Occupation:
Senior Software Research Engineer
Time in Japan:
13 years



Where are you from?
Dublin, Ireland.

What brought you to Japan?
I came in 1987. I was interviewed in Dublin by my current employer, Ricoh, through an Irish government agency program. The objective is to have Irish graduates gain technical experience in an international environment and then hopefully take it back to Ireland. For Japanese companies it represents an opportunity to internationalize their work forces.

What do you do now?
I work in Ricoh' Software Research Center. I handle collaboration with other company teams around the world on a new international technical standard called MPEG-7 (Moving Pictures Experts Group-7). The audio format (MPEG-3, from the same standards organization) is very popular for downloading music from the Internet but it doesn't adequately protect copyrights for artists. MPEG-7, which debuts in October 2001, will ensure the protection of copyrights but it will have other powerful functions, namely, the representation of multimedia data on the Internet so that it can be archived and retrieved efficiently and effectively. For example, if we forget the name of a song, we can whistle the tune into a computer and after a search, the name of that tune is retrieved. If you want a picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger's motorbike from the movie T2, I can search a movie database by making a high-level query such as, "find me the motorbike that was used by Arnold Schwarzenegger in T2."

Tell us about your involvement with the Irish community in Japan.
I've been directly involved since 1988 when I became a member of the Irish Network Japan (INJ) committee. We organized events and a monthly newsletter for which I was the editor. The biggest events were and still are the INJ annual ball, held in autumn, and of course, St Patrick's Day parade, held in March on Omotesando. The events are not just for the Irish but for all those with an interest in Ireland. Of course, pints of Guinness play their part in this process! Additionally, I helped set up Celtic Festival Japan (webpage: www.celtic-festival.org) in 1991 and we have had six festivals to date. There is a very strong interest in Celtic culture today with quite a few Japanese musicians playing the fiddle, harp and bodhran (Irish drum).

Are there any big events this year?
We're making progress towards a millennium Celtic festival in October. Announcements will be posted on our webpage or information can be obtained by sending requests to celtic@gol.com

What was the weirdest experience you've had here?
When I arrived in October of '87 and was baptized by a Japanese Christian church. A woman at Shinjuku station poked me and said, 'Do you wanna go to church?' What I'd normally say in Ireland would be no, but I agreed with reservation. To my amazement, at the church a priestess started screaming at the top of her lungs into my ear! She eventually asked if I had grandparents who had passed away and I told her that yes, there were three. They brought in a huge guy who didn't look too friendly and he said, 'You have to come to the back of the church'. Though I tried to resist, I felt intimidated. There was a pool of water in the back which they asked me to get into; it was bloody freezing! The priestess then suddenly pushed me and I was completely submerged and ducked three times. It was terrifying! I got home eventually and told my friend and he laughed his head off. I laugh about it now but the lesson I learned was, be yourself all the time, and don't flex or bend to be like the Japanese or change dramatically who you are as a person. Customs sure are different.

What's your favorite thing about Japan?
Opportunities to try new things. Here there's no barrier to trying new ideas and events. I even acted on stage, sang with a Japanese rock band and played Australian rules football! It's been a very international experience.

What's your recipe for a happy life in Japan?
Get actively involved in one or two events outside of work and take two to three good breaks a year to get away from it all!

Neil Day spoke to Maki Nibayashi.

Do you know an interesting person in Tokyo? If so, email us at maki@tokyoclassified.com