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Chapters of the UK JET Alumni Association meet for a National Annual General Meeting each February. The meeting enables chapters to share information and ideas on promoting grassroot linkages with local Japanese groups and to collaborate on how to support cultural activities and national JETAA Events.

This year, the AGM was hosted by JETAA Wales in Cardiff on the weekend of 20th/21st February. Representatives attended from the London, Scotland, Wales, Midlands and North West chapters.

The event was kindly supported by the Embassy of Japan, JLGC and CLAIR who came to learn about our recent national and regional activities. They also provided delegates with useful guidance on how our goals and plans for the coming year can be achieved.

One of the main discussions related to the 20th anniversary of the Alumni Organisation. Delegates collaborated on proposals for special events to celebrate this milestone. It was decided to launch a national photo competition through the website to ensure that all former UK Alumni members can get involved. (Full details will be published here in the coming months.)

The following items were also discussed as part of the AGM;

• Promoting and building upon the success of the new JETAA website,
• Supporting the JETAA International Meeting in Edinburgh this autumn,
• Supporting former JET participants through the Careers Information Day and Japanese classes.

Elections were held for all UK Executive positions for the forthcoming year, with the following candidates appointed;

• Chair: Neil Taylor (Wales)
• Treasurer: Wes Jones (Midlands)
• Webmaster: Andy Hall (London)
• Web Editor: Fiona Steele (London)
• Marketing Liaison: Josy Audigier (London)
• CID Coordinators: Hugh Thomas and Fiona Steele (London)

Contact details for the JETAA Executive and further information about how to get in touch with your local chapter are available via the 'ABOUT JETAA' tab at the top of this page.

Applications for Daiwa Adrian Prizes, the prestigious awards for scientific excellence in the UK and Japan, are now being accepted until the deadline of Friday 4 June 2010.  Applications are invited from joint teams of British and Japanese scientists working on collaborative projects.

They are awarded by The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation on a triennial basis in recognition of significant scientific collaboration between British and Japanese research teams.

Daiwa Adrian Prizes were established in 1992 and subsequently renamed to commemorate the late Lord Adrian, a founding Trustee of the Foundation, at whose initiative the Prizes were established. Applications are handled by the Foundation with an assessment conducted by a panel of Fellows of The Royal Society.

Since their launch, £345,000 in Prizes has been awarded to 51 different institutions, 26 from the UK and 25 from Japan – recognising cross-cultural collaboration and reflecting the breadth and diversity of scientific achievement by scientists in the two countries.  

Previous Daiwa Adrian Prizes have supported new frontiers in areas as diverse as antibiotics research, plasma physics, aerospace exploration and asthma research.

Further information about Daiwa Adrian Prizes and the application form are available from www.dajf.org.uk/dap

Contact: Susan Meehan, 020 7486 4348, grants@dajf.org.uk

Do you work in a UK school or do you know anyone who does?

This is your chance to shout about your school’s Japan-related activities and win up to £1000 worth of prizes.

The contest is open to any UK primary or secondary school that is teaching Japanese or doing any kind of project related to Japan. Your school does not need to be teaching Japanese to enter the contest.

All you need to do is make a simple webpage about the work that your school is doing with Japanese or Japan. This could be a blog, a wiki, or a page that’s part of your school’s website. You can enter an existing webpage or create a new webpage from scratch.

For more information and for lots of tips and ideas to get you started go to: www.japanwebpagecontest.org.uk

The deadline for entering the contest is Friday 26 March.

The contest is organised by the Japan Foundation London and supported by ALL, the British Council, CILT, the Consulate General of Japan in Edinburgh, the Embassy of Japan and the Japan Society.

Tea Leaf Theatre are looking for anyone who has some sort of connection to Japan or has an interest in Japanese culture to join in workshops exploring Japanese theatre.

The aim of these workshops is to explore how Japanese theatre skills can be transformed into a British theatre context. The workshops aim to stretch skills and enable participants to look at acting from a different perspective.

Tea Leaf Theatre is a London-based theatre company. They aim to bring together the East and West through modern theatrical media such as physicality, projected images, and live music (think Theatre de Complicite).

Unfortunately, they are unable to offer any payment to participants at this stage. However, you will not only gain some Japanese traditional theatre techniques but also learn how to use them for day to day acting requirements (ie Auditions).

There’s no long term commitment required, you simply need to attend a one or two day workshop over a period of time. Each session will focus on one element of Japanese theatre to be explored.

There will be several sessions over this year. So if you are interested to be involved in this project, please send your CV, headshot, and a short description about your relation to Japan; to tealeaftheatre@gmail.com. They will send further information on when they are going to happen.

Want to combine your Japanese language skills with a successful career in professional services? If so, then KPMG's Japanese Tax programme may be the ideal graduate position for you. Combining hands-on client work and professional study, KPMG in the UK's Japanese Tax programme suits ambitious graduates who are keen to gain early international experience to aid their professional development. As well as Japanese language skills and an appreciation of Japanese culture, you will also need a real interest in a tax career.

To find out more log into the virtual chat on Friday 26 February at 11am to chat to current trainees, and to talk to members of the KPMG Graduate Recruitment team.

KPMG are also hosting the JET Connect event on Wednesday 3 March in London. More details are available here.

Rhythmworks and Kodo bring you the chance to win tickets to see Kodo at a venue near you in March 2010.

Exploring the limitless possibilities of the traditional Japanese drum, the taiko, Kodo are forging new directions for a vibrant living art-form.

Since their debut at the Berlin Festival in 1981, Kodo have given over 3100 performances on all five continents, spending about a third of the year overseas, a third touring in Japan and a third resting and preparing new material on Sado Island.

Click here to enter.

The National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORA) was established nine years ago with the aim of awarding recruitment websites which, “through either innovation, inspiration, or sheer hard work and attention to detail, actually offer something tangibly valuable to job seekers.” This year, almost 25,000 nominations were received for 654 separate websites.

People First was delighted to be nominated for an award in the “Best small recruitment agency website” category. The awards were presented on November 5 2009, at The Orchid in Central London.

People First joined with colleagues from parent company, Faro Recruitment Group to celebrate the nomination and enjoyed an entertaining evening with many of the industry’s most influential figures, as well as representatives from the UK’s main jobsites.

Commenting on the design of the People First website, Managing Director, Katie Bevan commented, “Our aim was to create a website that was distinctive, fresh and user friendly, so we were thrilled to be nominated for this award by our candidates.”

‘Talking Contemporary Japan’ is a series of evening classes designed for adult learners interested in updating and refreshing their knowledge about Japan whilst practising their Japanese language skills. Classes are conducted in Japanese and participants should have Japanese language ability equivalent to JLPT level 2 or above.

Applications are now open for the next Talking Contemporary Japan course, entitled Getting down to business! - Language and etiquette in Japanese Society'.

The course comprises 4 evening sessions between 2nd and 25th March. Participants can attend the course on either Tuesdays or Thursdays (content is the same on both days).

For more information please see the Japan Foundation's website:
http://www.jpf.org.uk/whatson.php?department=language#223