Hot Japanese Imports
For the first time, this year’s Cherry Blossom Festival showcased hip, young Japanese stars who transcend national boundaries. Japanese singing sensation “Jero” mixes his signature Enka (traditional folk songs he learned from his Japanese grandmother) with hip-hop he heard while growing up in Pittsburgh. Grandson of an African-American G.I. and a Japanese grandmother who fell in love during World War II, the University of Pittsburgh-educated systems engineer moved to Tokyo in 2003 to teach English. For fun, he entered local singing contests, which led to sold-out recordings. He was Japan’s “Best New Artist of 2008.”
Ai Kawashima epitomizes the “Japanese Dream.” At age four, Ai was adopted from an orphanage but by 16, she had lost both her parents to illness. Bravely facing this stark situation, she began singing on the streets of Tokyo. Just one year later, her debut single sold one million copies, topping the Japanese charts. At 19, she published her life story, which ranked #1 on best-seller lists and sold 300,000 copies. At 22, she created a charity project and built two schools: one in Cambodia and the other in Burkina Faso. “I write my own songs,” she says. “They all have a message of hope and courage. This is my way to reach out to people.”
Peeking Inside Embassy Row
The Czech Republic, now holding the European Union presidency, is celebrating with an unusual photo exhibit of E.U. members’ diplomatic spouses. Czech Ambassador Petr Kolar was convinced by his wife Jaroslava to showcase photographer Abby Greenawalt’s year-long project because he realized the envoys’ spouses “may be somewhat in the shadows, but definitely always our strongest allies.”
The Dueñas Difference
Now-departed Costa Rican Ambassador Tómas Dueñas, a former economic and trade minister who not only studied in the U.S. but was born here – the son of an Ecuadorian father and Costa Rican mother – not only successfully led the charge on Capitol Hill for CAFTA (the Central American Free Trade Agreement) but mentored many other top diplomats on trade and economic issues during his tenure of more than four years.
“I was a lobbyist here and at home,” the popular first-time ambassador says. “Every day over eight months, I went to the Hill; I met with 350 different senators and members of Congress myself. Plus, I made 46 round trips between San José and Washington. … We won in Congress by just two votes but it took a referendum at home – the first referendum on trade in the world.
In 2001, Dueñas negotiated Costa Rica’s trade agreement with Canada, the “first time in the world,” he notes, “that a small country had an agreement with such a large country.”
He wished more people understood that free trade agreements “make countries become better citizens of the world and create more stable societies with more jobs, more permanent employees, and less immigration.
“I really couldn’t have done it without my wife, Diana,” he insists. “Finally, one night at dinner she said, ‘Do you think we could discuss something else?’ That’s when I realized that CAFTA was all I talked about for four years.”
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