Ito because Ito is such a common Japanese family name. Also the way I say Sarajean confuses people - it is neither "sara-jeanne" nor "sarajane" - more like sar-gina. This is why i use rose.ito at gmail.com for my mail - it is easy to spell and people get it... now you all know.

Yesterday was women's day and I took part in an event at UNU here in Tokyo: http://www.unu.edu/iwd/ The number one thing I learn at these events is about how to and how not to organize panels. (i.e. why do people think a 10min talk means they get 20 min to talk about 5 different topics? why can't any one call time? why are participants allowed to use Q & A as "my time to present on my issue”?) There were some valid points presented on the topic of focus gender based violence. General comments on the status of women remind us of what the audience – mostly women (who can come to an event in the middle of the day?) – likely already knew. The issue of diversity could have been more developed and more specific. It would have been nice to addres women's status in Japan in an objective and concrete manner. Doug Lummis presented some very interesting points about the role of rape in war - the history of war shows us that sexual violence has always been part of it. I agree...

All fine and well that Hilary and Obama visted Selma this weel - but it would be nice if the media reminded people why Selma is and was so important. They forget to remind people of the times and the risks people took to make the US a better place. Selma should be more than a campaign stop ... http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Selma-Politics.html

As suggested my my friends I am finally getting my interviews on the site ... the links are on the side bar but here is the PDF

The UN Special Rapporteur on racism and discrimination was in Japan around the same time that the anti-discrimination NGO network celebrated its 6-month anniversary. I attended IMADR's forum on Feb 27 - it started with commentary and responses to the Japanese government claim from Doudou Diene. The panle that followed was also interesting. There were two comments which left deep impressions - one was from a zainichi Korean who admitted that she did not know about the other groups and their issues but wanted to see this as a point for us all ﾐ Ainu, Okinawan, Koreans etc. to learn about each other. The other was from Hideki who said it has been 6 months and some people say we have not done any thing - but the creation of the network of organizations is of great significance. This is an accomplishment - we do not have many NGO coalitions here in Japan and so many of the groups in the network are tiny, far apart and not wired. Salute the people of IMADR and the members of the NGO netw...

I recently was walking to kamiyacho station afte rmeetin gwith chuk from the Asia Foundation and saw a small group of protestors blocked by a lot of Japanese police -- i talked to them for a while and foudn out that they were protesting the Vetos by Russia in the UNSC. The vote involved a resolution which would have urged Burma to ease repression and release political prisoners . Find out more: UN vetoes prolong Burma agony, Simon Tisdall , The Guardian China, Russia veto UN Burma resolution Bangkok Post http://www.bangkokpost.net/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=115990 VOA http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2007-01/2007-01-13-voa2.cfm?CFID=41873506&CFTOKEN=24607598

I tried throughout Feb to encourage people to buy fair trade chocolate for Valentines Day but found I did not have enough places to refer people to ... only people tree/global village. I asked at one chocolate shop and you would have thought I had 4 eyes and had blue hair... One of the key probelms with asking people to buy alternative products is not having the alternatives in shops or not having the shops nearby to refer them to. write me if you have any info on shops in tokyo where you can buy fair trade chocolate - i am still also looking for a dvd/video with info on chocolate and child labour. let me know if you have something.

Many questions about CSR and program ideas have been coming to me these days. Some ( misconceived ) ideas and ( false ) notions that are holding back the development of programs that contribute to the society/communities: * The idea that companies do not need to invest anything - nonprofit NGO staff can do the work of coordinating programs for free. * The idea that any event equals a social contribution. * A strategy that assumes impact on the company staff is more important than the impact on the people being helped or the organization they are working with. * A focus on obeying the law and following regulations as being enough of a contribution to society. * The idea that corporate people can not or do not want to be involved in their community - all they care about money. * The assumption that nonprofit NGO people have no skills and no common sense. * The assumption that all private or corporate money is dirty money. * The concern that people in the...

This past Wednesday we went to see Darwin's Nightmare. "Darwin's Nightmare is a tale about humans between the North and the South about globalization, and about fish" (From the film's website) Done in a documentary style without any overbearing narrative - it paints a picture of the complexity of a cycle of poverty. Starting with the introduction of a non-native species of fish (Nile Perch) to Lake Victoria, it explores the myriad of issues facing different types of people living off the business by the Lake. Old planes go from Europe to Tanzania to pick up tons of white fish for consumption but what do they bring to Africa? Some say empty but really how likely would that be? The answer few are willing to give to this is ARMS. Our airline meal fish supports various conflicts and wars in Africa. Yes, it does not answer all the questions it raises but by watching it hopefully more people will realise how the rich lifestyle we want to maintain is ...

I was happy to come back to Japan on January 4 to find a number of emails from new people. I was a bit surprised but then saw that most of them had come to me through the recent Metropolis article by Lucy Birmingham Fuji in her Global Village column. She has been featuring different nonprofits, NGOs and people working in different communities, trying to make a difference. I am happy that I could be featured in her column and that she did such a positive profile of me. I am a bit embarrassed as I am not very good at being positive about myself. Have a look: A Tokyo-based social-issues champion offers her New Year's advice: http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/recent/globalvillage.asp

I was worried about what might happen at our annual planning meeting. last year this time we had a big meeting with lots of ideas but little came of it. This year I feel envigorated by the PSC planning committee meeting which took place on Dec 10. It was great to get other people ideas and to sus out what other people thought they could do and what they wanted to do. Now we just need to build our volunteer teams to get everything under way. I believe we can do two different types of activities 1. activist skills training and 2. network development if we had a few more people with time to work on the programs. We will hold meetings in January to help us better develop the plan. January 15 (Mon) 7:30-9:00 pm January 21 (Sun) 6:00-7:30 pm January 27 (Sat) 10:30-12:00 noon We would like people to attend any one that fits their schedule - so we can assess interest, time commitment and skills levels and then make a comprehensive 2007 plan. If interested, please contact rose.ito@gmail.com ,...

