2012 Japan Studies Award Winner

By Brian Roddewig

I just recently finished up my first week interning for the Sojitz’s Washington branch. What an interesting week it was!

I’ve lived around Washington D.C. for the majority of my life so far yet haven’t had the experience of commuting into D.C. in the morning as I’d typically schedule my visits around avoiding the morning and afternoon rush hours. Luckily it hasn’t been so bad. I commute each day on my county’s commuter bus to West Falls Church Metro station and ride the Metro into D.C. In the afternoon to my great luck the commuter bus has a stop directly in front of the building in which Sojitz in located! It’s very convenient. But like any true blood Northern Virginian I could talk about traffic and commuting much longer than anyone would be interested so let’s get into the interesting stuff.

On Monday I came into work and was briefed on what we would be doing during the week and there was a weekly meeting. I was shown the spot I would be working. It’s an entire office space just for me! I have my own business desk and even a chair across the desk. I feel so official sitting at my desk. It feels like I’m advancing forward into the working world. In the afternoon I went with Ms. Busch to a talk at the American Enterprise Institute on the future of U.S., China and Taiwanese relations. Wow, I like to think of myself as a pretty informed person but this talk really opened my eyes to the complexity of International relations. It feels like your being given access to information that only a few select few know.
On Tuesday, I went to two talks on very interesting subjects on Iran’s domestic policy and the last one was with Kenya’s vice president on changes in Kenya. As I stated earlier I like to keep myself informed on international happenings so being given access to experts on these matters is a very cool feeling. Being informed by the experts on Iran’s domestic policy gives me an extra consideration when it comes to watching the foreign policies choices it makes. The meeting on Kenya’s future was quite interesting. I haven’t had the opportunity to be that close to a foreign dignitary ever. I can see why he is the vice president as he was quite charismatic and managed to paint a bright picture for the future of Kenya.
On Wednesday, I got to go to two more interesting events. One was a talk at the Center for National Policy about “China’s quest for oil” which painted a quite interesting picture about Chinese actions in the future regarding oil. The second event was held at the Dirksen Senate Building. I’ve been to Washington many times and even once to the White House yet I’ve never been to the Senate. It is quite a cool experience. The talk was on U.S.-Chinese relations so it was interesting to hear especially coming right from another talk on China. The talk was led by my state’s senator, Senator Mark Warner, was it was nice to see my senator at working fielding questions and handling the debate. Afterwards I walked around and explored the Senate building! I was not questioned by anyone so I must have looked official in my suit.
Thursday there was a nearly all-day event on multiculturalism in Europe. I have a good number of European friends that I have spoken to about multiculturalism in Europe and their views on it. So it was quite interesting to see what the speakers had to say about multiculturalism compared what my friends had to say about it. The panel was so engaging that we ran 45 minutes late!
Friday was a day for finishing up summaries and reports. At lunch I went out with Mrs. Uehara and Ms. Busch to a delicious Spanish restaurant. The New York office called to say we could get out early because of the holiday weekend! It was quite nice as my bus was running a holiday schedule as well so I managed to immediately get a bus home.