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Hello All!

I hope you are doing whatever you can to stay cool in Tokyo's "heat-island" summer.

When I began writing "Freelancing in Tokyo," there were signs that the Japanese economy was "slipping." The bounty of well-paying jobs for native-English speakers in Japan was very slowly becoming a dearth. However, I believed (and still do) that opportunities abound here for freelancers, which is why I decided to finish the book. Even at publication time, the number of foreigners coming to make a go of it in Tokyo was continuing to grow.

Last night we had an excellent Freelancing in Tokyo networking night at Kimono Wine Bar & Grill. Not only was the food great (as always), it was the first time that everyone had their business cards on them; as such, we were able to connect the Japanese way, via meishi koukan (exchanging business cards).

I have posted a picture of these "lucky cats" because all of them have their eyes closed and they look like they are waving goodbye. This is not the usual "lucky" cats you see in Japan, but they seem appropriate for this post.

In the 17 years I have lived in Japan, this is the first time I have seen an article about the poor handling of foreign talent by Tokyo talent agencies. Although I wrote about things of this nature in my book, I do not (yet) have the wide readership of The Japan Times, which ran the article, or, more importantly, Facebook, which is where a FB friend posted the article.