On to a different angle today ... I sometimes forget the important role of arts related nonprofit nongovernmental organizations. being from the US, where many if not most arts groups are indipendent from the government, it is easy to forget that in many countries governments value culture and arts programs and see it as part of the national interest. in an interesting switch it seems many countries - such as England and Japan - are forcing arts institutions to become more independent. as the tax base decreases and as the enpenses forbring shows increases it seems that the gap between financial needs and fund availability can only widen. but they do not have staff or outside professionals with the skills or experience to suddenly do independent fundraising and manage the organizations in a non-bureaucratic manner. time will tell. some see trouble - i see a new opportunity for professional development in the nonprofit sector here in Japan.

I was lucky to get invited by Lucy from Metropolis to join a talk at the FCCJ given by Sadako Ogata. She was very charming - even in the not so exciting talk about the creation of a new JICA, which would be a merger of JICA and JBIC. This is going to allow for longer-term planning and more integrated program development. I do believe that she aims to work towards more people centered community development projects. Given the size and history of both government agencies it is hard to think that she is not facing resistance and frustration in changing the bureaucracy. all the ideas sounds great - implementation however may take longer than anyone expects.

JACO hosted 3 speakers from Guidestar International and it was an interesting introduction of their work and the expansion of their work beyond the US and the UK. They have developed a common platform and have a common server so that new local Guidestars can be developed at much lower costs than what it would take to start from scratch. They are working with South Korean, South African and German partners to start up local Guidestars. It would be great if we could get this going in Japan! Right now there are multiple online databases of Japanese organizations but since the data is so limited the usefulness is also not comprehensive. I love the idea that open records promote more giving which in turn promotes more accountability.

On Nov 23 and 24, I joined the annual NPO forum coordinated by the Japan NPO forum. The three key themes were: 民間　focused on inclusion of the public 変革　looking at social change 連携　addressing organizational collaboration Tajima from the PSC also joined on Friday and we met up for lunch. On Thursday, I joined the intro session and part one was a good napping time, so no need to report anything. The Second part was an introduction to the three key themes around which on Friday there were 3 separate 9:30- 4:30 workshops. Katsuji Imata , Co-Director of CSO Network and former director of the white band campaign in Japan , coordinated the 連携　workshop and gave a good intro. He talked about how we often overwhelm people who want to come in with some interest in volunteering. We give them too much info and ask more than they can give – in effect killing off their interest. Kat also addresses the White band Campaign and the bashing they experienced. I liked his point about the white being a small...

It is upon us again - World AIDS Day. So much going on - what are you joining? where can you get the info on events? Glad you asked! YDP has a good page with info on all types of events going on. http://www.ydpjapan.net/wads2006/ AIDS Prevention Information Network - AIP-Net also has a decent listing of events: http://api-net.jfap.or.jp/ also visit the site of the PLACE Tokyo about the AIDS Gakkai - They will have some interesting topics and speakers on Dec 1 and 2 h ttp://www.ptokyo.com/20gakkai/mainpgm.html Hope to see you there!

The US thanksgiving is tomorrow and often around this time I start to reflect on how lucky most of us here in Japan are. our lives are soft and around many people there is little profound debate on world affairs and what we need to do. I read something recently that the reason why people are so active socially in the US is because there are so many problems but since japan has not had any serious trouble - people do not need to get involved. 『Oh come on - give me a break』 is the response I print for all to read. might it have something to do with seeing how lucky we are and not thinking of those who are less fortunate as just weak. I better not get started. Back to the issue at hand - we can all do a wee bit to make things better by giving just a small bit of our time. Get out there and get involved - you can make a difference. choose an issue you are interested in. do some research. get in touch with and visit a bunch of groups and then commit your time. If you need help on getting...

Some of the events i recently joined moved me to think a lot about a number of different problems we face and how important strategy is for dealing with complex issues. At first glance, all are quite different - breast cancer, trafficking in persons and refugee support. But they all showed the need for nonprofit NGO work and for collaboration with other actors as well as the need for the creation of a professionlised civil society sector in Japan. 1. Information dissemination to the public is necessary for the development of support and social mobilization 2. Self-help oriented programs are necessary - providing hand outs alone is not effective. 3. Professional advocacy work needs to happen from local to international levels 4. The people affected need to organize themselves to have an impact and alter the relations of power.

On Sat Oct 21 I joined an excellent event coordinated by JAR (Japan Association of Refugees) supported by CGP and other refugee support organizations in Japan There were two speakers from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) who introduced the refugee and asylee system in the US and then outlined the types of services the and other groups provided for people new to the US. I thought the IRC speakers had to cover too many issues in too short a time - if they had been the only speakers (with Q & A) for 3 hours they would have had just about enough time to go over the key issues. It can not be assumed that audience members even understand what the terms refugee and asylum mean. This came out in one of the questions from the audience. someone asked about the skill criteria for the determination of refugee or asylum status. hmm . i thought. that means the person would not understand the difference between immigrants, migrants, and refugees. the fact that refuge is given on hu...