Message from the President

DOZO YOROSHIKU!

As President of SIETAR Japan, I would like to share a few words with members of SIETAR Japan as greetings. Some of you may know me, as I have served as Vice President under former President Yuko Iwata for the past four years. I myself have been a member of SIETAR Japan since its early stage. I have participated in workshops, meetings and conferences as a kind of "user" or a recipient of the service provided by the organization for a long time. The first rather active role I did was a conference volunteer in 1998 when SIETAR Japan hosted SIETAR International Conference at Reitaku University where I worked. In 2002, I took a more active role which exposed me to part of management of SIETAR Japan as an assistant to then Program Director and former President, Dr. Adair Nagata. Just to remind you, 2002 is the year when SIETAR Japan was officially recognized as an academic organization. Later, I served a member of the Steering Committee as Program Director, and then, Vice President with the help of other SC members. To tell you the truth, I did not imagine that I would become President back then. At any rate, I would like to do my best to contribute to SIETAR Japan using my past experience of being a SC member.

2009, the year I was elected as President of SIETAR Japan, is the fiftieth year since Edward T. Hall used the word "intercultural communication" for the first time in the Silent Language. When I look back mid-1980s when SIETAR Japan was started, "intercultural" is regarded to mean "foreign" in Japanese society and people rarely talk about intercultural communication in everyday life. Twenty some years later, the words such as "intercultural understanding" or "multicultural co-existence" seem to have become part of the everyday vocabulary. The view of "culture" has also changed and it is not rare to find an attempt to employ the principle of intercultural communication and regard communication with so-called "co-cultural" groups in the same society as intercultural communication in order to engage in more effective, fulfilling and collaborative communication. This seems to me an indication that people are "re-discovering" the value of intercultural communication, which is based on the principle of difference rather than similarity. This principle provides a new perspective in everyday communication where the principle of similarity alone is no longer helpful to find a better way to communicate.

As President of SIETAR Japan, speaking in general terms, which sounds to general to many of you, but I will do my best to do what needs to be done and change what needs to be changed, which is the same principle I have used in doing the job so far. And in order to implement this, your cooperation and support is vital. DOZO YOROSHIKU!

Eriko Machi (Reitaku University)