Akira Uchimura
@akiraBorn in Costa Rica, Latin America. Has a Japanese father and a Chilean mother. Due to his father's work, they moved every three years to Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Japan, Suriname, Chile, and then back to Japan. Currently, he works at the Association of Japanese Abroad office in Yokohama, where he is in charge of supporting the activities of Japanese-descendants from the Nippon Foundation . As a first step towards establishing an alumni association for Japanese-descendants, he has launched an official page for Japanese-descendants from overseas .
(Updated March 4, 2008)
Stories from This Author
Explaining why I haven't left Japan or even Tokyo: Radiation, Mass Media and more: Part 2
March 26, 2011 • Akira Uchimura
Read Part 1 >>*What was your experience with the earthquake?We were in our Nikkei Youth Network office located on the 6th floor of a building in Shibuya, Tokyo. Around 3pm, we felt as if our building was being hit and pushed by someone. With my colleague Mao, we ran down the stairs and to the Aoyama Gakuin University, which is right besides our building, because they have an open air space as a refuge in cases like these. From there, …
Explaining why I haven't left Japan or even Tokyo: Radiation, Mass Media and more - Part 1
March 25, 2011 • Akira Uchimura
Before I start, I would like to ask the international news media to stop using the situation in Japan—bloating the facts—and making it into entertainment to sell more papers and commercials. Many foreigners who live in Japan and can’t speak Japanese are guided solely on these kinds of news which are made thousands of kilometers out of here, and sadly, much of that information is erroneous, misleading, and/or out of proportions, and has brought panic to them. I have been …
Young Japanese in the Internet Era
May 13, 2008 • Akira Uchimura
I am now 27 years old. I feel a little embarrassed to call myself a "young person," but the term "someone born in the communication age" resonates with me. I have seen mobile phones go from the size of a brick to "mini-computers" less than 1 cm in size. I have also watched with joy and delight as the speed of the Internet connection at home accelerated from 56 kbps (56 kilobytes per second) to 100 mbps (100 megabytes per …
Japanese people I met on a round-the-world cruise
March 5, 2008 • Akira Uchimura
Two years ago, while I was attending university, a professor invited me to go see a documentary film about Article 9 of the Constitution. It was a film viewing event with a discussion session, held at a stylish movie theater in Roppongi, Tokyo, where I watched the film with international students. The film was directed by Jean Junkermann and was titled "The Constitution of Japan," and was organized by the NGO Peace Boat. What piqued my interest was the director's …
Nice to meet you, I'm Akira.
March 4, 2008 • Akira Uchimura
Hello everyone, my name is Uchimura Akira and I will be writing a new column series here. The other day, I introduced myself in English in the " Self-introduction " section of the message board, but I would like to introduce myself again in Japanese. I was born in Costa Rica in Central and South America, my father is Japanese and my mother is Chilean. Due to my father's work, we moved frequently, living in Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, …
Discover Nikkei Updates
See exciting new changes to Discover Nikkei. Find out what’s new and what’s coming soon!
Follow us @discovernikkei for new site content, program announcements, and more!
Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook