Royal Honours for BCCJ Stalwarts
We at Custom Media are proud to enter our fourth year of publishing BCCJ ACUMEN for the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan and wish loyal readers, members, advertisers, the Executive Committee and Secretariat the very best of British for 2013.
This issue is even more special as two of ACUMEN’s biggest supporters since the early days—President Emeritus Philip T Gibb and Executive Director Lori Henderson—have been honoured by Queen Elizabeth II with an OBE and MBE, respectively. You can read why and all about their reactions on pages 13 and 15.
Making an entrance
Another coup for ACUMEN came recently when Waseda University used one of our articles for a question in its notoriously tough entrance exam, held in December. How many magazines can boast a feat such as that?
You may recall “Baptism by Fire”, published in March 2012. It is about a remarkable Peterborough mother who became head priest at a 430-year-old temple in Kyushu.
I’m not sure why Waseda chose that particular piece for its exam, but they asked me for permission to post it on their website to show the next applicants what kind of task to expect. We are delighted to be helping challenge and inform the next generation of leaders, and spread the word about successful Britons in Japan.
Books for Smiles
If you are looking for a worthy, tax-deductible cause in Japan, the BCCJ Social Responsibility Taskforce’s Books for Smiles project is looking for firms to ask staff to donate titles during week-long book drives. Proceeds will help those leaving care to enter vocational schools, facilitated by Bridge for Smile, an NPO.
Custom Media will kick off the project by donating its entire library of books which publishers, authors and firms have sent us for review or other reasons.
The most popular and profitable books are those published in any language in the past three years, and that cover business, finance, law, marketing, IT, medicine, art or design.
If you send more than five books at one time, delivery is free. Donations will be sold on Amazon.com by Value Books.
More details from Yayoi Sogo: info@bccjapan.com