COLORS TOKYO Blog by Will Tachiiri

Working for World Bank

Well, it’s been quite a while…

I’ve been working for World Bank Tokyo office as a Social Media Communication Officer, which send me here in Tokyo, leaving my family behind since mid October.

Japan is hosting WB/IMF annual meeting next year, and I’m responsible for Social Media marketing at this position, yes first Japanese Social Media expert hired by WB!

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Laputa Brings Japan's Otakus Together

As the Internet continues to take over our lives, new net-related activities become popular. In Japan the video site Nico Douga has become a major destination for otaku wanting to watch various anime-related videos, and the newest trend there is watching TV broadcasts live while entering comments into the Nico system so others can see them. It’s called jikkyou (lit. “live updating”), and it seems to create the feeling of being part of a giant wave of other fans as they all watch together. Last week the popular Hayao Miyazaki film Castle in the Sky Laputa (officially known as “Castle in the Sky” in the U.S. due to the unfortunate meaning of la puta in Spanish, a joke Jonathan Swift included intentionally to troll us from beyond the grave) was broadcast on TV, and fans all through Japan logged into Nico to share comments with each other. Twitter was buzzing, too, with thousands of users tweeting comments about about the film. At the climactic moment when Sheeta and Pazu shout the Spell of Destruction — “Barus!” — everyone joined in, resulting in 14,595 tweets being sent in one second, which appears to be a new record for Twitter.

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Person remembered…forever.

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Disaster preparedness to be key topic at IMF-World Bank meets in 2012

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) — World Bank President Robert Zoellick said Friday he and Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi agreed to make disaster preparedness one of the key topics at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Japan next year.

Speaking at a World Bank seminar in Washington, Zoellick said it would be good for Japan to share information about the March disaster and its efforts to rebuild with the rest of the world.

The World Bank chief and Azumi met earlier in the day.