(talk given at the Southeast Osaka R.C. regular meeting on April 19, 1994)
Minoru Okuda
(Team leader, manager of Okuda Public Accounting Office and member of the Osaka-Tonan R.C.)
It has been four weeks since I last came here. Thank you, Mr. President, for your kind and excessively complimentary words. Standing here and seeing everyone's faces again after a month has confirmed within me just how wonderful this Rotary club is!
Honestly speaking, those four weeks were quite long and exhausting. I was selected to be the team leader even though I knew very little about the GSE program. I had the opportunity of having Shannon Neal, whose host family was the Takebuchi's when he came as the North Carolina GSE team member last year, stay with my family for two nights. His work was a bit different than the other team members since he works for the Department of Commerce, and we treated him like a national public official. He had a good time here, and returned to the United States deeply impressed. The other day, in Washington D.C., I had a wonderful reunion with him and enjoyed talking to him about Japan.
The GSE team from North Carolina visited this Rotary club. I don't know how they took it, but I said then that the team members were all young and the team leader was very easygoing. The team leader to Nebraska/Iowa had already been decided at that time, but then, because of his work, he was unable to go. So, I was nominated by past governor Mr. Furuta and asked to take over as the team leader. He then talked to Mr. Nozaki, who was then the president of our club, about me and asked him if he thought I would be all right for the job. And that's how I came to be the team leader.
This club has, in the past, received GSE teams from Denmark and Germany, I believe, and treated them very well. The GSE program is one in which young professionals are given the opportunity to go to a foreign country and study how their line of work is done in a different culture, and through the friendship and goodwill of Rotarians in that country, they are given the chance to reevaluate and reconsider their work in their own country. And after returning home, as a result of what they learned overseas, they use those lessons to help at their own workplace. This is the Rotary's goal in sponsoring such GSE teams.
Up until last year, GSE teams were comprised of six people, including the team leader, but due to budget restraints, from this year the team will consists of just five people. Also, the age limit, which used to be from between 25 and 35, has been changed to over 25 years of age.
District 5650 in Nebraska and Iowa was chosen for a GSE program three years ago when governor Hirose attended an international assembly in Anaheim, California. And next year, our region has a GSE program planned with Sweden. As a rule, such group exchanges take place once every Rotary year, and up until now our district has divided the exchange into a two-year cycle, with our team visiting the pairing district in one Rotary year and their team coming coming to our district the following Rotary year. But this custom of our district has been ended. The team from Sweden and the Japanese team to Sweden will both attend each others district conferences in the same Rotary year.
I've talked a bit about the GSE program as a whole, but I would now like to return to my favorite topic, which is the Nebraska/Iowa trip from which we just returned. Being an inland region located far from any oceans, the difference in daytime and nighttime temperatures is quite severe. I always thought of visiting inland states in America like these. Arkansas has a population of only 2 million, but its governor, Mr. Clinton, became the president of the United States. This is the American political system, and this way of thinking is not only common knowledge in the United States, but is becoming known throughout the world. When one looks daily at the economic situation around the world, one sees that America has made itself the standard by which other economies are compared. And America's influence on the Japanese economy is very strong. It is these people, who live in the American Midwest, that I was interested in getting to know.
Before going to Nebraska, I knew some things about the region having seen movies and TV programs about the Oregon Trail. The covered wagons left Chicago, and crossed the Missouri River with great difficulty. In the end. Half the people died on the way, and the group with the strongest bond, the Mormons, made it to the Oregon Trail. The Oregon Trail is the beginning of the history of the pioneer settlement of the American West.
Agriculture is the main industry in this region, with the main crops being corn and soybeans which are grown for livestock feed. The beef cattle raised here are sold throughout the world as Iowa corned beef and Nebraska corned beef. The beef cattle raised here are different than those raised in Texas and fed grass. Iowa and Nebraska beef is not as lean as Texas beef, which makes it more suitable to the Japanese palate. People cannot eat a lot of it because of the high fat content, but it is extremely delicious beef.
In addition to agriculture, this region also has highly advanced medical treatment. Research is being focused on animals other than humans, and there is much research being carried out that Japanese researchers are unable to do.
Each of the team members had a schedule prepared for them which allowed them to visit places related to their line of work every day. In the evenings they attended Rotary club meetings, or went to gatherings with 80 or so people which were held at the homes of the governor or president. There they showed slides which they had brought from Japan and explained about Japan and themselves, and each club's members took them to workplaces related to the team members' professions.
Since there were no hotels, team members stayed from one to three nights with 12 different host families. It was exhausting moving from place to place, and after about the third homestay, I began to feel a bit homesick, longing for the relaxed atmosphere of home where I enjoy sitting around in my underwear drinking beer. My host families were past governors and presidents. Wherever we stayed, we talked about each other's families and about our Rotary service activities.
Through newspaper interviews, dinner meetings with local VIP's and TV appearances, we worked hard to dispel some of the misunderstandings about Japan.
I received many precious experiences during my time in America. We shared our lives with 12 host families, visited 16 Rotary clubs and, I believe, succeeded in bringing honor to the Osaka-Tonan Rotary Club. On our departure, we received a very generous farewell gift from you all. I hope that the way we handled our selves in representing this club and my coming to share with all tonight will serve as ample repayment for that kindness and generosity.
Thank you very much.
