My Japan assignment
To be completely honest, I have always wanted to visit Japan as I am in love with its cuisine, and have long been fascinated by its unique cultural mores. So when it became clear that New Zealand officials and businesspeople were becoming frustrated by Japan's low profile Down Under, I jumped at the chance to get on a plane and visit the country for myself.
I had prepared for the trip by reading several books, including a comprehensive study by American business strategist Michael Porter, which questioned Japan's reputation as a highly competitive nation long before "the lost decade" became a rather tired catchphrase.
I also met with key staff from New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, the Japan New Zealand Business Council, and the International Business Forum. The Asia New Zealand Foundation website was also helpful.
The main focus of my trip was to examine the potential for increased trade between New Zealand and Japan, which remains one of the world's largest economies despite two decades of economic stagnation. I was also keen to examine the other ties that bind our two nations - and to find out what lessons New Zealand could learn about Japan's experience of deflation, given the concerns that were being expressed around the world at the time that other countries might come under deflationary pressures in the wake of the global financial crisis.
I had been warned that I would find it difficult to penetrate the Japanese facade of politeness and formality, but pre-visit briefings from senior New Zealand officials and businesspeople who knew Japan well were useful for setting the scene. Staff at the NZ Embassy in Tokyo were also extremely helpful and useful in this regard.
As it happened, the timing of my visit in mid-July 2009 was certainly fortuitous. It coincided with a two-week visit to Japan by a group of young New Zealand business leaders, as part of the Japanese Government's JET programme, so I was able to attend some of the events organised for this group, and talk to them about their impressions of Japan.
I also lined up several interviews with successful Kiwi entrepreneurs in Japan, as well as large New Zealand exporters such as Fonterra, and other major players such as Air New Zealand, Tourism New Zealand, and the ANZ Bank. I also talked to key Japanese economists, bureaucrats and businesspeople, which helped to give me a rounded and authoritative view of the economic and trade situation. Given the limited time I had available - just one week - I also supplemented this with interviews before and after the trip, by phone and in person. I was also able to meet up with our own correspondent in Tokyo, and altogether this gave me a much deeper perspective than I would ever have been able to achieve by reporting from New Zealand.
I had been concerned that getting around Tokyo would prove difficult logistically, given the legendary quirkiness of Japanese town planning and the fact that I generally had several interviews scheduled for each day. However, the metro proved very efficient and easy to navigate and the maps provided by most of my interviewees were generally - although not always - easy to follow.
The NZ Herald published a two-part series as a result of my trip on October 2 and October 9. The series was intended to preview two important New Zealand initiatives in late October: the historic rugby match between the All Blacks and the Wallabies in Tokyo, which was used to promote tourism and trade between New Zealand and Japan (and stimulate interest in the World Cup); and the official visit by John Key to Japan, which took place alongside the second Japan New Zealand Partnership Forum.
The hardest part was condensing all my research and the many hours of interviews to around 10,000 words - although I was also aware that few journalists have the luxury of this amount of space (and time) to develop such in-depth features.
We received very positive feedback about the series, which has confirmed our commitment to similar such series in the future.
