Japan for Business and Living is written by Stephen Peterson, an Australian, who lived in Japan for eight and a half years during the 1990s. He has spent a further six months there on subsequent trips, and Japan remains an integral part of his life. While residing in Japan, Stephen married, fathered two children, established and operated two successful small businesses, made numerous friends, and travelled around, by car, train, bus, 50 cc scooter and bicycle. Of necessity for his business activities, and to communicate with his extended family, he acquired passable Japanese-speaking skills.
As with many others like him, Japan had been somewhat of an unknown quantity when Stephen first arrived there to live, but as the months unfolded the mysteries unravelled, and sense could be made of the intricacies of daily life, and work. As the years happily passed, he discovered what a wonderful, fascinating, in some respects quirky, country Japan was. So much was different from his previous life, yet residing there it all seemed so appropriate and normal.
Many expatriates, upon returning home after a lengthy absence overseas, find their heads continue to be full of thoughts about their departed second home. Stephen was no exception, and diligently set about recording these thoughts. He felt he’d learned a great deal about a country a decade earlier he knew virtually nothing about, in respect of both living there and doing business there. In both aspects, life had been an entirely pleasurable experience, in both cases also leaving him with treasured life-long friendships.
Not only did Stephen want to share this knowledge and experience with others interested in Japan, he wanted to help initiate and nurture such an interest, by speaking positively about the country and life there, and through providing information about it help people be better prepared for any trip or extended stay there. This, then, is the raison de’?tre, or to use the local language, mokuteki, of this website.